Integrating organic-molecule single-photon sources with atomic quantum memories

量子互联网有望跨越物理距离传播量子技术的优势，这将通过分布式量子计算向用户提供量子计算机的能力，并保护量子通信和加密协议，以前所未有的安全性连接政府，企业和个人。正如今天的互联网从一个学术工具转变为一个在过去三十年中改变了我们生活的工具一样，量子互联网有可能改变加拿大人以及世界各地人们与量子技术互动和使用的方式。此次合作将解决与量子通信技术硬件开发相关的一个突出挑战：开发一种实用的光物质接口，称为量子存储器，用于处理和存储量子数据。原子量子存储器，就像勒布朗实验室开发的那样，已经在带宽、存储时间和效率方面展示了卓越性能的潜力。然而，使用原子的优点之一（原子跃迁的完美）通常意味着传统的量子光发射器（单光子源）太宽，无法与这些存储器兼容。为了解决这个问题，克拉克小组一直在研究用于单光子发射的聚合物封装有机纳米晶体，其性质与量子存储器的原子跃迁非常匹配。在这个Catalyst项目中，LeBlanc和Clark团队发起了一项合作，将Clark的单光子发射器与LeBlanc的原子量子存储器结合起来，制作一个系统的原型。通过这项工作，他们将为将这种组合技术推向现实世界的应用和设备奠定基础，包括量子中继器和通信集线器硬件。

The quantum internet promises to spread the advantages of quantum technology across physical distances, which will give the power of a quantum computer to users through distributed quantum computing, as well as the protection of quantum communications and cryptography protocols to connect governments, businesses and individuals with unprecedented security. Just as today's internet shifted from an academic tool to one that has transformed our lives over the past three decades, the quantum internet has the potential to transform the ways Canadians, and people around the world interact with and use quantum technology.This collaboration will address an outstanding challenge related to hardware development for quantum communications technologies: developing a practical light-matter interface, known as a quantum memory, which processes and stores quantum data. Atomic quantum memories, like the ones developed in the LeBlanc lab, have demonstrated the potential for excellent performance in terms of their bandwidth, storage time, and efficiency. However, one of the advantages of using atoms (the perfection of the atomic transition) generally means that conventional emitters of quantum light (single photon sources) are too broadband to be compatible with these memories. To address this issue, the Clark group has been investigating polymer-encapsulated organic nanocrystals for single photon emission, whose properties are an excellent match for the atomic transitions of a quantum memory.In this Catalyst project, the LeBlanc and Clark groups initiate a collaboration to prototype a system that uses Clark's single-photon emitters with LeBlanc's atomic quantum memories. Through this work, they will build the foundation for advancing this combined technology toward real-world applications and devices, including and quantum repeaters and communications hub hardware.