System and method for quantum information transfer between optical photons and superconductive qubits

• US 9,350,460 B2
• Filed: 04/23/2013
• Issued: 05/24/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Raytheon BBN Technlogies Corp. (Rtx Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Raytheon BBN Technlogies Corp. (Rtx Corporation)
• Inventors: Paik, Hanhee
• Primary Examiner(s): Vanderpuye, Ken
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lambert, David
• Application Number:
  US13/868,846
• Publication Number:
  US 20140314419A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,127 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B82Y 10/00 Nanotechnology for information processing, storage or transmission, e.g. quantum computing or single electron logic
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 10/00 Quantum computing, i.e. information processing based on quantum-mechanical phenomena
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/2575 Radio-over-fibre, e.g. radio frequency signal modulated onto an optical carrier
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/70 Photonic quantum communication

Abstract

An electro-optical system for exchanging quantum information between optical qubits and including a superconductive microwave cavity; an electro-optical material; a superconductive qubit circuit formed on the electro-optical material including a superconductive qubit; a dipole antenna, formed on the electro-optical material for directly coupling the superconductive qubit to the superconductive microwave cavity; an optical input for receiving input optical photons; a microwave input for receiving input microwave photons; and an optical output for outputting modulated optical photons, wherein a frequency and a phase of the optical photon is modulated with a state of the superconducting qubit by the dipole antenna.

Claims

1. An electro-optical system for directly exchanging quantum information between optical qubits and superconducting qubits comprising:

a superconducting microwave cavity;

an electro-optic material positioned inside of the superconductive microwave cavity for directly coupling optical photons to the superconducting qubits;

a superconducting qubit circuit formed on the electro-optic material including a 3-dimensional (3D) superconducting qubit having two electrodes;

a dipole antenna, formed on the electro-optical material by the two electrodes attached to the superconducting qubit circuit and including a Josephson junction, for directly coupling the 3D superconducting qubit to the superconducting microwave cavity;

an optical photon input for receiving input optical photons;

a microwave photon input for receiving input microwave photons;

a microwave photon output for outputting microwave photons; and

an optical photon output for outputting optical photons that are entangled with the 3D superconducting qubit or that are modulated by a state of the 3D superconducting qubit to directly transfer quantum information between optical and microwave photons.

2. The electro-optical system of claim 1, wherein the electro-optical material is in a shape of a circular disk and is configured to accommodate whispering gallery modes at multiple frequencies.

3. The electro-optical system of claim 2, wherein the electro-optic material forms an optical cavity.

4. The electro-optical system of claim 1, wherein the superconducting microwave cavity comprises superconducting material.

5. The electro-optical system of claim 1, wherein the input microwave photons are generated by a microwave source.

6. The electro-optical system of claim 1, further comprising an optical fiber for carrying the input optical photons and the modulated optical photons.

7. The electro-optical system of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of electro-optical materials each shaped as a circular disk and positioned inside of the superconductive microwave cavity.

8. A method for directly exchanging quantum information between optical qubits and superconducting qubits, the method comprising:

receiving an optical photon via an optical fiber,

storing the received optical photon in an optical cavity;

receiving a microwave photon via a microwave input port;

storing the received microwave photon in a 3-dimensional (3D) superconducting qubit;

directly coupling the received optical photon to a voltage at the 3 superconducting qubit using an electro-optic effect of the optical cavity;

modulating a frequency of the received optical photon by the direct coupling; and

outputting the modulated optical photon in a fiber optic line to directly transfer quantum information between said optical photon and said microwave photon.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the superconducting qubit is formed on an optical cavity that is made of electro-optical material.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the superconducting microwave cavity comprises superconducting material.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising receiving the modulated optical photon via the fiber optic line for further quantum processing of the modulated optical photon.

12. A method for directly exchanging quantum information between optical qubits and superconducting qubits, the method comprising:

receiving optical pump signals comprising a plurality of optical photons, at a frequency of ω

_a+ω

_b;

activating an electro-optic effect between an optical cavity formed by an electro-optical material at a frequency of ω

_a and a 3-dimensional (3D) superconducting qubit at a frequency of ω

_b, by the received optical pump signals

directly converting the received optical photons at a frequency of ω

_a+ω

_b into an entangled pair of optical photons at a frequency of ω

_a and the 3D superconducting qubit at a frequency of ω

_b; and

outputting the entangled pair via an optical output port to directly transfer quantum information between optical and microwave photons.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the electro-optical material is in a shape of a circular disk and is configured to accommodate whispering gallery modes at multiple frequencies.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the electro-optical material comprises Lithium Niobate.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising receiving the entangled pair via a fiber optic line for further quantum processing of the entangled pair.