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What does it mean to send information between qubits?
“Sending information” can mean different things in a quantum processor. A link might transfer a quantum state from one system to another, distribute entanglement between distant systems, or use that entanglement to carry out a joint operation such as a remote gate. These tasks are related, but they are not interchangeable.
A quantum interconnect is the hardware and protocol that let separate quantum devices exchange quantum signals or become entangled. Unlike an ordinary data connection, it must preserve delicate quantum properties rather than merely deliver a readable copy of a bit. The 2021 PRX Quantum community review on quantum interconnects describes the challenge as moving fragile quantum information between systems without destroying it.
What physically carries the connection?
The carrier depends on the qubit technology, the distance between modules, and the surrounding hardware. Microwave signals suit superconducting circuits, while photons can travel through optical channels. Some designs use a converter at the interface between those frequency ranges.
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| Approach | What carries or enables the link | Where it fits | Main trade-offs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microwave link | Microwave fields or photons coupled to superconducting circuits | Nearby superconducting devices or processor nodes | Coupling, channel loss, wiring, thermal load, and noise |
| Microwave-to-optical transduction | A transducer converts a microwave quantum signal to an optical signal, or the reverse | Connecting microwave superconducting hardware to optical fiber | Conversion efficiency, added noise, bandwidth, and interface complexity |
| Photonic entanglement link | Photons emitted by different nodes interfere to establish remote entanglement | Separate modules and networked systems | Photon loss, entanglement-generation rate, memory lifetime, and heralding |
| Neutral-atom cavity link | Atom–photon coupling through an optical cavity and photonic channel | Proposed modular neutral-atom processors | Cavity and interface performance, channel multiplexing, and experimental maturity |
Microwave connections for superconducting qubits
Superconducting qubits interact with microwave modes in resonators and cavities. Nearby nodes can be connected by engineered microwave channels. That approach keeps the signal in the same frequency range as the qubits, but the channel, wiring, and thermal environment still need to be managed so the quantum signal is not overwhelmed by loss or noise.
Optical fiber and frequency conversion
Optical fiber is a natural carrier for links between separated locations, but superconducting qubits operate in the microwave domain. A transducer at a node can convert a microwave quantum signal into an optical one for the fiber and convert it back at the other end. As Sekine, Murakami, and Doi explain in their 2026 npj Nanophotonics review, quantum transduction—also called quantum frequency conversion—is a key technology for linking quantum processors, memories, and networks.
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NIST describes a research testbed using squeezed optical states sent over fiber and transducers at the network nodes to pursue remote microwave entanglement. It is documented research infrastructure, not evidence of a generally deployed commercial interconnect.
Photons as links between modules
A photon can act as a flying carrier while a matter qubit in each processor module retains quantum information locally. In one common design, each node emits photons that are brought together and interfered. A suitable measurement can herald that the remote nodes have become entangled: the system learns whether the attempt succeeded without needing to inspect and copy the stored quantum state.
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Connections inside a device
“Distant” does not always mean a fiber network. Some architectures can move ions between trap zones or use shared modes and local connections to link qubits within a device. Physical transport inside a processor is different from communication between remote modules, even though both solve a connectivity problem.
How can entanglement enable a remote gate?
A remote operation does not necessarily require shipping a qubit’s stored state from one processor to another. Instead, two modules can first establish a shared entangled pair, sometimes called a Bell pair. They then use local quantum operations and exchange classical bits to implement a non-local gate through quantum gate teleportation.
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- Attempt to establish entanglement. Network qubits emit photons, and measurements on the photonic signals can indicate whether the remote entanglement succeeded.
- Keep the entangled resource until it is needed. The modules retain their local qubits while the link attempts are made; this is useful when photon loss makes a successful attempt probabilistic.
- Perform local operations and send classical messages. Once the shared entanglement is available, each module acts locally and sends the required classical measurement information to the other.
- Complete the remote gate. The local operations and classical information together implement the intended interaction between qubits in separate modules.
The photonic link therefore helps create the resource for the operation; it is not necessarily a direct pipeline carrying the entire qubit state end to end. Because entanglement creation can be probabilistic, a system needs a way to identify success before relying on the shared pair.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What limits a quantum interconnect?
A link is useful only if quantum information survives the journey and the protocol can produce usable connections at a sufficient rate. No single efficiency figure captures all of that performance.
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- Loss: A photon may fail to reach or be detected at the other node, reducing successful link attempts.
- Added noise: A transducer or other interface can disturb the quantum signal while converting or coupling it.
- Conversion efficiency: The fraction of signals converted successfully matters, but it must be considered alongside added noise and bandwidth.
- Bandwidth: A link must support signals at a useful rate for its intended protocol.
- Entanglement-generation rate: A high-quality pair that takes too long to produce may not support useful distributed operation.
- Memory lifetime: The local quantum states must remain usable while modules wait for a successful link attempt and coordinate their operations.
In its 2026 survey, Sekine, Murakami, and Doi report microwave-domain transduction efficiencies above 99% for Josephson parametric converter approaches, with low quantum-regime noise. The same review surveys optical-domain nonlinear conversion experiments with efficiencies around 0.1–0.5 and notes that exceeding 0.5 remains difficult. Those figures describe approaches covered by the review, not a universal efficiency for every device or for an entire end-to-end network.
What has been demonstrated, and what remains a projection?
Two-module trapped-ion distributed computing
A 2025 Nature research report demonstrated distributed quantum computing across two trapped-ion modules separated by about 2 metres. The team generated entanglement between network qubits and used quantum gate teleportation to mediate deterministic two-qubit CZ interactions between circuit qubits. The report also describes distributed iSWAP and SWAP gates. This is evidence for that particular trapped-ion system and experiment, not proof that arbitrary commercial quantum chips can already be joined into a general-purpose network.
Neutral-atom networking estimate
A 2025 PRX Quantum perspective on nanofiber optical cavities for neutral-atom modules predicts a Bell-pair generation rate of 105 per second under its modeled conditions. That is a theoretical projection, not a measured rate from a deployed network.
These results represent different kinds of evidence: an experimental demonstration on a specific platform and a modeled performance estimate for a proposed architecture. They do not establish a single best link design across all quantum processors; the appropriate interconnect depends on the qubit modality, distance, and system requirements.
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