Search for: All records

Rare earth emitters enable critical quantum resources including spin qubits, single photon sources, and quantum memories. Yet, probing of single ions remains challenging due to low emission rate of their intra-4foptical transitions. One feasible approach is through Purcell-enhanced emission in optical cavities. The ability to modulate cavity-ion coupling in real-time will further elevate the capacity of such systems. Here, we demonstrate direct control of single ion emission by embedding erbium dopants in an electro-optically active photonic crystal cavity patterned from thin-film lithium niobate. Purcell factor over 170 enables single ion detection, which is verified by second-order autocorrelation measurement. Dynamic control of emission rate is realized by leveraging electro-optic tuning of resonance frequency. Using this feature, storage, and retrieval of single ion excitation is further demonstrated, without perturbing the emission characteristics. These results promise new opportunities for controllable single-photon sources and efficient spin-photon interfaces.

Superconducting cavity electro-optics presents a promising route to coherently convert microwave and optical photons and distribute quantum entanglement between superconducting circuits over long-distance. Strong Pockels nonlinearity and high-performance optical cavity are the prerequisites for high conversion efficiency. Thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) offers these desired characteristics. Despite significant recent progresses, only unidirectional conversion with efficiencies on the order of 10⁻⁵has been realized. In this article, we demonstrate the bidirectional electro-optic conversion in TFLN-superconductor hybrid system, with conversion efficiency improved by more than three orders of magnitude. Our air-clad device architecture boosts the sustainable intracavity pump power at cryogenic temperatures by suppressing the prominent photorefractive effect that limits cryogenic performance of TFLN, and reaches an efficiency of 1.02% (internal efficiency of 15.2%). This work firmly establishes the TFLN-superconductor hybrid EO system as a highly competitive transduction platform for future quantum network applications.