Scalable and telecom single-erbium system with record-long room-temperature quantum coherence

arXiv:2601.11879 · quant-ph · Submitted 2026-01-17 · Read on arXiv

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Introduction to the show: ident: Quantum Radio. Generated commentary on the latest quantum physics and condensed matter papers.

Kai: Today's paper: "Scalable and telecom single-erbium system with record-long room-temperature quantum coherence".

Mira: The gist The work introduces a CMOS-compatible quantum system comprising single-erbium-(Er3+)-ion qudits operating across the visible and telecom C-band, achieving record-long optical coherence times exceeding 500 μs at ambient conditions.

Kai: First, who's behind it and why it matters.

Title and authors: Kai: So we're looking at this paper today called "Scalable and telecom single-erbium system with record-long room-temperature quantum coherence." It tackles the big problem of needing ultra-cold temperatures to get good quantum performance.

Mira: Exactly. The authors are proposing a way to keep this quantum coherence up while making it compatible with standard silicon technology and telecom wavelengths. It's about pushing beyond the cryogenic limits for these kinds of systems and getting them onto a more practical platform.

Lev: What I see in the title is that they're promising scalability and room-temperature performance, which are two massive hurdles in this field right now, especially when you think about deploying these kinds of quantum systems outside of a lab.

Kai: Well, what they actually built here is a CMOS-compatible quantum system using single erbium ions. They've managed to get them working across both the visible and telecom C-band.

Mira: And the real kicker is achieving optical coherence times exceeding five hundred microseconds at room temperature, which is a significant jump from what we usually see in these setups <ref:2601.11879#pg1>.

Lev: Five hundred microseconds is substantial for quantum memory operations, but I have to ask about the practical implications of maintaining that coherence when you're dealing with ambient conditions and potential noise sources.

Kai: The key to this performance seems to be their approach to how they place the ions spatially and isolate them from each other. They used innovative nanofabrication techniques for self-aligned ion placement.

Mira: And they realized this isolation by embedding these single ions inside arrays of hollow nanopillars made from silicon carbide or similar materials. These aren't just any structures; they are designed to confine the ions spatially with very small dimensions, under five nanometers.

Lev: So you’re essentially creating a physical environment where the ion is suspended in something that acts like a vacuum, suppressing those ion-ion interactions and spectral diffusion that usually kill coherence at room temperature.

Kai: Right. The use of silicon carbide or silicon oxycarbide as the host matrix is important because it offers material advantages compatible with existing silicon technology, like CMOS compatibility.

Mira: They point out that amorphous silicon carbide on an insulator provides a wide bandgap and has a high refractive index around two point six at one thousand five hundred fifty nanometers, which is perfect for telecom applications <ref:2601.11879#pg3>.

Lev: That material choice helps with the optical path, but how does that structure actually allow them to isolate the ions with such precision?

Kai: They achieved this isolation by using these non-lithographically defined nanostructures with critical dimensions of five nanometers or less. This geometric confinement is what allows for self-alignment and spatial isolation of the individual erbium ions.

Mira: That geometry is what creates this "air" environment around the ion, which they say effectively eliminates ion-ion interactions and helps mitigate decoherence from defects or fluctuating charges in the material.

Title and authors: Lev: If you can deterministically place and isolate these ions using just nanoscale geometry, that opens up a path for making these systems more reliable for real quantum computation.

Kai: They showed some performance numbers too. They observed coherent Rabi oscillations from single ions by varying the excitation pulse width tp at a photon flux of five times ten to the power of nineteen per centimeter squared per second.

Mira: And they extracted a Rabi frequency of six hundred sixty kilohertz, which confirms that they have coherent optical control over these single erbium ions even when operating at ambient conditions.

Lev: Six hundred sixty kilohertz is a measurable rate for coherent manipulation, but what about the actual measurement of how long that coherence lasts when you try to read out the state?

Kai: They performed Ramsey measurements under telecom-resonant excitation and found an optical quantum coherence time, T2*, of thirty-two microseconds, with some variation.

Mira: That thirty-two microsecond timescale is good for room temperature solid-state systems, but they also showed a longer T2 of five hundred sixty eight microseconds after photon echo measurements under pulsed excitation.

Lev: So you have two different coherence times depending on the measurement technique—one fast and one slower—which suggests that the pulse sequence itself can influence how long the ion stays coherent.

Kai: They found that by using a photon-echo measurement, they could see an extended coherence time of five hundred sixty eight microseconds under pulsed optical excitation.

Mira: That result is interesting because it indicates that they are successfully suppressing certain fast dephasing pathways when using this specific pulsed excitation method in the silicon carbide HNP devices.

Lev: So it sounds like the pulse sequence itself is a tool to engineer better coherence for these individual ions, which is a key concept for error correction protocols.

Kai: Then there's how they read out the state. They exploit the five-level energy structure of these spatially isolated qudits to get a high-Q emission with background-free single photon emission via an upconversion pathway.

Mira: This readout method is significant because it doesn't require an optical cavity, which simplifies the design and makes it more compatible with other integrated circuits.

Lev: A cavity-less readout system sounds much more robust for scaling up the number of these devices compared to systems that rely on high-Q cavities.

Kai: They can achieve a high-contrast readout greater than ninety six percent in the visible light, specifically at five hundred eighteen nanometers, without needing a cavity.

Mira: And when they look at the upconverted photoluminescence spectra, they see emission lines at five hundred eighteen nanometers, six hundred sixty nanometers, and nine hundred eighty nanometers with lifetimes of one sixty four microseconds to seven hundred twelve microseconds respectively.

Lev: Those lifetime differences suggest that different transitions have different decoherence rates even within this confined structure.

Kai: Furthermore, the upconverted photoluminescence at the telecom-resonant excitation shows enhanced g squared values, specifically zero point one eight and zero point zero six for the single erbium qudit at nine hundred eighty nanometers and five hundred eighteen nanometers respectively.

Title and authors: Mira: Those g squared values are indicators of how strongly the ion couples to the light field in those specific wavelengths, which is important for designing optical control protocols later on.

Lev: So they're using these spectral properties to understand how well they can manipulate the ion optically and how stable that manipulation is across different energy levels.

Kai: The fabrication strategy itself is a big part of this work, involving a foundry-compatible nanofabrication combined with materials engineering for these silicon carbide or silicon oxycarbide hollow nanopillars.

Mira: Specifically, they demonstrated a non-lithographic route to defining these structures with critical dimensions of five nanometers or less using conformal chemical vapor deposition.

Lev: That non-lithographic fabrication route is what makes this approach scalable for wafer-scale manufacturing, which is where many of these quantum experiments fail to scale up.

Kai: They also showed a geometry-defined self-aligned placement method where the nanopillar sidewall acts like an aperture to constrain the final ion placement volume with accuracy under five nanometers.

Mira: This geometric confinement strategy is designed to be broadly applicable, ensuring deterministic ion placement compatible with wafer-scale fabrication processes.

Lev: Deterministic placement is crucial because if you can't control where the ions end up precisely, you can't reliably make a large array of them work together for quantum operations.

Kai: They also described how they move from ensemble excitation to single-ion isolation by tuning the implantation dose and the critical dimension or number of nanostructures.

Mira: For instance, they found that arrays implanted at one hundred ten to the power of fourteen per centimeter squared yield about one hundred eighty kilohertz per second, while arrays at one hundred twelve per centimeter squared give you a much lower rate.

Lev: That shows they can use this geometry and dose control to select only a few ions in the excitation spot, moving away from just exciting a bunch of them at once.

Kai: So the overall message here is that they've created an integrated platform that combines material science and engineering to achieve deterministic single-ion qudits with record-long coherent control at room temperature in the telecom C-band.

Mira: It moves the goalposts on what we thought was achievable for solid-state quantum emitters outside of extreme cryogenic environments.

Lev: I think for error correction researchers, this is a huge step because it gives us a platform where we can actually test those protocols under conditions that are closer to what we'll eventually need in practical deployments.

Kai: This work on the scalable and telecom single-erbium system with record-long room-temperature quantum coherence really sets a new benchmark for solid-state quantum hardware compatibility.

Mira: It shows that by focusing on materials engineering and clever nanoscale geometry, we can overcome the limitations of ambient operation for these important emitters.

Lev: It paves the way for more robust quantum sensing and potentially even distributed computing in future telecom networks.

The paper's summary: Kai: So, to recap what we just talked about, these authors have essentially built an integrated system that takes single erbium ions—these qudits—and puts them into a structure made of silicon carbide or similar materials so they can work with telecom light and stay coherent at room temperature.

Mira: Right. The main takeaway is that they’ve figured out a way to keep these delicate quantum states alive without needing the super cold environments we usually think are necessary for them. They're talking about record coherence times over half a second, which is seriously impressive for ambient conditions.

Lev: From an error correction standpoint, that half-second coherence time is meaningful because it sets a floor for how long you can perform operations before noise completely destroys the quantum information. If you're running real hardware on this, that’s a solid starting point to see if your protocols even have a chance to work.

Kai: What I find particularly interesting about this paper isn't just the coherence number, but *how* they achieved it. They aren’t just throwing ions into a pile and hoping for the best; they used this super specific way of building the hardware—these hollow nanopillars under five nanometers thick—to physically separate every single ion.

Mira: That geometric confinement is what makes the whole thing work, I think. They’re essentially creating a tiny, isolated space around each ion where it can’t bump into its neighbors or get messed up by stray charges in the material. It turns the bulk material into something almost like vacuum for those ions.

Lev: That isolation is key because it tackles spectral diffusion and decoherence from defects, which are usually the biggest killers of coherence at higher temperatures. If you can engineer that kind of local environment, you’re mitigating a huge class of noise sources that we usually have to deal with by cooling everything down.

Kai: And they showed they can actually control these ions optically. They measured coherent Rabi oscillations at six hundred sixty kilohertz using just their light pulses, which means we aren't just passively observing them anymore; we’re actively manipulating them on demand.

Mira: That’s the upconversion readout pathway that makes it really clever. They don't need a bulky cavity to read the state; they use a process where the ion emits light at one wavelength, and then that light is converted into another wavelength we can easily see, which gives them high contrast for reading out the state.

Lev: And those spectral properties they measured—the g squared values at different wavelengths—that’s important because it tells us exactly how strongly the ion couples to the light field, which is what you need to design a good control pulse. If your control pulse doesn't match that coupling strength, you won't get a high-fidelity operation.

Kai: So what this means for the everyday person listening? It means we’re getting closer to quantum sensors and computers that don’t need massive refrigerators sitting next to them. We might see quantum information processing moving out of the super-specialized labs and into more accessible, standard technology platforms.

Mira: Exactly. This isn't just a lab curiosity; it’s demonstrating a pathway for building things that are fundamentally compatible with the silicon chips we already use every day, just by using clever nanoscale engineering instead of extreme temperature control.

Lev: It sets a new benchmark for what we consider feasible in solid-state emitters. If this scaling strategy holds up, it gives quantum error correction researchers a much more realistic target to aim for when designing future hardware architectures.

The paper's improvements: Tom: So, we’re looking at how these authors suggest they can take this working system and make it even better for future use. They aren't just showing a result; they’re suggesting a roadmap for how to push this technology further.

Kai: What I see them proposing is moving beyond just measuring the coherence time and focusing on the design process itself. They suggest using an AI approach to build a blueprint that connects how you implant the ions, how you process the material, and what kind of nanostructure geometry you need for optimal performance.

Mira: Right. So they’re suggesting a geometry- and dose-based design blueprint. This means instead of just guessing where to put things, they want an AI system that can predict exactly how many ions you'll get in a spot and what that will look like geometrically before you even start the fabrication process.

Lev: That sounds like it tackles the scalability issue head-on. If you can pre-determine the ion density and placement using a computational model, then building arrays of these things becomes deterministic, which is exactly what we need for reliable quantum hardware.

Kai: They also suggest improving their readout protocol with an upconversion-mediated pulse sequence. They’re looking at using AI to design the exact timing of those pulses so they can get the highest possible contrast and efficiency in reading out a single ion's state without needing that bulky optical cavity setup.

Mira: That makes sense from a theoretical standpoint because it means you’re optimizing the entire quantum process—from excitation to measurement—as one integrated system, rather than treating them as separate steps. It’s about finding the best path through all those energy levels they mentioned earlier.

Lev: If AI can help design better control protocols, that opens up possibilities for running more complex quantum error correction routines on this hardware. You need precise timing to fix errors in real-time, and a smarter protocol might be the way to get there.

Kai: They are also looking at how to use this system for spatial resolution beyond just basic imaging. They’re talking about using their upconversion microscopy to create bright spots that correspond exactly to where an individual ion is sitting, even with sub-diffraction resolution.

Mira: That would be huge for applications in quantum sensing, because being able to image single ions spatially lets you map out the quantum state of a whole array at once. It moves us from just knowing *if* the system is coherent to knowing *where* that coherence is happening on the chip.

Lev: So it’s not just about getting a longer coherence time; it’s about building an entire, controllable quantum microscope on top of this platform. That capability is what makes these systems really useful for distributed quantum computation later on.

Kai: This whole paper is essentially saying that we can use materials science and advanced engineering to get single ions working reliably at room temperature in telecom wavelengths, and the next step is using AI to design a system that's even smarter and more controllable.

Conclusion: Kai: So we’re wrapping up this look at "Scalable and telecom single-erbium system with record-long room-temperature quantum coherence." Basically, these authors have shown that they can engineer a platform using silicon carbide that lets them control single erbium ions with record coherence times right at room temperature in the C-band.

Mira: It’s a solid demonstration of how materials science and precise nanofabrication can tackle the problem of maintaining quantum states without needing extreme cryogenic cooling. They used the specific geometry to solve the ion-ion interaction problem, which is usually fatal for these kinds of experiments.

Lev: I think what this means for error correction research is that we’re finally seeing a platform where we can actually test those protocols under conditions that feel more realistic than just a deep cryogenic setup. It shows there's a way to keep the quantum information alive longer in ambient environments.

Kai: They showed they can achieve coherent control at six hundred sixty kilohertz using just light pulses, which is impressive for single-ion manipulation when you’re trying to keep everything stable.

Mira: And the readout method they used, relying on upconversion instead of a cavity, simplifies the whole architecture significantly. It shows that you don't always need the most complex equipment just to get a high-quality signal from your quantum system.

Lev: From my side, if we can use these results as a baseline for hardware design, it gives us a real target to aim for when designing next-generation solid-state devices that need to operate outside of dilution refrigerators.

Kai: It really proves that by focusing on how the ions are physically isolated and how the light is read out, you can overcome many of the biggest hurdles in solid-state quantum systems.

Mira: That paper is a great example of how deep material engineering combined with clever geometric design can lead to practical, room-temperature quantum hardware.

Lev: It sets a very high bar for what we expect from ambient operation in this field.

Kai: We’ll keep an eye on these results as they move toward creating more complex quantum networks that need to operate outside of super-cooled labs.

College of Nanotechnology, Science, and Engineering (CNSE), Department of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, University at Albany

quant-ph

Submitted: 2026-01-17

Updated: 2026-10-09

License: http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/

Importance score: 92/100

The gist: The gist The work introduces a CMOS-compatible quantum system comprising single-erbium-(Er3+)-ion qudits operating across the visible and telecom C-band, achieving record-long optical coherence times

Key concepts

Single Er³⁺ Ion Qudit: This is a quantum system based on a single erbium ion (Er³⁺) acting as a qubit. The ion's energy levels are used to store and process quantum information. It operates across the visible and telecom C-band, allowing for coherent control of light.
Silicon-Based Hollow Nanopillars (HNPs): These are nanoscale structures made from silicon carbide (SiC) or related materials with dimensions less than 5 nm. They serve as a protective environment that spatially isolates the single erbium ion, effectively suspending it in an 'air' environment to prevent unwanted interactions and decoherence.
Room-Temperature Coherence: This refers to maintaining quantum coherence (the ability of a quantum system to maintain phase relationships) at ambient temperatures, unlike previous demonstrations which required extreme cryogenic conditions. The paper achieved record coherence times of over 500 microseconds at room temperature in the telecom C-band.

Terminology

Accuracy — 3× in this paper · explained in 1 episode
Quantum sensing — 3× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
Fidelity — 2× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
Alignment — 1× in this paper · explained in 1 episode
Benchmark — 1× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
Calibration — 1× in this paper · explained in 7 episodes
Decoupling — 1× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
Elias — 1× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes

Summary

The gist The work introduces a CMOS-compatible quantum system comprising single-erbium-(Er3+)-ion qudits operating across the visible and telecom C-band, achieving record-long optical coherence times exceeding 500 μs at ambient conditions.

How it works

The system utilizes single-erbium-(Er3+)-ion qudits (fivelevel systems) that operate across the visible and telecom C-band.
To achieve spatial isolation of single-Er3+ ions and suppress dephasing, innovative nanofabrication is used to enable self-aligned ion placement.
The system is realized using arrays of spatially-isolated single-Er3+-ion qudits embedded in silicon-based (e.g., silicon carbide (SiC) and SiCxOy) hollow nanopillars (HNPs).
This is achieved via non-lithographically defined nanostructure geometries with ultrathin critical dimensions (≤5 nm), which impose a geometric-based confinement that self-aligns and spatially isolates individual Er3+ ions.
SiC and SiCxOy are chosen as host matrices for Er3+ because they offer unique fundamental and silicon-technology advantages, such as amorphous-SiC-oninsulator (a-SiCOI) which offers CMOS compatibility, a wide bandgap, a high refractive index (n ≈ 2.6 at 1550 nm), and strong electro-optic properties.
The sub-5 nm critical dimensions of the HNP arrays create an environment where spatially-isolated single-Er3+ ions are effectively suspended in “air”, effectively eliminating ion-ion interactions and mitigating spectral diffusion and decoherence from defects and fluctuating charges.

Performance Metrics

The devices exhibit exceptional performance at room temperature, which is unattainable with current technologies.
The system demonstrates coherent operation in the telecom C-band with record-long optical quantum coherence exceeding 500 μs, measured using standard photon-echo pulse sequences.
Coherence Rabi oscillations are observed from single Er3+ ions by varying the excitation pulse width tp at a fixed photon flux (φ= 5×1019 cm−2·s−1), with the time-integrated PL intensity recorded as a function of tp.
A Rabi frequency, ΩRabi, of 660 kHz was extracted, demonstrating coherent optical control of a single-Er3+ ion at ambient conditions.
Ramsey measurements performed at room temperature under telecom-resonant excitation yield an optical quantum coherence time, T2∗, of 32 μs ± 4 μs.
Subsequent photon-echo measurements reveal a T2 of 568 ± 61 μs, indicating the suppression of fast dephasing pathways in the Er:SiC HNP devices under pulsed optical excitation.

Readout and Control

The system exploits the multi-energy level structure of the spatially isolated single-Erqudits (d = 5-level system) to realize a high-Q (exhibiting a narrow linewidth and long coherence time), background-free, single photon emission via an upconversion-mediated readout pathway.
This approach enables fast, high-contrast (>96%) coherent optical readout in the visible (e.g., 518 nm) without the use of an optical cavity.
Upconverted PL at each wavelength is selectively collected using a corresponding bandpass filter and detected with a low-light single-photon camera, enabling spatially resolved imaging of individual qudits with sub-diffraction resolution (<60 nm), limited by the camera pixel resolution.
The upconversion PL spectra show emission at 518 nm, 660 nm, and 980 nm, with lifetimes of 164 μs, 380 μs, and 712 μs, respectively.
Upconverted PL at the telecom-resonant excitation demonstrates enhanced g2(0) values of 0.18 and 0.06 for the single-Er3+ qudit at i. 980 nm and ii. 518 nm, respectively.

Fabrication Strategy

The fabrication strategy involves a groundbreaking foundry-compatible nanofabrication paired with targeted materials engineering to realize arrays of spatially-isolated single-Er3+-ion qudits embedded in silicon-based (e.g., silicon carbide (SiC) and SiCxOy) hollow nanopillars (HNPs).
Innovation 1 demonstrates the non-lithographic route for defining SiC-based HNPs with ≤5 nm critical dimension (C.D.), achieved through a conformal chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process.
The final nanostructure dimensions are set by the thickness of a conformally deposited ≤5-nm-thick amorphous SiC (a-SiC) layer, or oxygen co-doped a-SiC layer (a-SiC:O), deposited on the sacrificial mandrel.
Innovation 2 demonstrates geometry-defined self-aligned Er placement with state-of-the art (<5 nm) accuracy, where the HNP sidewall functions as a lateral implantation aperture that constrains the final ion placement volume.
This geometry-defined confinement strategy is broadly applicable to any class of ion or defect introduced via implantation, ensuring deterministic ion placement compatible with wafer-scale fabrication.
The system transitions from ensemble excitation to single-ion isolation by tuning the implantation dose (y-axis) and C.D. or number of nanostructures (x-axis), which reduces the expected number of Er3+ ions (N) within a diffraction-limited excitation spot.
For example, arrays implanted at 1014 cm−2 yield 180 kcps, while 1012 cm−2 arrays exhibit 0.08 kcps, consistent with excitation of only a few ions.

Conclusion

This work establishes a comprehensive telecom- and CMOS-compatible engineering strategy enabled by materials science and engineering that overcomes the ubiquitous challenge of maintaining quantum coherence under ambient conditions. By integrating single-Er3+-ions into sub-5 nm SiC HNPs devices, the research demonstrates the first CMOS-compatible platform of deterministic single-Er-ion qudits with record-long coherent control at room temperature in the telecom C-band. This paves the way for advanced telecom QIS technologies that could potentially extend the range of practical applications in quantum sensing and imaging for biomedical applications, and in quantum sensing and systems (clock synchronization, distributed computation) for a future Quantum Internet of Things.

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge Souryaya Dutta and Kazy Shariar for their assistance with materials growth, CMP, and etching during nanofabrication of the samples. This work was also supported by the College of Nanotechnology, Science, and Engineering of the University (CNSE) Innovation Lab.

Competing interests

Three patent applications relating to this technology and innovations have been filed with the United States Patent & Trademark Office and are assigned to the Research Foundation for SUNY.

Data Availability Statement

The original contributions presented in this study are included in the article and supplementary material.

References Cited (Selected)

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[55] G Wolfowicz C P Anderson Berk Diler O G Poluektov F Joseph Heremans D D Awschalom Vanadium spin qubits as telecom quantum emitters in silicon carbide [6].

[56] D J Christle P V Klimov Charles Krisztián Szász Viktor Ivády Valdas Jokubavicius J U Hassan Mikael Syväjärvi W F Koehl Takeshi Ohshima N T Son E Janzén Á Gali D D Awschalom Isolated Spin Qubits in SiC with a High-Fidelity Infrared Spin-to-Photon Interface [15].

[57] Y Zhou Z Wang A Rasmita S Kim A Berhane Z Bodrog G Adamo A Gali I Aharonovich W Gao Room temperature solid-state quantum emitters in the telecom range [18].

[58] W Redjem A Durand T Herzig A Benali S Pezzagna J Meijer I Robert-Philip B Gil D Caliste P Pochet M Abbarchi V Jacques A Dréau G Cassabois Single artificial atoms in silicon emitting at telecom wavelengths [60].

Improvements for AI systems

Improved AI systems can perform real-time, room-temperature quantum state characterization by leveraging record-long optical coherence times exceeding 500 μs at ambient conditions. This allows for more stable and longer quantum memory operations in next-generation cryogen-free quantum technologies.
Improved AI systems can achieve scalable, CMOS-compatible fabrication workflows by utilizing the non-lithographically defined nanostructure geometries with ultrathin critical dimensions (≤5 nm) mentioned in the paper. This enables deterministic integration of single Er3+ ions into arrays of spatially-isolated single-Er3+-ion qudits embedded in silicon-based (e.g., silicon carbide (SiC) and SiCxOy) hollow nanopillars.
Improved AI systems can design optimal quantum device parameters by employing the geometry- and dosebased design blueprint that quantitatively correlates implantation dose, post-implantation processing, and nanostructure volume. This allows for the predetermined and targeted N[number] of implanted ions, including single-ion isolation, moving beyond ensemble excitation.
Improved AI systems can implement high-fidelity quantum control protocols by using upconversion-mediated pulse-sequence protocol to establish a background-free, high-efficiency optical readout pathway. This enables coherent optical control and allows for the measurement of Rabi oscillations with a frequency of 660 kHz at ambient conditions.
Improved AI systems can enable spatially resolved quantum imaging by utilizing upconversion microscopy showing a sub-diffraction background-free bright spot corresponding to an individually addressable Er3+-ion. This capability allows for the detection of single ions with "sub-diffraction resolution (<60 nm)."