Measurement-induced long-distance entanglement of superconducting qubits using optomechanical transducers

Abstract

Although superconducting systems provide a promising platform for quantum computing, their networking poses a challenge because they cannot be interfaced to light, the medium used to send quantum signals through channels at room temperature. We show that mechanical oscillators can mediate such coupling and light can be used to measure the joint state of two distant qubits. The measurement provides information on the total spin of the two qubits such that entangled qubit states can be postselected. Entanglement generation is possible without ground-state cooling of the mechanical oscillators for systems with optomechanical cooperativity moderately larger than unity; in addition, our setup tolerates a substantial transmission loss. The approach is scalable to the generation of multipartite entanglement and represents a crucial step towards quantum networks with superconducting circuits.