Serge Haroche shares perspectives from his illustrious scientific career in physics and the evolving field of quantum photonics, in conversation with Chao-Yang Lu.

In the quest to realize a scalable quantum network, semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) offer distinct advantages, including high single-photon efficiency and indistinguishability, high repetition rate (tens of gigahertz with Purcell enhancement), interconnectivity with spin qubits, and a scalable on-chip platform. However, in the past two decades, the visibility of quantum interference between independent QDs rarely went beyond the classical limit of 50%, and the distances were limited from a few meters to kilometers. Here, we report quantum interference between two single photons from independent QDs separated by a 302 km optical fiber. The single photons are generated from resonantly driven single QDs deterministically coupled to microcavities. Quantum frequency conversions are used to eliminate the QD inhomogeneity and shift the emission wavelength to the telecommunication band. The observed interference visibility is 0.67 ± 0.02 (0.93 ± 0.04) without (with) temporal filtering. Feasible improvements can further extend the distance to ∼600 km. Our work represents a key step to long-distance solid-state quantum networks.

Guest editors Chao-Yang Lu (Univ. of Science and Technology of China) and Mario Agio (Univ. of Siegen and CNR-INO) present an Advanced Photonics collection spotlighting quantum science and technologies.