Recently, quantum networks have emerged as a focal point of research and discussion due to their promise in overcoming the limitations of classical networks, offering unparalleled capabilities in secure communication, quantum computation, and distributed quantum information processing. Simply speaking, a quantum network is a network in which the nodes are capable of storing and processing quantum information and communicate via quantum channels. Unlike classical computers and networks, in which components at nodes and the interconnections between them are mostly made of electronics circuits, there is not a homogeneous system for all the applications in a quantum network. This in particular, increases the need for implementation of heterogeneous quantum systems. An important milestone in the development of hybrid quantum networks are the interconnections between different components at the nodes, which serve as quantum channels. A quantumchannel is an interconnection between two quantum systems that can route carriers of quantum information, while preserving their coherence over the routing process. Finding such a channel, with carriers having the ability to couple to different quantum systems is not trivial. Although quanta of mechanical vibrations - known as "phonons" - have shown great potential for this task, as they can couple to many different types of quantumsystems. The aim of this thesis is to design an integrated platform using highly confined GHz phonons, with scalability as a primary consideration. This platform serves as an on-chip phononic quantum channel, enabling the ability to perform on-chip operations directly on single phonons on a chip. Moreover, the designed structures in this thesis are advantageous for advanced quantum acoustics experiments and pave the way towards having full coherent control on phonons on a chip.@en

Distributing quantum entanglement on a chip is a crucial step toward realizing scalable quantum processors. Using traveling phonons-quantized guided mechanical wave packets-as a medium to transmit quantum states is now gaining substantial attention due to their small size and low propagation speed compared to other carriers, such as electrons or photons. Moreover, phonons are highly promising candidates to connect heterogeneous quantum systems on a chip, such as microwave and optical photons for long-distance transmission of quantum states via optical fibers. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the feasibility of distributing quantum information using phonons by realizing quantum entanglement between two traveling phonons and creating a time-bin-encoded traveling phononic qubit. The mechanical quantum state is generated in an optomechanical cavity and then launched into a phononic waveguide in which it propagates for around 200 micrometers. We further show how the phononic, together with a photonic qubit, can be used to violate a Bell-type inequality.

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The ability to create, manipulate and detect non-classical states of light has been key for many recent achievements in quantum physics and for developing quantum technologies. Achieving the same level of control over phonons, the quanta of vibrations, could have a similar impact, in particular on the fields of quantum sensing and quantum information processing. Here we present a crucial step towards this level of control and realize a single-mode waveguide for individual phonons in a suspended silicon microstructure. We use a cavity–waveguide architecture, where the cavity is used as a source and detector for the mechanical excitations while the waveguide has a free-standing end to reflect the phonons. This enables us to observe multiple round trips of phonons between the source and the reflector. The long mechanical lifetime of almost 100 μs demonstrates the possibility of nearly lossless transmission of single phonons over, in principle, tens of centimetres. Our experiment demonstrates full on-chip control over travelling single phonons strongly confined in the directions transverse to the propagation axis, potentially enabling a time-encoded multimode quantum memory at telecommunications wavelength and advanced quantum acoustics experiments.

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