English

Towards second-long electron spin coherence of a telecom quantum emitter in naturally abundant CeO$_2$

Quantum Physics 2026-05-11 v1

Abstract

Rare-earth-ion-doped crystals has emerged as a promising platform for quantum technologies, owing to their narrow telecom-band optical emission, long spin memory, and compatibility with silicon integrated photonic architectures. However, the realization of scalable quantum devices requires host materials with intrinsically dilute spin environments to suppress decoherence. In this context, erbium (Er3+^{3+}) doped cerium oxide (CeO2_2) is an attractive candidate due to the ultra-low concentration of nuclear spins in the host matrix and its compatibility with silicon-based technologies. Here we perform a comprehensive investigation of the coherence properties of Er3+^{3+} electron spin qubit in CeO2_2 via semiclassical as well as detailed cluster correlation expansion simulations. By systematically exploring magnetic field strength, pulse sequences, erbium concentration, and spin temperature, we identify regimes where decoherence from the spin bath is strongly suppressed. Our investigations illustrate that at dilute doping concentration (of the order of 10 ppb) and sub-Kelvin temperatures, operation near clock transitions enables Hahn-echo coherence times to approach the second timescale even at natural isotopic abundance. Importantly, from a practical standpoint, coherence times on the order of 10\sim 10 ms are expected even at liquid helium temperature (about 2 K) for similar concentrations. Moreover, we demonstrate that an additional enhancement can be obtained with conventional multi-π\pi-pulse dynamical decoupling protocols. Thus, our findings establish Er3+^{3+} doped CeO2_2 as a front-runner for realizing spin qubits, quantum memories, and integrated quantum networks.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2605.07332,
  title  = {Towards second-long electron spin coherence of a telecom quantum emitter in naturally abundant CeO$_2$},
  author = {Basanta Mistri and Vishal Ranjan and Siddharth Dhomkar},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.07332},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

11 pages, 7 figures