Sub-femtosecond stabilization of multicore fiber for high-fidelity quantum networking at 100% duty cycle

Originally envisioned as a solution for the capacity crunch in telecommunications networks, multicore fibers (MCF) are contributing to scientific fields beyond telecom, such as sensing and metrology. Confined within the same cladding, the cores of MCF have a high degree of noise correlation which can be harnessed for a variety of applications. Here, we investigate MCF as a solution to the challenging problem of quantum and classical light co-existence in quantum networks by operating the quantum and stabilization light in separate but highly correlated cores of a 7-core MCF. Over 40 km of spooled fiber, we achieved 100 attosecond integrated jitter on one core by using phase information derived from another core. This allows for 100% duty cycle on a quantum channel while maintaining a low spurious photon rate from crosstalk between stabilization and quantum channels. With cycle-slip-free stabilization over 6 hours, frequency detuning between designated stabilization and quantum channels, and an additional 40 dB rejection of noise photons provided by the low optical crosstalk between cores, we achieved a Raman scattering-induced spurious photon rate of only 0.01 photons/s in 100 GHz bandwidth. Our results with MCF are a promising approach to ultra-stable quantum networks with 100% duty cycle on the quantum channel.