Light-matter entanglement over 50 km of optical fibre

Abstract: When shared between remote locations, entanglement opens up fundamentally new capabilities for science and technology [1, 2]. Envisioned quantum networks distribute entanglement between their remote matter-based quantum nodes, in which it is stored, processed and used [1]. Pioneering experiments have shown how photons can distribute entanglement between single ions or single atoms a few ten meters apart [3, 4] and between two nitrogen-vacancy centres 1 km apart [5]. Here we report on the observation of entanglement between matter (a trapped ion) and light (a photon) over 50~km of optical fibre: a practical distance to start building large-scale quantum networks. Our methods include an efficient source of light-matter entanglement via cavity-QED techniques and a quantum photon converter to the 1550~nm telecom C band. Our methods provide a direct path to entangling remote registers of quantum-logic capable trapped-ion qubits [6 - 8], and the optical atomic clock transitions that they contain [9, 10], spaced by hundreds of kilometers.