Exchanging light pulses to perform accurate space-time positioning is a paradigmatic issue of physics. It is ultimately limited by the quantum nature of light, which introduces fluctuations in the optical measurements and leads to the so-called Standard Quantum Limit (SQL). We propose a new scheme combining homodyne detection and mode-locked femtosecond lasers that lead to a new SQL in time transfer, potentially reaching the yoctosecond range (10^-21-10^-24 s). We prove that no other measurement strategy can lead to better sensitivity with shot noise limited light. We then demonstrate that this already very low SQL can be overcome using appropriately multimode squeezed light. Benefitting from the large number of photons used in the experiment and from the optimal choice of both the detection strategy and of the quantum resource, the proposed scheme represents a significant potential improvement in space-time positioning.
We present an algorithm to detect the time and frequency difference of independent clocks based on observation of time-correlated photon pairs. This enables remote coincidence identification in entanglement-based quantum key distribution schemes without dedicated coincidence hardware, pulsed sources with a timing structure or very stable reference clocks. We discuss the method for typical operating conditions, and show that the requirement in reference clock accuracy can be relaxed by about 5 orders of magnitude in comparison with previous schemes.
Recently, we have shown how the phase of an electromagnetic field can be determined by measuring the population of either of the two states of a two-level atomic system excited by this field, via the so-called Bloch-Siegert oscillation resulting from the interference between the co- and counter-rotating excitations. Here, we show how a degenerate entanglement, created without transmitting any timing signal, can be used to teleport this phase information. This phase-teleportation process may be applied to achieve absolute phase-mapping of remote clocks.
Recently, we have shown how the phase of an electromagnetic field can be determined by measuring the population of either of the two states of a two-level atomic system excited by this field, via the so-called Bloch-Siegert oscillation resulting from the interference between the co- and counter-rotating excitations. Here, we show how a degenerate entanglement, created without transmitting any timing signal, can be used to teleport this phase information. This phase-teleportation process may be applied to achieve frequency-locking of remote oscillators, thereby facilitating the process of synch…
We propose a quantum method to judge whether two spatially separated clocks have been synchronized within a specific accuracy $σ$. If the measurement result of the experiment is obviously a nonzero value, the time difference between two clocks is smaller than $σ$; otherwise the difference is beyond $σ$. On sharing the 2$N$-qubit bipartite maximally entangled state in this scheme, the accuracy of judgement can be enhanced to $σ\simπ/{(ω(N+1))}$. This criterion is consistent with Heisenberg scaling that can be considered as beating standard quantum limit, moreover, the unbiased estimation condit…
We propose an approach for collective enhancement of precision for remotely located optical lattice clocks and a way of generation of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen state of remote clocks. Close to Heisenberg scaling of the clock precision with the number of clocks M can be achieved even for an optical channel connecting clocks with substantial losses. This scenario utilizes a collective quantum nondemolition measurement on clocks with parallel Bloch vectors for enhanced measurement precision. We provide an optimal network solution for distant clocks as well as for clocks positioned in close prox…
A major outstanding problem for many quantum clock synchronization protocols is the hidden assumption of the availability of synchronized clocks within the protocol. In general, quantum operations between two parties do not have consistent phase definitions of quantum states, which introduce an unknown systematic phase error. We show that despite prior arguments to the contrary, it is possible to remove this unknown phase via entanglement purification. This closes the loophole for entanglement based quantum clock synchronization protocols, which are most compatible with current photon based lo…
Recently a protocol for Quantum Clock Synchronization (QCS) of remote clocks using quantum entanglement was proposed by Jozsa et al. This method has the goal of eliminating the random noise present in classical synchronization techniques. However, as stated QCS depends on the two members of each entangled pair undergoing the same unitary evolution even while being transported to different locations. This is essentially equivalent to a perfect Eddington Slow Clock Transfer protocol and thus, not an improvement over classical techniques. We will discuss this and suggest ways in which QCS may sti…
Quantum communication and clock synchronization protocols can be significantly enhanced by the careful preparation of the wavepackets of the produced photons. Following the theoretical proposal published in [Optica, 4, 84 (2017)], we experimentally demonstrate the effect of a remote temporal wavepacket narrowing of a heralded single photon. It is performed by utilizing the time-resolved measurement on the heralding photon which is frequency entangled with the heralded one. We also investigate optimal photon pair source characteristics that minimize the heralded wavepacket width.
Recent work has raised the possibility that quantum information theory techniques can be used to synchronize atomic clocks nonlocally. One of the proposed algorithms for quantum clock synchronization (QCS) requires distribution of entangled pure singlets to the synchronizing parties. Such remote entanglement distribution normally creates a relative phase error in the distributed singlet state which then needs to be purified asynchronously. We present a fully relativistic analysis of the QCS protocol which shows that asynchronous entanglement purification is not possible, and, therefore, that t…
We demonstrate a probabilistic entangling quantum gate between two distant trapped ytterbium ions. The gate is implemented between the hyperfine "clock" state atomic qubits and mediated by the interference of two emitted photons carrying frequency encoded qubits. Heralded by the coincidence detection of these two photons, the gate has an average fidelity of 90+-2%. This entangling gate together with single qubit operations is sufficient to generate large entangled cluster states for scalable quantum computing.
In this contribution, a generalized protocol of quantum teleportation is suggested to investigate the possibility of remotely transfer unknown multiparities entangled coherent state. A theoretical technique is introduced to generate maximum entangled coherent states which are used as quantum channels. We show that the mean photon number plays a central role on the fidelity of the transferred information. The noise parameter can be considered as a control parameter only for small values of the mean photon number.
We present a perfect state transfer protocol via a qubit chain with the evolution governed by the $xx$ Hamiltonian. In contrast to the recent protocol announced in [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 101}, 230502 (2008)], our method does not demand any remote-cooperated initialization and sending classical information about measurement outcomes. We achieve the perfect state transfer only with the assumption of access to two spins at each end of the chain, while the initial state of the whole chain is irrelevant.
The development of precise atomic clocks has led to many scientific and technological advances that play an increasingly important role in modern society. Shared timing information constitutes a key resource for positioning and navigation with a direct correspondence between timing accuracy and precision in applications such as the Global Positioning System (GPS). By combining precision metrology and quantum networks, we propose here a quantum, cooperative protocol for the operation of a network consisting of geographically remote optical atomic clocks. Using non-local entangled states, we dem…
We present a novel quantum clock synchronization(QCS) scheme of multiple parties which uses operation as the trigger to start the evolution of the initial state, where existing QCS protocols use measurement to start the evolution. Since the trigger is the unitary operation, we have protected entanglement of remote nodes, and after concentration of the qubits to the center node, general measurements of the total state is possible. We show that our protocol links the QCS problem to a multiple phase estimation problem. We use the Fisher information to give the precision of the synchronization, an…
Modular quantum computing architectures require fast and efficient distribution of quantum information through propagating signals. Here we report rapid, on-demand quantum state transfer between two remote superconducting cavity quantum memories through traveling microwave photons. We demonstrate a quantum communication channel by deterministic transfer of quantum bits with 76% fidelity. Heralding on errors induced by experimental imperfection can improve this to 87% with a success probability of 0.87. By partial transfer of a microwave photon, we generate remote entanglement at a rate that ex…
We report a cascaded optical link of 1100 km for ultra-stable frequency distribution over an Internet fiber network. The link is composed of four spans for which the propagation noise is actively compensated. The robustness and the performance of the link are ensured by five fully automated optoelectronic stations, two of them at the link ends, and three deployed on the field and connecting the spans. This device coherently regenerates the optical signal with the heterodyne optical phase locking of a low-noise laser diode. Optical detection of the beat-note signals for the laser lock and the l…
We show that a quantum clock cannot be teleported without prior synchronization between sender and receiver: every protocol using a finite amount of entanglement and an arbitrary number of rounds of classical communication will necessarily introduce an error in the teleported state of the clock. Nevertheless, we show that entanglement can be used to achieve synchronization with precision higher than any classical correlation allows, and we give the optimized strategy for this task. The same results hold also for arbitrary continuous quantum reference frames, which encode general unspeakable in…
Remote entanglement generation via enhanced quantum state transfer
University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学）；Suzhou Institute for Advanced Research, University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学苏州高等研究院）
We propose a quantum clock synchronization protocol in which Bob makes a remote measurement on Alice's quantum clock via a third qubit acting as its proxy. It is shown that the resulting correlations are dependent on the choice of the hypersurface along which Bob's measurement of the proxy is deemed to collapse the entangled state vector. A proper characterization of observables in relativistic quantum mechanics is therefore constrained by relativistic covariance as well as causality.
There has been much recent study on the application of spin chains to quantum state transfer and communication. Here we demonstrate that spin chains set up for perfect quantum state transfer can be utilised to generate remote quantum gates, between spin qubits injected at the ends of the chain. The natural evolution of the system across different excitation number sectors generates a maximally-entangling and universal gate between the injected qubits, independent of the length of the chain.
Phonons, and in particular surface acoustic wave phonons, have been proposed as a means to coherently couple distant solid-state quantum systems. Recent experiments have shown that superconducting qubits can control and detect individual phonons in a resonant structure, enabling the coherent generation and measurement of complex stationary phonon states. Here, we report the deterministic emission and capture of itinerant surface acoustic wave phonons, enabling the quantum entanglement of two superconducting qubits. Using a 2 mm-long acoustic quantum communication channel, equivalent to a 500 n…
Single qubit rotation gate and the controlled-NOT (CNOT) gate constitute a complete set of gates for universal quantum computation. In general the CNOT gate are only for two nearby qubits. For two qubits which are remote from each other, we need a series of swap gates to transfer these two qubits to the nearest neighboring sites, and then after the CNOT gate we should transfer them to their original sites again. However, a series of swap gates are resource for quantum information processing. One economy way which does not consume so much resource is to implement CNOT gate remotely. The remote …
We report the first realization of large momentum transfer (LMT) clock atom interferometry. Using single-photon interactions on the strontium ${}^1S_0 - {}^3P_1$ transition, we demonstrate Mach-Zehnder interferometers with state-of-the-art momentum separation of up to $141\,\hbar k$ and gradiometers of up to $81\,\hbar k$. Moreover, we circumvent excited state decay limitations and extend the gradiometer duration to 50 times the excited state lifetime. Because of the broad velocity acceptance of the interferometry pulses, all experiments are performed with laser-cooled atoms at a temperature o…
A system consisting of two single-mode cavities spatially separated and connected by an optical fiber and multiple two-level atoms trapped in the cavities is considered. If the atoms resonantly and collectively interact with the local cavity fields but there is no direct interaction between the atoms, we show that an ideal quantum state transfer and highly reliable quantum swap, entangling, and controlled-Z gates can be deterministically realized between the distant cavities. We find that the operation of state transfer and swap, entangling, and controlled-Z gates can be greatly speeded up as …
Effective quantum communication between remote quantum nodes requires high fidelity quantum state transfer and remote entanglement generation. Recent experiments have demonstrated that microwave photons, as well as phonons, can be used to couple superconducting qubits, with a fidelity limited primarily by loss in the communication channel. Adiabatic protocols can overcome channel loss by transferring quantum states without populating the lossy communication channel. Here we present a unique superconducting quantum communication system, comprising two superconducting qubits connected by a 0.73 …
Atom interferometry on optical clock transitions is being pursued for numerous long-baseline experiments both terrestrially and for future space missions. Crucial to meeting these experiments' required sensitivities is the implementation of large momentum transfer ($>$10$^3\hbar k$). Here we show that to sequentially apply such a large momentum via $π$ pulses places stringent requirements on the frequency noise of the interferometry laser, finding that the linewidth is required to be considerably lower than has previously been suggested. This is due to imperfect pulse fidelity in the presence …
High-precision nonlocal temporal correlation identification in the entangled photon pairs is critical to measure the time offset between remote independent time scales for many quantum information applications. The first nonlocal correlation identification was reported in 2009, which extracts the time offset via the algorithm of iterative fast Fourier transformations (FFTs) and their inverse. The least identification resolution is restricted by the peak identification threshold of the algorithm, and thus the time offset calculation precision is limited. In this paper, an improvement for the id…
Large-scale quantum networks promise to enable secure communication, distributed quantum computing, enhanced sensing and fundamental tests of quantum mechanics through the distribution of entanglement across nodes. Moving beyond current two-node networks requires the rate of entanglement generation between nodes to exceed their decoherence rates. Beyond this critical threshold, intrinsically probabilistic entangling protocols can be subsumed into a powerful building block that deterministically provides remote entangled links at pre-specified times. Here we surpass this threshold using diamond…
Herein, we present a feasible, general protocol for quantum communication within a network via generalized remote preparation of an arbitrary $m$-qubit entangled state designed with genuine tripartite Greenberger--Horne--Zeilinger-type entangled resources. During the implementations, we construct novel collective unitary operations; these operations are tasked with performing the necessary phase transfers during remote state preparations. We have distilled our implementation methods into a five-step procedure, which can be used to faithfully recover the desired state during transfer. Compared …
We introduce a quantum thermodynamic system that can operate as a thermal clock in analogy with the thermal clock first introduced by Ernst Mach in which the temperature difference between cooling bodies in contact can be used as a kind of relational time. Our model is based on an optomechanical system in which photons are transferred irreversibly between two cavities due to the modulation of the cavity cooling rate by a mechanical system coupled to a heat bath. We contrast the ensemble average view with a single system view using the theory of continuous measurement and we show that, by makin…
We report observations of entanglement of two remote atomic qubits, achieved by generating an entangled state of an atomic qubit and a single photon at Site A, transmitting the photon to Site B in an adjacent laboratory through an optical fiber, and converting the photon into an atomic qubit. Entanglement of the two remote atomic qubits is inferred by performing, locally, quantum state transfer of each of the atomic qubits onto a photonic qubit and subsequent measurement of polarization correlations in violation of the Bell inequality |S| <2. We experimentally determine S =2.16 +/- 0.03. Entan…
We propose a protocol for quantum networking based on deterministic quantum state transfer between distant memory nodes using photon-number superposition states (PNSS). In the suggested scheme, the quantum nodes are single atoms confined in high-finesse optical cavities linked by photonic channels. The quantum information written in a superposition of atomic Zeeman states of sending system is faithfully mapped through cavity-assisted Raman scattering onto PNSS of linearly polarized cavity photons. The photons travel to the receiving cavity, where they are coherently absorbed with unit probabil…
Transferring quantum information between distant nodes of a network is a key capability. This transfer can be realized via remote state preparation where two parties share entanglement and the sender has full knowledge of the state to be communicated. Here we demonstrate such a process between heterogeneous nodes functioning with different information encodings, i.e., particle-like discrete-variable optical qubits and wave-like continuous-variable ones. Using hybrid entanglement of light as a shared resource, we prepare arbitrary coherent-state superpositions controlled by measurements on the …
Quantum information and communication processing within quantum networks usually employs identical particles. Despite this, the physical role of quantum statistical nature of particles in large-scale networks remains elusive. Here, we show that just the indistinguishability of fermions makes it possible a new mechanism of entanglement transfer in many-node quantum networks. This process activates remote entanglement among distant sites, which do not share a common past, by only locally counting identical particles and classical communication. These results constitute the key achievement of the…
The main challenge in deterministic quantum state transfer in long-distance quantum communications is the transmission losses in the communication channel. To overcome this limitation, here we use the adiabatic theorem and find a lossless evolution path between two remote mechanical modes. By adiabatic variation of the effective coupling strengths between the two nodes and the intermediate optical channel modes, we engineer a transmission path for the quantum state transfer that is decoupled from the decaying fiber modes. Using our proposed method we show that one obtains a quantum state trans…
The main challenge in deterministic quantum state transfer between remote mechanical resonators is the local decoherence and the transmission losses in the communication channel. In the path of overcoming this limitation, here we employ a shortcut to adiabatic passage protocol to devise a fast and reliable evolution path between two remote mechanical modes in separate optomechanical systems. A quantum state transfer between the two nodes is conceived by engineering their coupling to an intermediate fiber optical channel. The coupling pulses are operated such that the dark eigenmode of the syst…
In this work we demonstrate for the first time that it is possible to transfer simultaneously an ultra-stable optical frequency and a precise and accurate timing over 540 km using a public telecommunication optical fiber networks with Internet data. The optical phase is used to carry both the frequency information and the timestamps by modulating a very narrow optical carrier at 1.55 $μ$m with spread spectrum signals using two-way satellite time transfer modems. The results in term of absolute time accuracy (250 ps) and long-term timing stability (20 ps) well outperform the conventional Global…
Strong-coupling between light and matter produces hybridized states (polaritons) whose delocalization and electromagnetic character allow for novel modifications in spectroscopy and chemical reactivity of molecular systems. Recent experiments have demonstrated remarkable distance-independent long-range energy transfer between molecules strongly coupled to optical microcavity modes. To shed light on the mechanism of this phenomenon, we present the first comprehensive theory of polariton-assisted remote energy transfer (PARET) based on strong-coupling of donor and/or acceptor chromophores to sur…
Optical atomic clocks are our most precise tools to measure time and frequency. They enable precision frequency comparisons between atoms in separate locations to probe the space-time variation of fundamental constants, the properties of dark matter, and for geodesy. Measurements on independent systems are limited by the standard quantum limit (SQL); measurements on entangled systems, in contrast, can surpass the SQL to reach the ultimate precision allowed by quantum theory - the so-called Heisenberg limit. While local entangling operations have been used to demonstrate this enhancement at mic…
Optical clocks based on ensembles of trapped ions offer the perspective of record frequency uncertainty with good short-term stability. Most suitable atomic species lack closed transitions for fast detection such that the clock signal has to be read out indirectly through transferring the quantum state of clock ions to co-trapped logic ions by means of quantum logic operations. For ensembles of clock ions existing methods for quantum logic readout require a linear overhead in either time or the number of logic ions. Here we report a quantum algorithmic readout whose overhead scales logarithmic…
Sharing information coherently between nodes of a quantum network is at the foundation of distributed quantum information processing. In this scheme, the computation is divided into subroutines and performed on several smaller quantum registers connected by classical and quantum channels. A direct quantum channel, which connects nodes deterministically, rather than probabilistically, is advantageous for fault-tolerant quantum computation because it reduces the threshold requirements and can achieve larger entanglement rates. Here, we implement deterministic state transfer and entanglement prot…
