Systematic errors are inevitable in most measurements performed in real life because of imperfect measurement devices. Reducing systematic errors is crucial to ensuring the accuracy and reliability of measurement results. To this end, delicate error-compensation design is often necessary in addition to device calibration to reduce the dependence of the systematic error on the imperfection of the devices. The art of error-compensation design is well appreciated in nuclear magnetic resonance system by using composite pulses. In contrast, there are few works on reducing systematic errors in quantum optical systems. Here we propose an error-compensation design to reduce the systematic error in projective measurements on a polarization qubit. It can reduce the systematic error to the second order of the phase errors of both the half-wave plate (HWP) and the quarter-wave plate (QWP) as well as the angle error of the HWP. This technique is then applied to experiments on quantum state tomography on polarization qubits, leading to a 20-fold reduction in the systematic error. Our study may find applications in high-precision tasks in polarization optics and quantum optics.
The Hamiltonian control of n qubits requires precision control of both the strength and timing of interactions. Compensation pulses relax the precision requirements by reducing unknown but systematic errors. Using composite pulse techniques designed for single qubits, we show that systematic errors for n qubit systems can be corrected to arbitrary accuracy given either two non-commuting control Hamiltonians with identical systematic errors or one error-free control Hamiltonian. We also examine composite pulses in the context of quantum computers controlled by two-qubit interactions. For quantu…
We study the feasibility of nonlocally compensating for polarization mode dispersion (PMD), when polarization entangled photons are distributed in fiber-optic channels.We quantify the effectiveness of nonlocal compensation while taking into account the possibility that entanglement is generated through the use of a pulsed optical pump signal.
We investigated a machine learning method for joint estimation of polarization and phase for use in a Gaussian modulated CV-QKD system, over an 18 hour period measured on a installed fiber with 5.5 dB attenuation.
In this paper we demonstrate an active polarization drift compensation scheme for optical fibres employed in a quantum key distribution experiment with polarization encoded qubits. The quantum signals are wavelength multiplexed in one fibre along with two classical optical side channels that provide the control information for the polarization compensation scheme. This set-up allows us to continuously track any polarization change without the need to interrupt the key exchange. The results obtained show that fast polarization rotations of the order of 40*pi rad/s are effectively compensated fo…
The fidelity of laser-driven quantum logic operations on trapped ion qubits tend to be lower than microwave-driven logic operations due to the difficulty of stabilizing the driving fields at the ion location. Through stabilization of the driving optical fields and use of composite pulse sequences, we demonstrate high fidelity single-qubit gates for the hyperfine qubit of a $^{171}\text{Yb}^+$ ion trapped in a microfabricated surface electrode ion trap. Gate error is characterized using a randomized benchmarking protocol, and an average error per randomized Clifford group gate of $3.6(3)\times1…
Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) using polarisation encoding can be hard to implement over deployed telecom fibres because the routing geometry and the birefringence of the fibre link can alter the polarisation states of the propagating photons. These alterations cause a basis mismatch, leading to an increased Quantum Bit Error Rate (QBER). In this work we demonstrate a technique for dynamically compensating fibre-induced state alteration in a QKD system over deployed fibre. This compensation scheme includes a feedback loop that minimizes the QBER using a stochastic optimization algorithm.
Polarization dependent loss (PDL) is a serious problem that hinders the transfer of polarization qubits through quantum networks. Recently it has been shown that the detrimental effects of PDL on qubit fidelity can be compensated for with the introduction of an additional passive PDL element that rebalances the polarization modes of the transmitted qubit. This procedure works extremely well when the output of the system is postselected on photon detection. However, in cases where the qubit might be needed for further analysis this procedure introduces unwanted vacuum terms into the state. Here…
Quantum registers that combine the attractive properties of different types of qubits are useful for many different applications. They also pose a number of challenges, often associated with the large differences in coupling strengths between the different types of qubits. One example is the non-resonant effect that alternating electromagnetic fields have on the transitions of qubits that are not targeted by the specific gate operation. The example being studied here is known as Bloch-Siegert shift. Unless these shifts are accounted for and, if possible, compensated, they can completely destro…
Experimental imperfections induce phase and population errors in quantum systems. We present a method to compensate unitary errors affecting also the population of the qubit states. This is achieved through the interaction of the target qubit with an additional control qubit. We show that our approach works well for single-photon and two-photon excitation schemes. In the first case, we study two reduced models (i) a two-level system in which the interaction corresponds to an effective level shift and (ii) a three-level one describing two qubits in the Bell triplet subspace. In the second case,…
The problems associated with practical implementation of the scheme proposed for preparation of arbitrary states of polarization ququarts based on biphotons are discussed. The influence of frequency dispersion effects are considered, and the necessity of group velocities dispersion compensation in the frequency non-degenerate case even for continuous pumping is demonstrated. A method for this compensation is proposed and implemented experimentally. Physical restrictions on the quality of prepared two-photon states are revealed.
We suggest and demonstrate a scheme for coherent nonlocal compensation of pure phase objects based on two-photon polarization and momentum entangled states. The insertion of a single phase object on one of the beams reduces the purity of the state and the amount of shared entanglement, whereas the original entanglement can be retrieved by adding a suitable phase object on the other beam. In our setup polarization and momentum entangled states are generated by spontaneous parametric downconversion and then purified using a programmable spatial light modulator, which may be also used to impose a…
We want to certify in a black box scenario that two parties simulating the teleportation of a qubit are really using quantum resources. If active compensation is part of the simulation, perfect teleportation can be faked with purely classical means. If active compensation is not implemented, a classical simulation is necessarily imperfect: in this case, we provide bounds for certification of quantumness using only the observed statistics. The usual figure of merit, namely the average fidelity of teleportation, turns out to be too much of a coarse-graining of the available statistical informati…
Optical quantum information processing needs ultra-bright sources of entangled photons, especially from synchronizable femtosecond lasers and low-cost cw-diode lasers. Decoherence due to timing information and spatial mode-dependent phase has traditionally limited the brightness of such sources. We report on a variety of methods to optimize type-I polarization-entangled sources - the combined use of different compensation techniques to engineer high-fidelity pulsed and cw-diode laser-pumped sources, as well as the first production of polarization-entanglement directly from the highly nonlinear…
We present a microfabricated surface-electrode ion trap with a pair of integrated waveguides that generate a standing microwave field resonant with the 171Yb+ hyperfine qubit. The waveguides are engineered to position the wave antinode near the center of the trap, resulting in maximum field amplitude and uniformity along the trap axis. By calibrating the relative amplitudes and phases of the waveguide currents, we can control the polarization of the microwave field to reduce off-resonant coupling to undesired Zeeman sublevels. We demonstrate single-qubit pi-rotations as fast as 1 us with less …
Optimization or sampling of arbitrary pairwise Ising models, in a quantum annealing protocol of constrained interaction topology, can be enabled by a minor-embedding procedure. The logical problem of interest is transformed to a physical (device programmable) problem, where one binary variable is represented by a logical qubit consisting of multiple physical qubits. In this paper we discuss tuning of this transformation for the cases of clique, biclique, and cubic lattice problems on the D-Wave 2000Q quantum computer. We demonstrate parameter tuning protocols in spin glasses and channel commun…
The shot-noise unit (SNU) is a crucial factor for the practical security of a continuous-variable quantum key distribution system. In the most widely used experimental scheme, the SNU should be calibrated first and acts as a constant during the key distribution. However, the SNU of a practical system is dependent on the various parameters of the local oscillator, which can be controlled by the eavesdropper in the open channel. In this paper, we report a quantum hacking method to control the practical SNU by using the limited compensation rate of the polarization compensation. Since the compens…
It is difficult to evaluate the precision of quantum measurements because it is not possible to conduct a second reference measurement on the same physical system to compare the measurement outcome with a more accurate value of the measured quantity. Here, I show that a direct evaluation of measurement uncertainties is possible when the measurement outcomes are used to compensate the small amount of decoherence induced in a probe qubit by carefully controlled interactions with the system. Since the original uncertainty of the target observable causes fluctuating phase shifts in the probe qubit…
The wide-ranging adoption of quantum technologies requires practical, high-performance advances in our ability to maintain quantum coherence while facing the challenge of state collapse under measurement. Here we use techniques from control theory and machine learning to predict the future evolution of a qubit's state; we deploy this information to suppress stochastic, semiclassical decoherence, even when access to measurements is limited. First, we implement a time-division-multiplexed approach, interleaving measurement periods with periods of unsupervised but stabilised operation during whic…
Photonic polarization qubits are widely used in quantum computation and quantum communication due to the robustness in transmission and the easy qubit manipulation. An integrated quantum memory for polarization qubits is a fundamental building block for large-scale integrated quantum networks. However, on-demand storing polarization qubits in an integrated quantum memory is a long-standing challenge due to the anisotropic absorption of solids and the polarization-dependent features of microstructures. Here we demonstrate a reliable on-demand quantum memory for polarization qubits, using a depr…
We address the propagation of a single photon pulse with two polarization components, i.e., a polarization qubit, in an inhomogeneously broadened "phaseonium" Λ-type three-level medium. We combine some of the non-trivial propagation effects characteristic for this kind of coherently prepared systems and the controlled reversible inhomogeneous broadening technique to propose several quantum information processing applications, such as a protocol for polarization qubit filtering and sieving as well as a tunable polarization beam splitter. Moreover, we show that, by imposing a spatial variation o…
We present an efficient arbitrary polarization qubit transmission scheme against channel noise by utilizing frequency degree of freedom, which is more stable in transmission surroundings. The information of quantum state is encoded in frequency state during the transmission and transferred to polarization state later. Both the fidelity of quantum state transmitted and the success probability of this scheme are 1 in principle.
We address the issue of dephasing effects in flying polarization qubits propagating through optical fiber by using the method of dynamical decoupling. The control pulses are implemented with half waveplates suitably placed along the realistic lengths of the single mode optical fiber. The effects of the finite widths of the waveplates on the polarization rotation are modeled using tailored refractive index profiles inside the waveplates. We show that dynamical decoupling is effective in preserving the input qubit state with the fidelity close to one when the polarization qubit is subject to the…
We report an experimental realization of an atomic vapor quantum memory for the photonic po- larization qubit. The performance of the quantum memory for the polarization qubit, realized with electromagnetically-induced transparency in two spatially separated ensembles of warm Rubidium atoms in a single vapor cell, has been characterized with quantum process tomography. The process fidelity better than 0.91 for up to 16 μs of storage time has been achieved.
Polarization-encoded qubits are particularly useful in quantum information tasks due to the easy transportation in a single spatial and temporal mode, the accurate qubit manipulation and the high robustness against decoherence. Reliable storage of polarization-encoded qubits is essential for the construction of large-scale quantum networks. Here we demonstrate a faithful quantum memory for photonic polarization qubits using the noiseless photon echo protocol implemented in a rare-earth-ion doped crystal (151Eu3+:Y2SiO5). Based on a detailed spectroscopic investigation on the 151Eu3+ ions at th…
Silicon-based polarization-encoding quantum key distribution (QKD) has been widely studied, owing to its low cost and robustness. However, prior studies have utilized off-chip devices to demodulate the quantum states or perform polarization compensation, given the difficulty of fabricating polarized independent components on the chip. In this paper, we propose a fully chip-based decoder for polarization-encoding QKD. The chip realizes a polarization state analyzer and compensates for the BB84 protocol without requiring additional hardware. It is based on a polarization-to-path conversion metho…
Light is an irreplaceable means of communication among various quantum information processing and storage devices. Due to their different physical nature, some of these devices couple more strongly to discrete, and some to continuous degrees of freedom of a quantum optical wave. It is therefore desirable to develop a technological capability to interconvert quantum information encoded in these degrees of freedom. Here we generate and characterize an entangled state between a dual-rail (polarization-encoded) single-photon qubit and a qubit encoded as a superposition of opposite-amplitude cohere…
We study how one-particle correlations transfer to manifest as two-particle correlations in the context of parametric down-conversion (PDC), a process in which a pump photon is annihilated to produce two entangled photons. We work in the polarization degree of freedom and show that for any two-qubit generation process that is both trace-preserving and entropy-nondecreasing, the concurrence $C(ρ)$ of the generated two-qubit state $ρ$ follows an intrinsic upper bound with $C(ρ)\leq (1+P)/2$, where $P$ is the degree of polarization of the pump photon. We also find that for the class of two qubit …
We study broadband polarization entangled states generated within the line width of type-II Spontaneous Parametric Down Conversion (SPDC). Applying a complete quantum polarization tomography protocol at arbitrary combination of frequency and angular sideband modes we reveal a complex structure of non-degenerate non-collinear polarization entangled states generated within the SPDC line width. It is demonstrated that simultaneous compensation of longitudinal and transverse walk off leads to homogenizing the structure of polarization entanglement.
We perform a proof-of-principle demonstration of the measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI-QKD) protocol using weak coherent states and polarization-encoded qubits over two optical fiber links of 8.5 km each. Each link was independently stabilized against polarization drifts using a full-polarization control system employing two wavelength-multiplexed control channels. A linear-optics-based polarization Bell-state analyzer was built into the intermediate station, Charlie, which is connected to both Alice and Bob via the optical fiber links. Using decoy-states, a lower bo…
Non-deterministic noiseless amplification of a single mode can circumvent the unique challenges to amplifying a quantum signal, such as the no-cloning theorem, and the minimum noise cost for deterministic quantum state amplification. However, existing devices are not suitable for amplifying the fundamental optical quantum information carrier, a qubit coherently encoded across two optical modes. Here, we construct a coherent two-mode amplifier, to demonstrate the first heralded noiseless linear amplification of a qubit encoded in the polarization state of a single photon. In doing so, we increa…
We propose an efficient faithful polarization-state transmission scheme by utilizing frequency degree of freedom besides polarization and an additional qubit prepared in a fixed polarization. An arbitrary single-photon polarization state is protected against the collective noise probabilistically. With the help of frequency beam splitter and frequency shifter, the success probability of our faithful qubit transmission scheme with frequency degree of freedom can be 1/2 in principle.
One of the major challenges in quantum computation has been to preserve the coherence of a quantum system against dephasing effects of the environment. The information stored in photon polarization, for example, is quickly lost due to such dephasing, and it is crucial to preserve the input states when one tries to transmit quantum information encoded in the photons through a communication channel. We propose a dynamical decoupling sequence to protect photonic qubits from dephasing by integrating wave plates into optical fiber at prescribed locations. We simulate random birefringent noise along…
The encoding of quantum information in photonic time-bin qubits is apt for long distance quantum communication schemes. In practice, due to technical constraints such as detector response time, or the speed with which co-polarized time-bins can be switched, other encodings, e.g. polarization, are often preferred for operations like state detection. Here, we present the conversion of qubits between polarization and time-bin encodings using a method that is based on an ultrafast optical Kerr shutter and attain efficiencies of 97% and an average fidelity of 0.827+/-0.003 with shutter speeds near …
We propose a scheme to generate entanglement between a single-photon qubit in the polarization basis and a coherent state of light. The required resources are a superposition of coherent states, a polarization entangled photon pair, beam splitters, the displacement operation, and four photodetectors. Even when realistic detectors with a limited efficiency are used, an arbitrarily high fidelity can be obtained by adjusting a beam-splitter ratio and the displacement amplitude at the price of reducing the success probability. Our analysis shows that high fidelities may be obtained using on-off de…
We report on the quantum storage and retrieval of photonic polarization quantum bits onto and out of a solid state storage device. The qubits are implemented with weak coherent states at the single photon level, and are stored for 500 ns in a praseodymium doped crystal with a storage and retrieval efficiency of 10%, using the atomic frequency comb scheme. We characterize the storage by using quantum state tomography, and find that the average conditional fidelity of the retrieved qubits exceeds 95% for a mean photon number mu=0.4. This is significantly higher than a classical benchmark, taking…
We propose a scheme to implement a heralded quantum memory for single-photon polarization qubits with a single atom trapped in an optical cavity. In this scheme, an injected photon only exchanges quantum state with the atom, so that the heralded storage can be achieved by detecting the output photon. We also demonstrate that the scheme can be used for realizing the heralded quantum state transfer, exchange and entanglement distribution between distant nodes. The ability to detect whether the operation has succeeded or not is crucial for practical application.
A scheme based on electromagnetically induced transparency is used to store light in a Bose-Einstein condensate. In this process, a photonic polarization qubit is stored in atomic Zeeman states. The performance of the storage process is characterized and optimized. The average process fidelity is 1.000 +/- 0.004. For long storage times, temporal fluctuations of the magnetic field reduce this value, yielding a lifetime of the fidelity of 1.1 +/- 0.2 ms. The write-read efficiency of the pulse energy can reach 0.53 +/- 0.05.
