“Building a quantum internet with photons and electron spins”
Photons are robust mediators of quantum interactions that can be used to encode information from quantum sensors, connect quantum computers, or send data over quantum communications channels. However, single photons suffer from loss over long distances, lack long-term storage, and only weakly interact with matter. I will describe our work tackling these challenges by highlighting the properties of electrons and photons confined in emerging solid-state materials. First, I overview the development of optically active electron spin qubits in silicon carbide (SiC) as wafer scalable semiconductor quantum repeaters. This platform is bolstered by our recent advances in SiC photonics, which efficiently guide the single photons emitted from these qubits. I will then present our discovery of a new quantum photonic material with an electro-optic tunability orders of magnitude greater than leading systems, enabled by harnessing quantum phase transitions. This large cryogenic nonlinearity unlocks photonic quantum computing, microwave-to-optical transduction, and scaling of superconducting processors. These results highlight the power of controlling electron spins and photons to scale quantum information technologies.
