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  • Open Access

Clock-transition-enabled long electron spin coherence of telecom emitters in CeO2

Basanta Mistri1,2,*, Vishal Ranjan3, and Siddharth Dhomkar1,2,4,†

  • *Contact author: basanta@smail.iitm.ac.in
  • †Contact author: sdhomkar@physics.iitm.ac.in
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Phys. Rev. B 114, 204316 – Published 29 October, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/zb3k-h546

This article was published on 29 October, 2026. Please update your links.

Abstract

Rare-earth-ion-doped crystals have emerged as a promising platform for quantum technologies, owing to their narrow telecom-band optical emission, long spin memory, and compatibility with silicon integrated photonic architectures. However, the realization of scalable quantum devices requires host materials with intrinsically dilute spin environments to suppress decoherence. In this context, erbium (Er3+) doped cerium oxide (CeO2) is an attractive candidate due to the ultralow concentration of nuclear spins in the host matrix and its compatibility with silicon-based technologies. Here we perform a comprehensive investigation of the coherence properties of an Er3+ electron spin qubit in CeO2 via semiclassical as well as detailed cluster correlation expansion simulations. By systematically exploring magnetic field strength, pulse sequences, erbium concentration, and spin temperature, we identify regimes where decoherence from the spin bath is strongly suppressed. Our investigations illustrate that at dilute doping concentration (of the order of 10 ppb) and sub-Kelvin temperatures, operation near clock transitions enables Hahn-echo coherence times to approach the second timescale even at natural isotopic abundance. Importantly, from a practical standpoint, coherence times on the order of ∼10 ms are expected even at liquid helium temperature (about 2 K) for similar concentrations. Moreover, we demonstrate that an additional enhancement can be obtained with conventional multi-π-pulse dynamical decoupling protocols. Thus, our findings establish Er3+ doped CeO2 as a front-runner for realizing spin qubits, quantum memories, and integrated quantum networks.

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Phys. Rev. B 114, 204316– Published 29 October, 2026
  • Received 11 May 2026
  • Revised 29 August 2026
  • Accepted 9 October 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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