X-ray-generated heralded macroscopical quantum entanglement of two nuclear ensembles

Abstract

Heralded entanglement between macroscopical samples is an important resource for present quantum technology protocols, allowing quantum communication over large distances. In such protocols, optical photons are typically used as information and entanglement carriers between macroscopic quantum memories placed in remote locations. Here we investigate theoretically a new implementation which employs more robust x-ray quanta to generate heralded entanglement between two crystal-hosted macroscopical nuclear ensembles. Mössbauer nuclei in the two crystals interact collectively with an x-ray spontaneous parametric down conversion photon that generates heralded macroscopical entanglement with coherence times of approximately 100 ns at room temperature. The quantum phase between the entangled crystals can be conveniently manipulated by magnetic field rotations at the samples. The inherent long nuclear coherence times allow also for mechanical manipulations of the samples, for instance to check the stability of entanglement in the x-ray setup. Our results pave the way for first quantum communication protocols that use x-ray qubits.