Telecom colour centres in silicon: an all-silicon quantum computing and communications platform

今天的互联网，建立在经典物理定律的基础上，继续改变着我们的生活。量子互联网基于量子比特（qubit）的有趣和更丰富的定律，将提供额外的革命性能力，否则不可能实现。联网的量子计算机将传送信息;比世界顶级超级计算机以指数级速度执行关键计算任务;生成可证明不可穿透的密码学和可证明安全的云计算;并以任何其他手段都无法近似的现实主义支持自然（药物，材料）的模拟。量子计算机网络释放出的组合能力比其各部分的总和还要大，考虑到预期的环境限制，它可能比单片量子超级计算机更容易建造。鉴于该领域的新生状态，量子技术未来应用的全部范围可能超出了我们目前的集体想象。该行业的潜力正在推动全球范围内的密集和加速研究。去年，世界观察到一台53量子比特的独立量子计算机，它的计算能力超过了世界顶级超级计算机！然而，尽管人们普遍认为，最终量子计算机将通过全球量子电信信道联网，但围绕量子硬件接口尚未达成共识，这将开启这一雄心勃勃的目标。恰恰相反：世界范围内正在进行激烈且不断增长的研究，以在适合于高性能量子计算的长寿命的基于材料的量子比特和适合于量子网络的电信光子之间建立理想的量子接口的原型。许多不完美的界面，往往在异国情调的材料和错误的波长，已经彻底研究在追求这个有远见的目标。 尽管硅是世界上最重要的计算和电信技术的基础，但人们普遍认为硅并不具备实现全硅量子互联网梦想所必需的量子接口。令人兴奋的是，我们最近的工作彻底推翻了这一概念：我们已经生产并表征了最高质量的硅物质-电信光子界面。接下来的步骤是明确的：我们必须将这些物质-光子接口部署到真实的量子设备中，并毫无疑问地证明它们可以支撑不久的将来的量子计算和通信技术。 这笔赠款将使我们能够在我们的成就，合作和世界级基础设施的基础上再接再厉，并利用极其罕见的先发全球竞争优势以及数十年的硅制造研发。它将支持、培训和培养未来的量子领导者。如果我们成功了，我们预计这项工作将导致研究工作的广泛联合，以实现量子主导设计。

Today's internet, built upon the laws of classical physics, continues to revolutionize our lives. A quantum internet, based upon the intriguing and richer laws governing quantum bits (qubits), will offer additional revolutionary capabilities which are otherwise impossible to achieve. Networked quantum computers will teleport information; perform crucial computational tasks exponentially faster than the world's top supercomputers; generate provably impenetrable cryptography and provably secure cloud computation; and support the simulation of nature (drugs, materials) with a realism that simply cannot be approximated by any other means. Networks of quantum computers unleash exponentially more combined capacity than the sum of their parts, and given expected environmental constraints, will likely be far easier to build than monolithic quantum supercomputers. Given the nascent state of the field, the full spectrum of future applications of quantum technologies likely lies outside our current collective imaginations. The potential of this sector is fueling intense and accelerating research worldwide. Last year the world observed a 53-qubit standalone quantum computer eclipsing the computing power of the world's top supercomputer! Yet even though it is widely assumed that, eventually, quantum computers will be networked over global quantum telecommunication channels, there is no consensus around the quantum hardware interface which will unlock this ambitious objective. Quite the opposite: there is a fierce and growing worldwide search underway to prototype an ideal quantum interface between long-lived material-based qubits suitable for high performance quantum computing, and telecommunications photons suitable for quantum networking. Many imperfect interfaces, often in exotic materials and at the wrong wavelengths, have been thoroughly studied in the pursuit of this visionary aim. Despite the fact that silicon is the basis of both the world's foremost computing and telecommunications technologies, it was widely assumed that silicon did not have the requisite quantum interfaces necessary to make the dream of an all-silicon quantum internet a reality. Excitingly, our very recent work resoundingly disproved this notion: we have produced and characterized a silicon matter-telecom photon interface of the highest quality. The next steps are clear: we must deploy these matter-photon interfaces into real quantum devices and prove beyond all doubt that they can underpin the quantum computation and communication technologies of the near future. This grant will allow us to build on our achievements, collaborations, and world-class infrastructure, and leverage an exceedingly rare first-mover global competitive advantage as well as decades of silicon manufacturing R&D. It will support, train and produce future quantum leaders. If we are successful, we anticipate this work will lead to a broad coalescence of research efforts towards a quantum dominant design.