China has developed the world's most efficient solid-state quantum memory

Li Chuanfeng, a Key Laboratory of Quantum Information, led by Academician Guo Guangcan, University of Science and Technology of China, succeeded in achieving deterministic single-photon multi-mode solid state quantum storage, which can store 100 qubits at a time and create the highest level in the world. The result was published on the 15th of October in the world famous academic journal Nature and Communication. Quantum communication is considered as an absolutely secure means of communication, the basic principle of which is to use a single photon to encrypt the information carrying one qubit for transmission. At present, quantum communication can only reach the level of hundreds of kilometers. To achieve long-range quantum communication over a thousand kilometers, quantum-based quantum relay technology is needed. At present, the quantum relay scheme has realized that the time required for sending the information of one quantum bit over a long distance is above the order of minutes. There are two ways to speed up the transmission speed. One is to use a deterministic single-photon source, which emits only one photon at a time using a single atom. The second is to use multi-mode storage, which means that multiple qubits can be stored in a single store, Quantum storage can only save one quantum bit of information at a time. Through two years of hard work, Li Chuan-feng's research group found a man-made atom with luminescence wavelength matched with solid-state quantum storage from hundreds of artificial atoms, used it as a light source to generate deterministic single photons and then transmitted it through optical fiber to 5 meters Self-developed solid-state quantum memory for storage, and measured the storage fidelity of 91.3%. On this basis, they further experimented to achieve multi-mode quantum storage, which can store 100 qubits at a time, creating the highest level in the world. According to Li Chuanfeng, based on this technology, the time required to send one qubit in the long run can be shortened to milliseconds, that is, the transmission speed can be increased by four orders of magnitude. At the same time, this achievement has also realized for the first time two solid-state quantum nodes, that is, the solid-state artificial atomic light source and the solid-state quantum memory are docked, and has taken an important step toward realizing an all-solid-state quantum network.