Project description
Transferring quantum information using coherent phonons
Interacting qubits are fundamental to quantum information platforms – current experiments use photons to transfer quantum states between qubits. However, recent studies have proposed the acoustic vibrational properties of the material themselves, known as phonons, as a method to coherently couple distant solid-state quantum systems. The EU-funded uNIQUE project aims to develop an electromechanical quantum information platform exploiting the potential presented by surface acoustic waves at single-phonon level, and by mechanical resonators exceeding the standard quantum limit. The project will adopt an approach – unexplored as yet – at the intersection of phononics, nanomechanics and quantum acoustics, to yield a fully coherent mechanical playground that can be used alongside photon qubits or independently as a quantum signal-processing system.
Objective
Over the past thirty years, the remarkable technological advances in microfabrication processes have thrust mechanical vibrations into the quantum realm. The intrinsic coherence of mechanical motion and the capability to couple it to other physical degrees of freedom hold promises of scalable hybrid quantum platforms. But mechanical vibrations are also powerful conveyors of physical information. They are ubiquitously used in wireless communication systems, where bulk and surface acoustic wave (BAW and SAW) devices are prevalent. Their high achievable quality factors and frequencies, as well as their low propagation speed, are appropriate ingredients for information processing: they are synonymous of storage and delay.
Recent works have shown that SAW could be operated in the single-phonon regime, potentially behaving as a quantum bus between solid-state qubits. The proposed approaches, however, do not yet take advantage of wave propagation management at the substrate surface itself.
The uNIQUE project aims at the development of an all-electro-acousto-mechanical quantum information platform exploiting the full potential offered by surface acoustic waves in the single-phonon regime, and by mechanical resonators beyond the standard quantum limit. It adopts a yet unexplored approach at the crossing of phononics, nanomechanics and quantum acoustics to yield a fully coherent mechanical playground that can be used at the interface with other solid-state or photon qubits or as an independent quantum signal processing system. It will exploit the substrate surface to prepare and transfer non-classical states of motion of surface-coupled phononic resonators with the utmost ambition to encode the state information in a travelling single-phonon, allowing remote entanglement. This platform will allow manipulating quantum states in exceedingly compact systems driven by a sheer radio-frequency signal.
Fields of science
Not validated
Not validated
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringinformation engineeringtelecommunicationsradio technologyradio frequency
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsignal processing
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesacoustics
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringcomputer hardwarequantum computers
- natural sciencesphysical sciencestheoretical physicsparticle physicsphotons
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
ERC-COG - Consolidator GrantHost institution
75794 Paris
France