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Enhancement of microwave to optical spin-based quantum transduction via a magnon mode

Tharnier O. Puel1, Adam T. Turflinger2, Sebastian P. Horvath2, Jeff D. Thompson2, and Michael E. Flatté1,3

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Phys. Rev. Research 7, 033221 – Published 4 September, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/kqw2-gs9c

Abstract

We propose a method for converting single microwave photons to single optical sideband photons based on spinful impurities in magnetic materials. This hybrid system is advantageous over previous proposals because (i) the implementation allows much higher transduction rates (103 times faster at the same optical pump Rabi frequency) than state-of-the-art devices, (ii) high-efficiency transduction is found to happen in a significantly larger space of device parameters (in particular, over 1GHz microwave detuning), and (iii) it does not require mode volume matching between optical and microwave resonators. We identify the needed magnetic interactions as well as potential materials systems to enable this speed up using erbium dopants for telecom compatibility. This is an important step towards realizing high-fidelity entangling operations between remote qubits and will provide additional control of the transduction through perturbation of the magnet.

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Phys. Rev. Research 7, 033221– Published 4 September, 2025
  • Received 19 November 2024
  • Revised 8 April 2025
  • Accepted 30 May 2025
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