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Large-scale quantum dot–lithium niobate hybrid integrated photonic circuits enabling on-chip quantum networking

Nature Materials volume 24, pages 1898–1905 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Hybrid integrated quantum photonics offers a scalable route to chip-based quantum networks by combining solid-state quantum dots (QDs) with low-loss and reconfigurable photonic circuits. However, limited integration scalability, spectral inhomogeneity of QD emissions and the challenge of achieving quantum interference between independent sources have impeded progress towards this goal. Here we demonstrate a hybrid lithium niobate photonic platform integrating arrays of QD-containing waveguides with 20 deterministic single-photon sources. Leveraging the piezoelectric properties of thin-film lithium niobate, we develop a circuit-compatible local strain-tuning technique that enables on-chip spectral tuning of individual QDs by up to 7.7 meV. This capability allows quantum interference with a visibility of 0.73 between two spatially separated waveguide-coupled QD single-photon sources, thereby establishing a functional on-chip quantum network. The large-scale integration of tunable and interconnected QD-based single-photon sources within low-loss lithium niobate circuits paves the way for realizing compact and scalable quantum networks on a photonic chip.

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Fig. 1: Large-scale chip-based quantum network on a hybrid photonic platform.
Fig. 2: Anisotropic strain tuning of QD emission in hybrid III–V/LN waveguides.
Fig. 3: Statistics of strain-dependent energy change of QD emission in hybrid III–V/LN waveguides.
Fig. 4: Hybrid integration of scalable spectrally tunable III–V SPSs for on-chip quantum networking.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon request.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge financial support from the National Key R&D Program of China (grant number 2022YFA1404604), the Chinese Academy of Sciences Project for Young Scientists in Basic Research (grant number YSBR-112), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 12074400, 62474168, 62293521 and 62474168), the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (grant number XDB0670303), the Autonomous Deployment Project of the State Key Laboratory of Materials for Integrated Circuits (grant number SKLJC-Z2024-B03) and the State Key Laboratory of Advanced Optical Communication Systems and Networks (grant number 2024GZKF11). We thank the ShanghaiTech Material and Device Lab for providing the nanofabrication facilities used in the preparation of GaAs photonic devices and LN integrated photonic chips.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Materials for Integrated Circuits, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China

    Xudong Wang, Xiuqi Zhang, Bowen Chen, Yifan Zhu, Yuanhao Qin, Lvbin Dong, Jiachen Cai, Dongchen Sui, Jinbo Wu, Quan Zhang, Xin Ou & Jiaxiang Zhang

  2. Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Xudong Wang, Xiuqi Zhang, Bowen Chen, Yifan Zhu, Yuanhao Qin, Lvbin Dong, Jiachen Cai, Dongchen Sui, Jinbo Wu, Quan Zhang, Xin Ou & Jiaxiang Zhang

  3. Department of Physics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Runze Liu

  4. Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and School of Physical Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China

    Yongheng Huo

  5. Shanghai Research Center for Quantum Science and CAS Center for Excellence in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Shanghai, China

    Yongheng Huo

  6. State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, School of Physics, School of Electronics and Information Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China

    Jin Liu

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Contributions

J.Z., X.O., J.L. and Y.H. conceived the idea and experiments. J.Z. and X.W. developed the hybrid quantum photonic chip based on III–V and LNOI. X.W. fabricated the hybrid photonic chip and carried out the optical measurements. X.W. and J.Z. performed the numerical calculations. R.L. and Y.H. grew the QD sample by molecular-beam epitaxy. X.W., X.Z. and Y.Q. designed and fabricated the GaAs nanophotonic waveguides. X.W. and B.C. fabricated the LNOI photonic chip in collaboration with Y.Z., J.C., L.D., J.W. and Q.Z. L.D. and Y.Q. performed the wide-field fluorescence imaging of the hybrid quantum photonic chip. J.Z. and X.O. led the project. X.W. and J.Z. wrote the paper with inputs from all authors.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yongheng Huo, Jin Liu, Xin Ou or Jiaxiang Zhang.

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Nature Materials thanks Alberto Peruzzo and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Wang, X., Zhang, X., Chen, B. et al. Large-scale quantum dot–lithium niobate hybrid integrated photonic circuits enabling on-chip quantum networking. Nat. Mater. 24, 1898–1905 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-025-02398-1

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