Quantum information processing holds the promise of enhanced security, advanced information processing, long-distance communication capabilities, and improved data privacy for the future of networking and communications technologies.

Efficient, scalable sources of single photons that can be directly integrated with optical fiber networks and quantum memories is an essential component of quantum networking and communications. Researchers in Mikhail Lukin's lab at Harvard have introduced a deterministic source of shaped single-photon pulses with high efficiency and purity, achieved using a silicon-vacancy center in a directional fiber-integrated diamond nanophotonic cavity. This source can consecutively produce up to 11 single photons and, when combined with spin-photon entangling gates, enables the creation of correlated photon streams like cluster states. This technology holds promise for quantum communication and information processing applications by providing a versatile single-photon source that can be integrated with quantum memories for quantum networking tasks.

This work was described in Physical Review Letters.