A UNIGE team in Geneva, Switzerland, has succeeded in storing a quantum bit for 20 milliseconds. A duration that had never before been achieved by a solid-state quantum memory.
Long-duration quantum memories for photonic qubits are essential components for achieving long-distance quantum networks and repeaters. The mapping of optical states onto coherent spin-waves in rare earth ensembles is a particularly promising approach to quantum storage. However, it remains challenging to achieve long-duration storage at the quantum level due to read-out noise caused by the required spin-wave manipulation.
The paper has been published in npj Quantum Information.
