Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Research into long-distance quantum memory-based networking to date has exclusively used dark fibers. This avoids the detector background from telecommunications (telecom) traffic, but as a result excludes many fibers deployed in the field. If memory-photon entanglement and telecom signals coexist on one fiber, the entire classical fiber infrastructure becomes available for quantum links. We present the first experimental demonstration of such coexistence. Ion-photon entanglement using 1092 nm photons emitted by a Strontium-88 ion is distributed over a deployed 2.8 km fiber loop which carries Ethernet and 5G traffic. All classical control signals required to coordinate the quantum transmitter and receiver systems co-propagate on the same fiber. These include fiber sensing for polarization stabilization. Our results demonstrate that memory-based quantum networks can be realized on active classical network infrastructure.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Institutions: Duke University, University of Maryland, College Park
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: Software-Tailored Architecture for Quantum Co-Design (STAQ), G1888081529, G210096730, G252725622, G2720515439, G3141641755, CAREER: Toward Efficient and Scalable Mobile Fronthaul Empowered by Analog Radio-over-Fiber, EAGER: An Integrated Fiber Sensing and Communication Living Lab in the Research Triangle, G608057831, G7452299184, Collaborative Research: CNS Core: Medium: Softwarizing Millimeter-wave Radio Access Networks (RANs) at the Edge, C: Quantum Networks to Connect Quantum Technology (QuanNeCQT), G8415477955, G846857640, CIRC: GRAND/ENS: COSMOS3: Enhancing and Sustaining the COSMOS Platform
OpenAlex ID: W7212003276