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之上，继续给我们的生活带来革命性的变化。基于量子比特（量子位）的有趣而丰富的定律，量子互联网将提供额外的革命性能力，否则是不可能实现的。联网的量子计算机将传送信息；执行关键计算任务的速度比世界顶级超级计算机快得多；生成可证明不可穿透的密码和可证明安全的云计算；并支持模拟自然（药物，材料）的现实主义，根本无法接近任何其他手段。量子计算机网络释放出的综合能力比其各部分的总和要大得多，并且考虑到预期的环境限制，可能比单片量子超级计算机更容易构建。考虑到该领域的新生状态，量子技术未来的全部应用可能超出我们目前的集体想象。这一领域的潜力正在推动世界范围内激烈和加速的研究。去年，世界上有一台53量子位的独立量子计算机，其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无共识，这将开启这一雄心勃勃的目标。恰恰相反：在适合高性能量子计算的长寿命的基于材料的量子比特和适合量子网络的电信光子之间，有一种理想的量子接口原型正在全球范围内进行激烈且不断增长的研究。许多不完美的界面，通常是在奇异的材料和错误的波长上，在追求这个有远见的目标的过程中已经被彻底研究过了。尽管硅是世界上最重要的计算和电信技术的基础，但人们普遍认为硅没有必要的量子接口来实现全硅量子互联网的梦想。令人兴奋的是，我们最近的工作彻底推翻了这一观点：我们已经生产出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-光子界面部署到真正的量子设备中，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。这笔拨款将使我们能够在我们的成就，合作和世界一流的基础设施的基础上继续发展，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对量子主导设计的广泛研究努力的结合。

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.