English

A frequency-agile microwave-optical interface for superconducting qubits

Quantum Physics 2026-03-02 v1

Abstract

Superconducting quantum processors operate at microwave frequencies in millikelvin environments, making it challenging to interconnect distant nodes using conventional microwave wiring. Coherent microwave-to-optical (M2O) transduction enables superconducting quantum networks by interfacing itinerant microwave photons with low-loss optical fiber. However, many state-of-the-art transducers provide efficient conversion only over a narrow frequency span, complicating deployment with heterogeneous superconducting devices that are detuned by gigahertz-scale offsets. Here we demonstrate a frequency-agile microwave-optical interface that overcomes this bandwidth mismatch by cascading an electro-optic M2O transducer with a multimode microwave-to-microwave (M2M) frequency converter, with in situ tunability of the microwave resonances in both stages. Using this architecture, we realize continuous frequency coverage from 5.0 to 8.5 GHz within a single system. As an application relevant to superconducting-qubit networking, we use the cascaded M2M-M2O interface to optically read out a superconducting qubit whose readout resonator is detuned by 1.7 GHz from the native M2O microwave resonance, demonstrating a scalable route toward fiber-linked superconducting quantum nodes.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.24098,
  title  = {A frequency-agile microwave-optical interface for superconducting qubits},
  author = {Yufeng Wu and Yiyu Zhou and Haoqi Zhao and Danqing Wang and Matthew D. LaHaye and Daniel L. Campbell and Hong X. Tang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.24098},
  year   = {2026}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-01T10:55:44.717Z