Long-lived quantum memories are essential components of a long-standing goal of remote distribution of entanglement in quantum networks. These can be realized by storing the quantum states of light as single-spin excitations in atomic ensembles. However, spin states are often subjected to different dephasing processes that limit the storage time, which in principle could be overcome using spin-echo techniques. Theoretical studies suggest this to be challenging due to unavoidable spontaneous emission noise in ensemble-based quantum memories. Here, we demonstrate spin-echo manipulation of a mean spin excitation of 1 in a large solid-state ensemble, generated through storage of a weak optical pulse. After a storage time of about 1 ms we optically read-out the spin excitation with a high signal-to-noise ratio. Our results pave the way for long-duration optical quantum storage using spin-echo techniques for any ensemble-based memory.

Quantum teleportation1 is a cornerstone of quantum information science due to its essential role in important tasks such as the long-distance transmission of quantum information using quantum repeaters2, 3. This requires the efficient distribution of entanglement between remote nodes of a network4. Here, we demonstrate quantum teleportation of the polarization state of a telecom-wavelength photon onto the state of a solid-state quantum memory. Entanglement is established between a rare-earth-ion-doped crystal storing a single photon that is polarization-entangled with a flying telecom-wavelength photon5, 6. The latter is jointly measured with another flying polarization qubit to be teleported, which heralds the teleportation. The fidelity of the qubit retrieved from the memory is shown to be greater than the maximum fidelity achievable without entanglement, even when the combined distances travelled by the two flying qubits is 25 km of standard optical fibre. Our results demonstrate the possibility of long-distance quantum networks with solid-state resources

Long-distance quantum communication through optical fibers is currently limited to a few hundreds of kilometres due to fiber losses. Quantum repeaters could extend this limit to continental distances. Most approaches to quantum repeaters require highly multimode quantum memories in order to reach high communication rates. The atomic frequency comb memory scheme can in principle achieve high temporal multimode storage, without sacrificing memory efficiency. However, previous demonstrations have been hampered by the difficulty of creating high-resolution atomic combs, which reduces the efficiency for multimode storage. In this article we present a comb preparation method that allows one to increase the multimode capacity for a fixed memory bandwidth. We apply the method to a 151 Eu 3+ -doped Y 2 SiO 5 crystal, in which we demonstrate storage of 100 modes for 51 μs using the AFC echo scheme (a delay-line memory) and storage of 50 modes for 0.541 ms using the AFC spin-wave memory (an on-demand memory). We also briefly discuss the ultimate multimode limit imposed by the optical decoherence rate, for a fixed memory bandwidth.

Controlling the energy flow processes and the associated energy relaxation rates of a light emitter is of high fundamental interest, and has many applications in the fields of quantum optics, photovoltaics, photodetection, biosensing and light emission. While advanced dielectric and metallic systems have been developed to tailor the interaction between an emitter and its environment, active control of the energy flow has remained challenging. Here, we demonstrate in-situ electrical control of the relaxation pathways of excited erbium ions, which emit light at the technologically relevant telecommunication wavelength of 1.5 µm. By placing the erbium at a few nanometres distance from graphene, we modify the relaxation rate by more than a factor of three, and control whether the emitter decays into either electron-hole pairs, emitted photons or graphene near-infrared plasmons, confined to <15 nm to the sheet. These capabilities to dictate optical energy transfer processes through electrical control of the local density of optical states constitute a new paradigm for active (quantum) photonics.Spontaneous emission constitutes a canonical example of energy flow from an excited light emitter into its environment, where energy relaxation takes place via photon emission. Alternatively, for an emitter in the vicinity of a solid, energy relaxation can occur through channels involving electronic excitations, such as electron-hole pairs and collective charge oscillations (plasmons). Tailoring spontaneous emission by modifying the local density of optical states (LDOS), which governs the emitter-environment interactions [1,2], has been achieved using, amongst others, optical cavities [3][4][5][6], photonic crystals [7,8], and metallic nanostructures [9]. In these systems the LDOS available for the light emitters is typically a fixed property that depends only on the type and geometry of the material system. Here, we control electrically and in-situ the local density of optical states and therefore the energy relaxation rate of a nearby emitter, by employing graphene. Specifically, we demonstrate in-situ tuning of the magnitude and character of the energy transfer pathways from optically excited erbium ions -emitters for near-infrared light that are used as a gain medium in telecommunication applications [10,13]. This control enables new avenues in a range of fields, covering photovoltaics [11,12] The ability to control in-situ the LDOS requires a material for which the optical excitations that occur for a specific emission energy can be modified. Because graphene is gapless and it has a Fermi energy that is electrostatically tunable up to optical energies of ∼1 eV, it can effectively behave as a semiconductor, a dielectric, or a metal. Here, we propose to use these material characteristics to electrically control the relaxation rate and energy transfer processes of a dipolar emitter at subwavelength distance from the graphene. The concept of our experiment is shown in Fig. 1a, schematically representing the gate-tunable ener...

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Solid-state electronic spins are extensively studied in quantum information science, as their large magnetic moments offer fast operations for computing and communication, and high sensitivity for sensing. However, electronic spins are more sensitive to magnetic noise, but engineering of their spectroscopic properties, for example, using clock transitions and isotopic engineering, can yield remarkable spin coherence times, as for electronic spins in GaAs, donors in silicon and vacancy centres in diamond. Here we demonstrate simultaneously induced clock transitions for both microwave and optical domains in an isotopically purified Yb:YSiO crystal, reaching coherence times of greater than 100 μs and 1 ms in the optical and microwave domains, respectively. This effect is due to the highly anisotropic hyperfine interaction, which makes each electronic-nuclear state an entangled Bell state. Our results underline the potential of Yb:YSiO for quantum processing applications relying on both optical and spin manipulation, such as optical quantum memories, microwave-to-optical quantum transducers, and single-spin detection, while they should also be observable in a range of different materials with anisotropic hyperfine interactions.

We identify the physical mechanisms responsible for the optical homogeneous broadening in Eu 3+ :Y 2 O 3 nanoparticles to determine whether rare-earth crystals can be miniaturized to volumes less than λ 3 while preserving their appeal for quantum technology hardware. By studying how the homogeneous line width depends on temperature, applied magnetic field, and measurement time scale, the dominant broadening interactions for various temperature ranges above 3 K were characterized. Below 3 K the homogeneous line width is dominated by an interaction not observed in bulk crystal studies. These measurements demonstrate that broadening due to sizedependent phonon interactions is not a significant contributor to the homogeneous line width, which contrasts previous studies in rare-earth ion nanocrystals. Importantly, the results provide strong evidence that for the 400 nm diameter nanoparticles under study the minimum line width achieved (45 ± 1 kHz at 1.3 K) is not fundamentally limited. In addition, we highlight that the expected broadening caused by electric field fluctuations arising from surface charges is comparable to the observed broadening. Under the assumption that such Stark broadening is a significant contribution to the homogeneous line width, several strategies for reducing this line width to below 10 kHz are discussed. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the Eu 3+ hyperfine state lifetime is sufficiently long to preserve spectral features for time scales up to 1 s. These results allow integrated rare-earth ion quantum optics to be pursued at a submicron scale and, hence, open up directions for greater scaling of rare-earth quantum technology.

Interfacing between various elements of a computer--from memory to processors to long range communication--will be as critical for quantum computers as it is for classical computers today. Paramagnetic rare-earth doped crystals, such as Nd(3+):Y2SiO5(YSO), are excellent candidates for such a quantum interface: they are known to exhibit long optical coherence lifetimes (for communication via optical photons), possess a nuclear spin (memory), and have in addition an electron spin that can offer hybrid coupling with superconducting qubits (processing). Here we study two of these three elements, demonstrating coherent storage and retrieval between electron and (145)Nd nuclear spin states in Nd(3+):YSO. We find nuclear spin coherence times can reach 9 ms at ∼5  K, about 2 orders of magnitude longer than the electron spin coherence, while quantum state and process tomography of the storage or retrieval operation between the electron and nuclear spin reveal an average state fidelity of 0.86. The times and fidelities are expected to further improve at lower temperatures and with more homogeneous radio-frequency excitation.