Trapped Ion Quantum Networking and Telecommunications Coexisting on One Fiber

Abstract:Research into long-distance quantum memory-based networking to date has exclusively used dark fibers. This avoids the detector background from telecommunications (telecom) traffic, but as a result excludes many fibers deployed in the field. If memory-photon entanglement and telecom signals coexist on one fiber, the entire classical fiber infrastructure becomes available for quantum links. We present the first experimental demonstration of such coexistence. Ion-photon entanglement using 1092 nm photons emitted by a Strontium-88 ion is distributed over a deployed 2.8 km fiber loop which carries Ethernet and 5G traffic. All classical control signals required to coordinate the quantum transmitter and receiver systems co-propagate on the same fiber. These include fiber sensing for polarization stabilization. Our results demonstrate that memory-based quantum networks can be realized on active classical network infrastructure.

Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Atomic Physics (physics.atom-ph)

arXiv:2609.06387 [quant-ph]

(or arXiv:2609.06387v1 [quant-ph] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2609.06387 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

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