Spin-Photon Entanglement of a Single Er3+ Ion in the Telecom Band

Entanglement between photons and a quantum memory is a key component of quantum repeaters, which allow long-distance quantum entanglement distribution in the presence of fiber losses. Spin-photon entanglement has been implemented with a number of different atomic and solid-state qubits with long spin coherence times, but none directly emit photons into the 1.5−μm telecom band where losses in optical fibers are minimized. Here, we demonstrate spin-photon entanglement using a single rare earth ion in the solid-state Er3+ coupled to a silicon nanophotonic cavity, which directly emits photons at 1532.6 nm. We infer an entanglement fidelity of 73(3)% after propagating through 15.6 km of optical fiber. This work opens the door to large-scale quantum networks based Er3+ ions, leveraging scalable silicon device fabrication and spectral multiplexing. Published by the American Physical Society 2025