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Quantum-enabled microwave-to-optical transduction via silicon nanomechanics

Nature Nanotechnology volume 20, pages 602–608 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

An interface between microwave and optical photons offers the potential to network remote superconducting quantum processors. To preserve fragile quantum states, a microwave-to-optical transducer must operate efficiently in the quantum-enabled regime by generating less than one photon of noise referred to its input. Here we achieve these criteria using an integrated electro-optomechanical device made from crystalline silicon. Our platform eliminates the need for heterogeneous integration with piezoelectric materials by utilizing electrostatic actuation of gigahertz-frequency nanomechanical oscillators. Leveraging the ultra-low mechanical dissipation in silicon, our microwave-to-optical transducers achieve below one photon of input-referred added noise (nadd = 0.58) under continuous-wave laser drives. This demonstration of continuous quantum-enabled microwave-to-optical transduction improves the upconversion rate by about two orders of magnitude beyond the state of the art (R = 0.47–1.9 kHz). The increased transduction rate and scalable fabrication of our devices may facilitate near-term use of transducers in distributed quantum computers and quantum networks.

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Fig. 1: Electro-optomechanical transduction in silicon.
Fig. 2: Transducer characterization.
Fig. 3: Mechanical quantum ground-state cooling.
Fig. 4: Quantum-enabled microwave-to-optical transduction.

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Data availability

The source data in the figures that support the findings of this study are available via Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14743911 (ref. 58). Other data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge S. Meesala, O. Painter, A. Safavi-Naeini, A. Bozkurt and M. Kalaee for helpful discussions. This work was supported by the ARO/LPS Cross Quantum Technology Systems programme (grant W911NF-18-1-0103), the US Department of Energy Office of Science National Quantum Information Science Research Centers (Q-NEXT, award DE-AC02-06CH11357) and the National Science Foundation (awards 2137645 and 2238058). W.D.C. gratefully acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Han Zhao, William David Chen.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Moore Laboratory of Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA

    Han Zhao, William David Chen, Abhishek Kejriwal & Mohammad Mirhosseini

  2. Institute for Quantum Information and Matter, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA

    Han Zhao, William David Chen, Abhishek Kejriwal & Mohammad Mirhosseini

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Contributions

H.Z., W.D.C. and M.M. came up with the concept and designed the experiment. H.Z., W.D.C. and A.K. worked on the fabrication of the devices. H.Z. and W.D.C. conducted the measurements and analysed the data. All authors participated in the writing of the paper. M.M. supervised the project.

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Correspondence to Mohammad Mirhosseini.

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Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 Microwave-to-optical transducer comparison.

Comparison of the transduction rate with the literature. Red dots are the measured rates of our transducer. References: Meesala, 202428; Sahu, 202229; Mirhosseini, 202024; Jiang, 202325; Brubaker, 202212, Weaver, 202327. For Refs. 25,28 (see points with asterisk), we have estimated nadd and next for operation in direct state conversion mode as detailed in supplementary section III. Shaded region denotes the quantum-enabled regime, where nadd < 1. The center points and error bars represent the best-fit value and 95% confidence interval, respectively. See supplementary section II.G and II.H for the models used to fit next. and nadd, respectively.

Extended Data Fig. 2 Measurement setup.

Acronyms: Isolator (Iso), beam splitter (BS), wavelength meter (λ-meter), optical switch (OSw), fiber polarization controller (FPC), band-pass filter (BPF), photodetector (PD), data-acquisition module (DAQ), amplitude modulator (a-m), signal generator (SG), variable optical attenuator (VOA), power meter (p-meter), circulator (Circ), device under test (DUT), phase modulator (ϕ-m), Erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA), delay line (DL), retro-reflector (RR), variable coupler (VC), high-speed photodetector (HSPD), balanced photodetector (BPD), spectrum analyzer (SA), switch (Sw), vector network analyzer (VNA), eccosorb filter (Ecco), low-pass filter (LPF), bias-tee (BT), microwave switch (MSw), high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT), room-temperature amplifier (RT amplifier).

Extended Data Fig. 3 Fridge setup.

A tuning coil is placed above the device chip to generate magnetic flux that tunes the on-chip microwave resonators. The device chip sits on a printed circuit board (PCB), with the on-chip coplanar waveguides wire-bonded to the PCB traces. The microwave lines are connected to the PCB via MMPX connectors.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–8, Discussion and Tables 1 and 2.

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Zhao, H., Chen, W.D., Kejriwal, A. et al. Quantum-enabled microwave-to-optical transduction via silicon nanomechanics. Nat. Nanotechnol. 20, 602–608 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-025-01874-8

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