Quantum memory systems and quantum repeater systems comprising doped polycrystalline ceramic optical devices and methods of manufacturing the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10553280-B2
Application number	US-201815906631-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 27, 2018
Priority date	Mar 1, 2017
Publication date	Feb 4, 2020
Grant date	Feb 4, 2020

Abstract

A method of manufacturing a doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device includes mixing a plurality of transition metal complexes and a plurality of rare-earth metal complexes to form a metal salt solution, heating the metal salt solution to form a heated metal salt solution, mixing the heated metal salt solution and an organic precursor to induce a chemical reaction between the heated metal salt solution and the organic precursor to produce a plurality of rare-earth doped crystalline nanoparticles, and sintering the plurality of rare-earth doped nanoparticles to form a doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device having a rare-earth element dopant that is uniformly distributed within a crystal lattice of the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A quantum memory system comprising a doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device, a magnetic field generation unit, and one or more pump lasers, wherein:
the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device is positioned within a magnetic field of the magnetic field generation unit when the magnetic field generation unit generates the magnetic field;
the one or more pump lasers are optically coupled to the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device; and
the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device is doped with a rare-earth element dopant that is uniformly distributed within a crystal lattice of the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device and is configured such that a plurality of storage photons traversing the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device attenuate at an attenuation rate of about 3 dB/mm or less, wherein:
the one or more pump lasers are structurally configured to generate a first pump photon comprising a first pump photon wavelength and a second pump photon comprising a second pump photon wavelength; and
the first pump photon wavelength and the second pump photon wavelength are each within about 20 nm of an absorption peak of the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device doped with the rare-earth element dopant.

2. The quantum memory system of claim 1 , wherein the rare-earth element dopant doped into the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device is configured to absorb about 50% or more of a plurality of storage photons traversing the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device.

3. The quantum memory system of claim 1 , wherein the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device is configured such that a plurality of storage photons traversing the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device attenuate at an attenuation rate of about 2 dB/mm or less.

4. The quantum memory system of claim 1 , wherein the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device is configured such that a plurality of storage photons traversing the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device attenuate at an attenuation rate of about 1 dB/mm or less.

5. A quantum memory system comprising a doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device, a magnetic field generation unit, and one or more pump lasers, wherein:
the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device is positioned within a magnetic field of the magnetic field generation unit when the magnetic field generation unit generates the magnetic field;
the one or more pump lasers are optically coupled to the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device; and
the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device is doped with a rare-earth element dopant that is uniformly distributed within a crystal lattice of the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device and is configured such that a plurality of storage photons traversing the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device attenuate at an attenuation rate of about 3 dB/mm or less,

wherein the one or more pump lasers are configured to irradiate the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device and generate a shaped spectral structure within the rare-earth element dopant of the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device.

6. The quantum memory system of claim 5 , wherein the rare-earth element dopant is configured to absorb a storage photon traversing the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device when (i) the storage photon transfers a superposition of the shaped spectral structure of the rare-earth element dopant from a first split ground state to an excited energy state and (ii), upon receipt of a first pump pulse output by the one or more pump lasers, the first pump pulse transfers the superposition of the shaped spectral structure of the rare-earth element dopant from the excited energy state into a second split ground state; and
the rare-earth element dopant is configured to release the storage photon when (i) the superposition of the shaped spectral structure of the rare-earth element dopant is transferred from the second split ground state to the excited energy state, upon receipt of a second pump pulse output by the one or more pump lasers and (ii) the superposition of the shaped spectral structure of the rare-earth element dopant automatically releases the storage photon after a delay period such that the storage photon exits the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device.

7. A quantum memory system comprising a doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device, a magnetic field generation unit, and one or more pump lasers, wherein:
the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device is positioned within a magnetic field of the magnetic field generation unit when the magnetic field generation unit generates the magnetic field;
the one or more pump lasers are optically coupled to the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device; and
the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device is doped with a rare-earth element dopant that is uniformly distributed within a crystal lattice of the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device and is configured such that a plurality of storage photons traversing the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device attenuate at an attenuation rate of about 3 dB/mm or less,

wherein: (i) the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device comprises yttrium oxide, zirconium oxide, or combinations thereof; or (ii) the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device is voidless.

8. A quantum memory system comprising a doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device, a magnetic field generation unit, and one or more pump lasers, wherein:
the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device is positioned within a magnetic field of the magnetic field generation unit when the magnetic field generation unit generates the magnetic field;
the one or more pump lasers are optically coupled to the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device; and
the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device is doped with a rare-earth element dopant that is uniformly distributed within a crystal lattice of the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device and is configured such that a plurality of storage photons traversing the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device attenuate at an attenuation rate of about 3 dB/mm or less, wherein the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device is formed by sintering a plurality of rare-earth doped nanoparticles comprising a diameter of about 40 nm or less.

9. The quantum memory system of claim 8 , wherein the plurality of rare-earth doped nanoparticles is formed by mixing a plurality of transition metal complexes and plurality of rare-earth metal complexes to form a metal salt solution, heating the metal salt solution to form a heated metal salt solution, and mixing the heated metal salt solution and an organic precursor.

10. The quantum memory system of claim 9 , wherein the organic precursor comprises urea, ammonium hydroxide, or a combination thereof.

11. A quantum memory system comprising a doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device, a magnetic field generation unit, and one or more pump lasers, wherein:
the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device is positioned within a magnetic field of the magnetic field generation unit when the magnetic field generation unit generates the magnetic field;
the one or more pump lasers are optically coupled to the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device; and
the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device is doped with a rare-earth element dopant that is uniformly distributed within a crystal lattice of the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device and is configured such that a plurality of storage photons traversing the doped polycrystalline ceramic optical device attenuate at an atten

Assignees

• Corning Inc

Inventors

• Brown Jason Allen
• Gray Stuart
• Ketcham Thomas Dale
• Nolan Daniel Aloysius
• Senaratne Wageesha
• Yang Jun
• Zhang Haitao

Classifications

• G11C13/04

  using optical elements {; using other beam accessed elements, e.g. electron or ion beam} · CPC title

• H04B10/70 Primary

  Photonic quantum communication · CPC title

• G11C13/06 Primary

  using magneto-optical elements {(G11C13/042 takes precedence)} · CPC title

• H04B10/29

  Repeaters · CPC title