Quantum information processing, communication, and sensing networks are being developed with various qubit platforms that use different encoding schemes. Connecting quantum network nodes to distribute entanglement requires matching photon qubit basis encoding. In this work, we implement an interconversion protocol which converts photon qubit encoding from the polarization basis to the time-bin basis, transmits the photons through a transport fiber with large fluctuations in polarization, and converts back to polarization encoding for ease of measurement. This interconversion scheme faithfully transmits a polarization Bell state across the transport fiber by converting sources of infidelity to changes in transmission rate. These results illustrate a practical approach for interfacing distinct qubit platforms to enable modular and flexible operation in heterogeneous quantum networks.
@article{arxiv.2604.02081,
title = {Photonic qubit encoding interconversion for heterogeneous quantum networking},
author = {Vedansh Nehra and Richard J. Birrittella and Christopher C. Tison and Benjamin K. Malia and Zachary S. Smith and Dylan Heberle and Nicholas J. Barton and Amos Matthew Smith and Andrew Brownell and Michael L. Fanto and James Schneeloch and Erin Sheridan and David Hucul},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.02081},
year = {2026}
}