An efficient optical interconnect for superconducting quantum computers

This project aims to develop the technology to connect superconducting quantum computers to the future quantum internet: an optical interconnect. Superconducting qubits are a leading quantum computing system, but their practical use is limited by their microwave operation frequency, as global quantum networks will operate at optical frequencies. This project aims to solve this problem by converting the microwave photons that carry superconducting quantum information to optical photons. To achieve high efficiency the project will investigate magnetically ordered rare-earth crystals, which uniquely possess the strong optical and microwave coupling required, to build a converter that could greatly enhance the capabilities of quantum computers.