
Quantum Photonics with Solids and Atoms
Prof. Dr. Hugues de Riedmatten
- Activities:
Our research program lies at the crossing between quantum information science, quantum optics and nanoscale science. In particular, we are interested in the quantum control of light matter interaction between single photons and atomic ensembles implemented with rare-earth doped solids and cold atomic gases. The goal of the research is to develop the physical resources to implement quantum information networks and quantum repeaters which are required to increase the maximal distance of quantum communication. A more fundamental goal is to enable the observation of fascinating quantum effects, such as entanglement, with distant material systems and to explore and extend the limits of quantum coherence in complex material systems.
- Position(s) Available:
- Post-doctoral position in experimental quantum optics with solid-state quantum memories
- Post-doctoral position in hybrid quantum nodes for quantum networks
- Post-doctoral position in Quantum Networks with Solid-State Quantum Memories
- Research Topics:
- Solid State Quantum Memories
- Quantum Frequency Conversion And Hybrid Quantum Networks
- Quantum Light Sources Compatible With Solid State Quantum Memories
- Quantum Nodes With Laser Cooled Atomic Ensembles
- Quantum Non-Linear Optics At The Single Photon Level With Cold Rydberg Atoms
- Quantum Processing Nodes With Single Ions In Solid-State
- Links:
- Group homepage
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Quantum Photonics with Solids and Atoms
Prof. Dr. Hugues de Riedmatten


- Group Leader
- Prof. Dr. Hugues de Riedmatten
- Postdoctoral Researchers
- Dr. Samuele Grandi
- Dr. Alessandro Seri
- Dr. Klara Theophilo
- Research Engineers
- Sören Wengerowsky
- PhD Students
- Eduardo Beattie
- Chetan Deshmukh
- Stefano Duranti
- Lukas Heller
- Darío Lago Rivera
- Jan Lowinski
- Maria Auxiliadora Padron Brito
- Jelena Rakonjac
- Former Group Members
- Boris Albrecht, PhD student
- Matteo Cristiani, Research fellow
- Emanuele Distante, PhD student
- Pau Farrera, PhD student
- Julia Fekete, Postdoctoral researcher
- Mustafa Gündogan, PhD student
- Georg Heinze, Postdoctoral researcher
- Kutlu Kutluer, PhD student
- Patrick Ledingham, Postdoctoral researcher
- Andreas Lenhard, Postdoctoral researcher
- Nicolas Maring, PhD student
- Margherita Mazzera, Research fellow
- David Paredes, Postdoctoral researcher
- Daniel Rieländer, PhD student
- Alessando Seri, PhD student
Quantum Photonics with Solids and Atoms
Prof. Dr. Hugues de Riedmatten

- Regular Papers
- Fast electrical modulation of strong near-field interactions between erbium emitters and graphene Nature Commun. 11, 4094 (2020)
- Cold-atom temporally multiplexed quantum memory with cavity-enhanced noise suppression Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 210504 (2020)
- Coherent optical and spin spectroscopy of nanoscale Pr3+ : Y2O3 Phys. Rev. B 100, 144304 (2019)
- Quantum storage of frequency-multiplexed heralded single photons Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 080502 (2019)
- Time entanglement between a photon and a spin wave in a multimode solid-state quantum memory Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 030501 (2019)
- Cavity-enhanced spectroscopy of a few-ion ensemble in Eu3+:Y2O3 New J. Phys. 20, 095006 (2018)
- Laser-written integrated platform for quantum storage of heralded single photons Optica 5, 934 (2018)
- Challenging local realism with human choices Nature 557, 212-216 (2018)
- Quantum frequency conversion of memory-compatible single photons from 606 nm to the telecom C-band Optica 5, 507-513 (2018)
- Entanglement between a photonic time-bin qubit and a collective atomic spin excitation Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 100501 (2018)
- Frequency-bin entanglement of ultra-narrow band non-degenerate photon pairs Quantum Sci. Technol. 3, 014007 (2018)
- Photonic quantum state transfer between a cold atomic gas and a crystal Nature 551, 485-488 (2017)
- Quantum correlations between single telecom photons and a multimode on-demand solid state quantum memory Phys. Rev. X 6, 021028 (2017)
- Solid-state source of nonclassical photon pairs with embedded multimode quantum memory Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 230402 (2017)
- Storing single photons emitted by a quantum memory on a highly excited Rydberg state Nature Commun. 8, 14072 (2017)
- Cavity enhanced telecom heralded single photons for spin-wave solid state quantum memories New J. Phys. 18, 123008 (2016)
- Generation of single photons with highly tunable wave shape from a cold atomic ensemble Nature Commun. 7, 13556 (2016)
- Storage enhanced nonlinearities in a cold atomic Rydberg ensemble Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 113001 (2016)
- Nonclassical correlations between a C-band telecom photon and a stored spin-wave Optica 3, 1019-1024 (2016)
- Integrated optical memory based on laser-written waveguides Phys. Rev. Applied 5, 054013 (2016)
- Spectral-hole memory for light at the single-photon level Phys. Rev. A 93, 040302(R) (2016)
- Quantum memory for photons Phys. Today 68, 42 (2015)
- Controlled rephasing of single collective spin excitations in a cold atomic quantum memory Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 160501 (2015)
- Solid state spin-wave quantum memory for time-bin qubits Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 230501 (2015)
- Electrical control of optical emitter relaxation pathways enabled by graphene Nature Phys. 11, 281-287 (2015)
- Storage of up-converted telecom photons in a doped crystal New J. Phys. 16, 113021 (2014)
- A waveguide frequency converter connecting rubidium-based quantum memories to the telecom C-band Nature Commun. 5, 3376 (2014)
- Quantum storage of heralded single photons in a praseodymium-doped crystal Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 040504 (2014)
- Prospective applications of optical quantum memories J. Mod. Opt. 60, 1519-1537 (2013)
- Quantum frequency conversion of quantum memory compatible photons to telecommunication wavelengths Opt. Express 21, 19473-19487 (2013)
- A long-term memory for light Physics 6, 80 (2013)
- Ultranarrow-band photon-pair source compatible with solid state quantum memories and telecommunication networks Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 220502 (2013) Highlighted in Physics
- Coherent storage of temporally multimode light using a spin-wave atomic frequency comb memory New J. Phys. 15, 045012 (2013)
- Quantum storage of a photonic polarization qubit in a solid
Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 190504 (2012)
Highlighted in Physics
Highlighted in Physics World - Spectroscopic investigations of europium doped yttrium silicate for quantum memory applications Phys. Rev. B 85, 115111 (2012)
- Quantum repeaters based on heralded qubit amplifiers Phys. Rev. A 85, 032313 (2012)
- Photon-pair source with controllable delay based on shaped inhomogeneous broadening Phys. Rev. A 83, 053840 (2011)
- Quantum repeaters based on atomic ensembles and linear optics Rev. Mod. Phys. 83, 33-80 (2011)
- Precision requirements for spin-echo-based quantum memories Phys. Rev. A 83, 032315 (2011)
- Quantum storage of photonic entanglement in a crystal Nature 469, 508–511 (2011) Highlighted in Nature
- Proceedings & Book Chapter
- Quantum light storage in solid state atomic ensembles Engineering the atom-photon interaction (Springer, 2015)
- PhD Theses
- A multimode solid-state quantum memory for single photons
- Quantum frecuency conversion for hybrid quantum networks
- A versatile source of light-matter quantum states based on laser-cooled atoms
- Quantum frequency conversion for hybrid quantum networks
- Quantum memory protocols for solid-state devices
- A Quantum light-matter interface with Rydberg polaritons in a cold atomic ensemble
- Quantum light source compatible with solid-state quantum memories and telecom networks
- Quantum control of single spin excitations in cold atomic quantum memories
- Solid-state quantum memory for photonic qubits
Quantum Photonics with Solids and Atoms
Prof. Dr. Hugues de Riedmatten

- 2020-10-20 QuantumCAT: Accelerating the application of quantum technologies A consortium of research institutes, led by ICFO, and industry partners in Catalonia join forces to develop the Quantum Technologies Hub.
- 2020-10-07 Kick-off of DAALI An international team of researchers from ICFO, CNRS, Sorbonne University, MuQuans, Humboldt University and Weizmann Institute of Science come together to work on new protocols and platforms for quantum atom-light interfaces.
- 2020-01-27 Graphene, Quantum, and the Brain: Put them together and what do you get? Deep Tech EU at MWC Barcelona The most ambitious EU research initiatives showcase innovations at Deep Tech EU in MWC Barcelona.
- 2020-01-02 2018 ICFO PhD Thesis Award 3 ICFO PhD graduates awarded for creative and ambitious research progress
- 2019-08-29 Quantum Memories make their way A team of ICFO researchers reports in Physical Review Letters two studies on new advancements in the field of quantum memories and repeaters.
- 2019-07-03 Congratulations to New ICFO PhD graduate Dr. Alessandro Seri graduated with a thesis entitled “A Multimode Solid-State Quantum Memory for Single Photons”
- 2019-06-14 The Quantum Communications Infrastructure Declaration The European Commission signs the declaration with member states.
- 2019-05-13 The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation awards ICFO’s frontier research on Quantum Science Dr Hugues de Riedmatten receives $1.1M grant to link quantum nodes for the quantum internet
- 2019-03-01 Graphene and Quantum Technologies team up at the Mobile World Congress 2019 The Graphene and Quantum Flagships exhibit technologies and present the initiatives at the world’s largest telecommunication event.
- 2018-09-13 Congratulations to New ICFO PhD graduate Dr. Nicolas Maring graduated with a thesis in “Quantum Frequency Conversion for Hybrid Quantum Networks”
- 2018-08-23 Quantum Storages on Optica cover An ICFO and IFN-CNR study on quantum storage makes it to the cover of OSA’s Optica August 2018 issue.
- 2018-07-26 Congratulations to New ICFO PhD graduate Dr. Pau Farrera graduated with a thesis in “A versatile source of light-matter quantum states based on laser-cooled atoms”
- 2018-07-20 Seminar SARAH THOMAS \'Broadband single-mode quantum memories\'
SARAH THOMAS
University of Oxford
- 2018-05-10 The BIG Bell Test in Nature Global physics experiment challenges Einstein with the help of 100,000 volunteers.
- 2018-04-10 Vanguard Award for Science Hugues de Riedmatten’s work on the first hybrid quantum information network 2nd most voted.
- 2018-02-02 2017 City of Barcelona Awards
- 2017-11-23 Quantum Internet goes Hybrid ICFO researchers report the first demonstration of an elementary link of a hybrid quantum information network, using a cold atomic cloud and a doped crystal as quantum nodes and single photons as information carriers.
- 2017-10-23 Congratulations to New ICFO PhD graduate Dr. Kutlu Kutluer graduated with a thesis in “Quantum Memory Protocols for Photonic Solid-State Devices”.
- 2017-06-21 The Secretary of Telecommunications, Cybersecurity and Digital Society of the Government of Catalonia visits ICFO As part of the initiative smartCAT, the visit aimed to show the current status of research in quantum technologies at ICFO.
- 2017-05-31 Single spin waves in a crystal highlighted in Physics ICFO researchers report simultaneously two studies that demonstrate the creation of quantum correlations between single photons and single spin waves in a crystal.
- 2017-03-24 Congratulations to New ICFO PhD graduate Dr. Emanuele Distante graduated with a thesis in “A Quantum Light-Matter Interface with Rydberg Polaritons in a Cold Atomic Ensamble”
- 2017-01-23 Correlated single photon stored in highly non-linear medium An ICFO study in Nature Communications reports on the storage of a correlated single photon emitted by a quantum memory in a highly excited Rydberg medium.
- 2016-11-28 Tailoring single photons waveshapes A source of syncronizable single photons with an arbitrary waveshape in Nature Communications
- 2016-11-24 Congratulations to New ICFO PhD graduate Dr. Daniel Rieländer graduated with a thesis in ‘Quantum Light Source Compatible with Solid-State Quantum Memories and Telecom Networks’
- 2016-07-04 Carl Zeiss Award for Young Researchers ICFO Postdoc Georg Heinze honoured
- 2015-12-23 Quantum Memories in Physics Today APS\' specialized magazine dedicates a piece on Quantum Memories and their importance in the world of quantum information networks.
- 2015-12-01 Congratulations to New ICFO PhD graduate Dr. Boris Albrecht graduated with a thesis in ‘Quantum control of single spin excitations in cold atomic quantum memories‘
- 2015-12-01 PhD Thesis Defense
BORIS ALBRECHT \'Quantum control of single spin excitations in cold atomic quantum memories\' BORIS ALBRECHT
Quantum Photonics with Solids and Atoms
ICFO-The Institute of Photonic Sciences, SPAIN - 2015-10-22 Congratulations to New ICFO PhD graduate Dr. Mustafa Gündoğan graduated with a thesis in ‘Solid-State Quantum Memory for Photonic Qubits ‘
- 2015-10-22 PhD Thesis Defense
MUSTAFA GUNDOGAN \'Solid-State Quantum Memory for Photonic Qubits\' MUSTAFA GUNDOGAN
Quantum Photonics with Solids and Atoms
ICFO-The Institute of Photonic Sciences - 2015-01-20 Graphene enables all-electrical control of energy flow from light emitters First signatures of graphene plasmons at telecommunications wavelength revealed
- 2014-09-17 Max Planck-Prince of Asturias Award Mobility Grants Three ICFO researchers awarded prestigious grant.
- 2014-03-04 Quantum Frequency Conversion for Quantum Memories A solid state quantum interface linking quantum memories to the telecommunication network in Nature Communications.
- 2013-07-22 Viewpoints in APS Physics Prof. Hugues de Riedmatten offers perspective on a long-term memory of light.
- 2013-05-30 A Photon Pair Source for Quantum Repeaters Physics highlights the demonstration of a novel quantum light source for solid state quantum memories by ICFO researchers.
- 2012-05-14 Solid State Quantum Storage for Polarization Qubits Physics highlights the first demonstration of a crystal quantum memory for polarization qubits by the group led by Hugues de Riedmatten.
- 2011-09-18 ERC Starting Grants to Hugues de Riedmatten and Morgan Mitchell The grants fund projects in quantum light matter interfaces and quantum metrology.
- 2011-05-19 QI Processing in Rare-Earth Doped Solids The 6th edition of the meeting was organized by Hugues de Riedmatten’s group on May 12-13, 2011.
- 2011-04-11 Quantum Repeaters Hugues de Riedmatten coauthors a review paper on quantum repeaters in Reviews of Modern Physics.
- 2011-01-19 Entangled Photon Stored in a Solid Prof. Hugues de Riedmatten co-authors a paper in Nature reporting the first demonstration of storage of an entangled photon onto a solid.