Direct telecom network between atomic and solid state quantum nodes

Future quantum networks will integrate disparate quantum systems to harness their individual strengths for key functionalities: namely, the reliable generation, storage, processing, and efficient distribution of quantum information. Such a network architecture requires coherent interfaces between distinct, distant nodes, and the use of telecom photons for low-loss optical fiber connectivity. Here, we realize a two-node hybrid quantum network consisting of an atomic photon source and a solid-state quantum memory. By matching their telecom photonic interfaces, we demonstrate a direct quantum interconnect—eliminating the need for quantum frequency conversion, which inevitably adds noise and loss. The source node employs four-wave mixing in a warm rubidium vapor cell to generate heralded single photons from strongly correlated photon pairs, while the memory node uses the atomic frequency comb protocol in a rare-earth ion-doped crystal to enable broadband, multimode storage of photonic qubits. Leveraging the inherent tunability of both systems, we achieve optimized spectral matching without external filtering, and demonstrate multimode single photon storage and retrieval across deployed fiber networks up to 10.6 km (metropolitan) and 49.2 km (lab-based). Our results open up the prospects of direct telecom networking between distinct matter-based quantum systems, establishing a scalable foundation for large-scale heterogeneous quantum networks.