Here, we show an ultralow-noise regime of operation in a simple quantum memory in warm ${}^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$ atomic vapor. By modeling the quantum dynamics of four-level room-temperature atoms, we achieve fidelities $>90\%$ for single-photon-level polarization qubits, surpassing any classical strategies exploiting the nonunitary memory efficiency. Additionally, we show experimental techniques capable of producing fidelities close to unity. Our results demonstrate the potential of simple, resource-moderate experimental room-temperature quantum devices.

We present a scalable scheme for executing the error-correction cycle of a monolithic surface-code fabric composed of fast-flux-tunable transmon qubits with nearest-neighbor coupling. An eight-qubit unit cell forms the basis for repeating both the quantum hardware and coherent control, enabling spatial multiplexing. This control uses three fixed frequencies for all single-qubit gates and a unique frequency-detuning pattern for each qubit in the cell. By pipelining the interaction and readout steps of ancilla-based $X$- and $Z$-type stabilizer measurements, we can engineer detuning patterns that avoid all second-order transmon-transmon interactions except those exploited in controlled-phase gates, regardless of fabric size. Our scheme is applicable to defect-based and planar logical qubits, including lattice surgery.

We investigate spin and charge dynamics of a quantum dot of phosphorus atoms coupled to a radio-frequency single-electron transistor (SET) using full counting statistics. We show how the magnetic field plays a role in determining the bunching or antibunching tunneling statistics of the donor dot and SET system. Using the counting statistics, we show how to determine the lowest magnetic field where spin readout is possible. We then show how such a measurement can be used to investigate and optimize single-electron spin-readout fidelity.

Nonreciprocal microwave devices, such as circulators, are useful in routing quantum signals in quantum networks and protecting quantum systems against noise coming from the detection chain. However, commercial, cryogenic circulators, now in use, are unsuitable for scalable superconducting quantum architectures due to their appreciable size, loss, and inherent magnetic field. We report on the measurement of a key nonreciprocal element, i.e., the gyrator, which can be used to realize a circulator. Unlike state-of-the-art gyrators, which use a magneto-optic effect to induce a phase shift of $\pi$ between transmitted signals in opposite directions, our device uses the phase nonreciprocity of a Josephson-based three-wave-mixing device. By coupling two of these mixers and operating them in noiseless frequency-conversion mode, we show that the device acts as a nonreciprocal phase shifter whose phase shift is controlled by the phase difference of the microwave tones driving the mixers. Such a device could be used to realize a lossless, on-chip, superconducting circulator suitable for quantum-information-processing applications.

Ensembles of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond are a highly promising platform for high-sensitivity magnetometry, whose efficacy is often based on efficiently generating and monitoring magnetic-field-dependent infrared fluorescence. Here, we report on an increased sensing efficiency with the use of a 532-nm resonant confocal cavity and a microwave resonator antenna for measuring the local magnetic noise density using the intrinsic nitrogen-vacancy concentration of a chemical-vapor deposited single-crystal diamond. We measure a near-shot-noise-limited magnetic noise floor of $200\mathrm{pT}/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$ spanning a bandwidth up to 159 Hz, and an extracted sensitivity of approximately $3\mathrm{nT}/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$, with further enhancement limited by the noise floor of the lock-in amplifier and the laser damage threshold of the optical components. Exploration of the microwave and optical pump-rate parameter space demonstrates a linewidth-narrowing regime reached by virtue of using the optical cavity, allowing an enhanced sensitivity to be achieved, despite an unoptimized collection efficiency of $<2\%$, and a low nitrogen-vacancy concentration of about 0.2 ppb.

We present a detailed numerical investigation of five nonlinear materials and their properties regarding photon-pair creation using parametric down-conversion. Periodic poling of ferroelectric nonlinear materials is a convenient way to generate collinearly propagating photon pairs. Most applications and experiments use the well-known potassium titanyl phosphate (${\mathrm{KTiOPO}}_4$, PPKTP) and lithium niobate (${\mathrm{LiNbO}}_3$, PPLN) crystals for this purpose. We provide a profound discussion on the family of KTP-isomorphic nonlinear materials, including KTP itself but also the much less common ${\mathrm{CsTiOAsO}}_4$, ${\mathrm{KTiOAsO}}_4$, ${\mathrm{RbTiOAsO}}_4$, and ${\mathrm{RbTiOPO}}_4$. We discuss the way in which these crystals can be used for the creation of spectrally pure down-conversion states and the generation of crystal-intrinsic polarization and frequency entanglement. The investigation of the new materials discloses an entirely different range of promising experimental setups, in some cases even outperforming the established materials PPLN and PPKTP.

Low-power, high-speed, and bright electrically driven true single-photon sources, which are able to operate at room temperature, are vital for the practical realization of quantum-communication networks and optical quantum computations. Color centers in semiconductors are currently the best candidates; however, in spite of their intensive study in the past decade, the behavior of color centers in electrically controlled systems is poorly understood. Here we present a physical model and establish a theoretical approach to address single-photon emission dynamics of electrically pumped color centers, which interprets experimental results. We support our analysis with self-consistent numerical simulations of a single-photon emitting diode based on a single nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond and predict the second-order autocorrelation function and other emission characteristics. Our theoretical findings demonstrate remarkable agreement with the experimental results and pave the way to the understanding of single-electron and single-photon processes in semiconductors.

The quantum computer has an amazing potential of fast information processing. However, the realization of a digital quantum computer is still a challenging problem requiring highly accurate controls and key application strategies. Here we propose a platform, quantum reservoir computing, to solve these issues successfully by exploiting the natural quantum dynamics of ensemble systems, which are ubiquitous in laboratories nowadays, for machine learning. This framework enables ensemble quantum systems to universally emulate nonlinear dynamical systems including classical chaos. A number of numerical experiments show that quantum systems consisting of 5–7 qubits possess computational capabilities comparable to conventional recurrent neural networks of 100–500 nodes. This discovery opens up a paradigm for information processing with artificial intelligence powered by quantum physics.

Color centers in diamond provide a promising platform for quantum optics in the solid state, with coherent optical transitions and long-lived electron and nuclear spins. Building upon recent demonstrations of nanophotonic waveguides and optical cavities in single-crystal diamond, we now demonstrate on-chip diamond nanophotonics with a high-efficiency fiber-optical interface achieving $>90\%$ power coupling at visible wavelengths. We use this approach to demonstrate a bright source of narrow-band single photons based on a silicon-vacancy color center embedded within a waveguide-coupled diamond photonic crystal cavity. Our fiber-coupled diamond quantum nanophotonic interface results in a high flux (approximately 38 kHz) of coherent single photons (near Fourier limited at $<1\text{−}\mathrm{GHz}$ bandwidth) into a single-mode fiber, enabling possibilities for realizing quantum networks that interface multiple emitters, both on chip and separated by long distances.

Reliable generation of single photons is of key importance for fundamental physical experiments and to demonstrate quantum protocols. Waveguide-based photon-pair sources have shown great promise in this regard due to their large spectral tunability, high generation rates, and long temporal coherence of the photon wave packet. However, integrating such sources with fiber-optic networks often results in a strong degradation of performance. We answer this challenge by presenting an alignment-free source of photon pairs in the telecommunications band that maintains heralding efficiency $>50\%$ even after fiber pigtailing, photon separation, and pump suppression. The source combines this outstanding performance in heralding efficiency with a compact, stable, and easy-to-use “plug-and-play” package: one simply connects a laser to the input and detectors to the output, and the source is ready to use. This high performance can be achieved even outside the lab without the need for alignment which makes the source extremely useful for any experiment or demonstration needing heralded single photons.

We develop a theory for nondegenerate parametric resonance in a tunable superconducting cavity. We focus on nonlinear effects that are caused by nonlinear Josephson elements connected to the cavity. We analyze parametric amplification in a strong nonlinear regime at the parametric-instability threshold, and we calculate maximum gain values. Above the threshold, in the parametric-oscillator regime, the cavity linear response diverges at the oscillator frequency at all pump strengths. We show that this divergence is related to the continuous degeneracy of the free oscillator state with respect to the phase. Applying on-resonance input lifts the degeneracy and removes the divergence. We also investigate quantum noise squeezing. It is shown that in the strong amplification regime, the noise undergoes four-mode squeezing, and that, in this regime, the output signal-to-noise ratio can significantly exceed the input value. We also analyze the intermode frequency conversion and identify the parameters at which full conversion is achieved.

Quantum-transport measurements in advanced silicon-germanium heterojunction bipolar transistors (SiGe HBTs) are presented and analyzed, including tunneling spectroscopy of discrete impurity levels localized within the transistor and the dependence on an applied magnetic field. The collector current at millikelvin temperatures is well accounted for by ideal electron tunneling throughout the entire base. The amplification principle at millikelvin temperatures is fundamentally quantum mechanical in nature: an increase in base voltage, requiring a moderate base current, creates an equal and opposite decrease in the tunneling barrier seen by the electrons in the emitter, thereby increasing the collector current significantly more than the base current, producing current gain. Highly scaled SiGe HBTs operate predictably at millikelvin temperatures, thus opening the possibility of viable SiGe millikelvin circuitry.

Josephson parametric amplifiers (JPAs) have become key devices in quantum science and technology with superconducting circuits. In particular, they can be utilized as quantum-limited amplifiers or as a source of squeezed microwave fields. Here, we report on the detailed measurements of five flux-driven JPAs exhibiting a hysteretic dependence of the resonant frequency on the applied magnetic flux. We model the measured characteristics by numerical simulations based on the two-dimensional potential landscape of the dc superconducting quantum interference devices, which provide the JPA nonlinearity for a nonzero screening parameter ${\beta }_L>0$ and demonstrate excellent agreement between the numerical results and the experimental data. Furthermore, we study the nondegenerate response of different JPAs and accurately describe the experimental results with our theory.

We show experimentally how quantum interference can be produced using an integrated quantum system comprising an arch-shaped short quantum wire (or quantum point contact, QPC) of 1D electrons and a reflector forming an electronic cavity. On tuning the coupling between the QPC and the electronic cavity, fine oscillations are observed when the arch QPC is operated in the quasi-1D regime. These oscillations correspond to interference between the 1D states and a state which is similar to the Fabry-Perot state and suppressed by a small transverse magnetic field of $\pm 60\mathrm{mT}$. Tuning the reflector, we find a peak in resistance which follows the behavior expected for a Fano resonance. We suggest that this is an interesting example of a Fano resonance in an open system which corresponds to interference at or near the Ohmic contacts due to a directly propagating, reflected discrete path and the continuum states of the cavity corresponding to multiple scattering. Remarkably, the Fano factor shows an oscillatory behavior taking peaks for each fine oscillation, thus, confirming coupling between the discrete and continuum states. The results indicate that such a simple quantum device can be used as building blocks to create more complex integrated quantum circuits for possible applications ranging from quantum-information processing to realizing the fundamentals of complex quantum systems.

The development of quantum relays for long-haul and attack-proof quantum communication networks operating with weak coherent laser pulses requires entangled photon sources at telecommunication wavelengths with intrinsic single-photon emission for most practical implementations. Using a semiconductor quantum dot emitting entangled photon pairs in the telecommunication O band, we demonstrate a quantum relay fulfilling both of these conditions. The system achieves a maximum fidelity of 94.5% for implementation of a standard four-state protocol with input states generated by a laser. We further investigate robustness against frequency detuning of the narrow-band input and perform process tomography of the teleporter, revealing operation for arbitrary pure input states, with an average gate fidelity of 83.6%. The results highlight the potential of semiconductor light sources for compact and robust quantum-relay technology that is compatible with existing communication infrastructures.

Superconducting qubits with in situ tunable properties are important for constructing a quantum computer. Qubit tunability, however, often comes at the expense of increased noise sensitivity. Here, we propose a flux-tunable superconducting qubit that minimizes the dephasing due to magnetic flux noise by engineering controllable flux “sweet spots” at frequencies of interest. This is realized by using a SQUID with asymmetric Josephson junctions shunted by a superinductor formed from an array of junctions. Taking into account correlated global and local noises, it is possible to improve dephasing time by several orders of magnitude. The proposed qubit can be used to realize fast, high-fidelity two-qubit gates in large-scale quantum processors, a key ingredient for implementing fault-tolerant quantum computers.

We study a superconducting transmission line (TL) formed by distributed $LC$ oscillators and excited by external magnetic fluxes which are aroused from random magnetization ($A$) placed in substrate or ($B$) distributed at interfaces of a two-wire TL. The low-frequency dynamics of a random magnetic field is described based on the diffusion Langevin equation with a short-range source caused by ($a$) a random amplitude or ($b$) the gradient of magnetization. For a TL modeled as a two-port network with open and shorted ends, the effective magnetic flux at the open end has nonlocal dependency on noise distribution along the TL. The flux-flux correlation function is evaluated and analyzed for the regimes ($Aa$), ($Ab$), ($Ba$), and ($Bb$). Essential frequency dispersion takes place around the inverse diffusion time of random flux along the TL. Typically, noise effect increases with size faster than the area of the TL. The flux-flux correlator can be verified both via the population relaxation rate of the qubit, which is formed by the Josephson junction shunted by the TL with flux noises, and via random voltage at the open end of the TL.

We present low-temperature measurements of low-loss superconducting nanowire-embedded resonators in the low-power limit relevant for quantum circuits. The superconducting resonators are embedded with superconducting nanowires with widths down to 20 nm using a neon focused ion beam. In the low-power limit, we demonstrate an internal quality factor up to $3.9\times {10}^5$ at 300 mK [implying a two-level-system-limited quality factor up to $2\times {10}^5$ at 10 mK], not only significantly higher than in similar devices but also matching the state of the art of conventional Josephson-junction-embedded resonators. We also show a high sensitivity of the nanowire to stray infrared photons, which is controllable by suitable precautions to minimize stray photons in the sample environment. Our results suggest that there are excellent prospects for superconducting-nanowire-based quantum circuits.

Square arrays of submicrometer columnar defects in thin ${\mathrm{YBa}}_2{\mathrm{Cu}}_3{\mathrm{O}}_{7-\delta }$ (YBCO) films with spacings down to 300 nm are fabricated by a He ion-beam projection technique. Pronounced peaks in the critical current and corresponding minima in the resistance demonstrate the commensurate arrangement of flux quanta with the artificial pinning landscape, despite the strong intrinsic pinning in epitaxial YBCO films. While these vortex-matching signatures are exactly at the predicted values in field-cooled experiments, they are displaced in zero-field-cooled, magnetic-field-ramped experiments, conserving the equidistance of the matching peaks and minima. These observations reveal an unconventional critical state in a cuprate superconductor with an artificial, periodic pinning array. The long-term stability of such out-of-equilibrium vortex arrangements paves the way for electronic applications employing fluxons.