The University of British Columbia

Purpose

The project will develop an on-chip, scalable, quantum microwave to optical (QM2O) interface enabling coherent conversion between single telecom and single microwave photons, with widespread applications in quantum technologies ranging from quantum networks of quantum computers (with computational power far exceeding individual quantum computers) to the design of new kinds of quantum sensors. The key predicted property of the QM2O is a near-100% efficiency of conversion at low pump power (<< 1mW), much higher than competing solid-state QM2O interfaces, whose efficiency is below the useful threshold (50%) for quantum applications despite requiring high (100 mW) pump powers. The key innovation is a giant three-wave mixing effect in doped silicon that is predicted when two optical photons and one microwave photon are nearly resonant with ensembles of spin-bearing defects with associated near-infrared optical resonances. The high efficiency and manufacturability could make quantum networks and quantum sensors commonplace in 5 years.