Multi-core fiber integrated multi-port beamsplitters for quantum information processing
J. Cariñe, G. Cañas, P. Skrzypczyk, I. Šupić, N. Guerrero, T. Garcia, L. Pereira, M. A. S. Prosser, G. B. Xavier, A. Delgado, S. P. Walborn, D. Cavalcanti, G. Lima
Multi-port beamsplitters are cornerstone devices for high-dimensional quantum information tasks, which can outperform the two-dimensional ones. Nonetheless, the fabrication of such devices has been proven to be challenging with progress only recently achieved with the advent of integrated photonics. Here, we report on the production of high-quality $N \times N$ (with $N=4,7$) multi-port beamsplitters based on a new scheme for manipulating multi-core optical fibers. By exploring their compatibility with optical fiber components, we create 4-dimensional quantum systems and implement the measurement-device-independent random number generation task with a programmable 4-arm interferometer operating at a 2 MHz repetition rate. Thanks to the high visibilities observed, we surpass the 1-bit limit of binary protocols and attain 1.23 bits of certified private randomness per experimental round. Our result demonstrates that fast switching, low-loss and high optical quality for high-dimensional quantum information can be simultaneously achieved with multi-core fiber technology.
Fourth-order interference is an information processing primitive for photonic quantum technologies. When used in conjunction with post-selection, it forms the basis of photonic controlled logic gates, entangling measurements, and can be used to produce quantum correlations. Here, using classical weak coherent states as inputs, we study fourth-order interference in novel $4 \times 4$ multi-port beam splitters built within multi-core optical fibers. Using two mutually incoherent weak laser pulses as inputs, we observe high-quality fourth order interference between photons from different cores, a…
We have developed an optical parametric amplification module for quadrature squeezing with input and output ports coupled with optical fibers for both fundamental and second harmonic. The module consists of a periodically poled LiNbO${}_{3}$ ridge waveguide fabricated with dry etching, dichroic beamsplitters, lenses and four optical fiber pigtales. The high durability of the waveguide and the good separation of squeezed light from a pump beam by the dichroic beamsplitter enable us to inject intense continuous-wave pump light with the power of over 300 mW. We perform $-$4.0${\pm}$0.1 dB of nois…
We report on a scheme for the creation of time-bin entangled states out of two subsequent single photons. Both photons arrive on the same input port of a beamsplitter and the situation in which the photons leave the beamsplitter on different output ports is post-selected. We derive a full quantum mechanical analysis of such time-bin entanglement for emitters subject to uncorrelated dephasing processes and apply this model to sequential single photons emerging from a single semiconductor quantum dot. Our results indicate that the visibility of entanglement is degraded by decoherence effects in …
The effects of a beamsplitter are frequently described mathematically as a matrix acting on a two input ports vector. This might be comprehensive for a scalar field but certainly insufficient in case of photons which are vector fields. In this paper we discuss theoretical grounds to define elements of a 4x4 matrix to more accurately represent the beamsplitter, fully accounting for transverse polarization modes. We also provide experimental evidence confirming this matrix representation. From an educational point of view the paper addresses a new applicability of Hilbert space description of ve…
We present a scheme of quantum state truncation in the Fock basis (quantum scissors), based on the combined action of a nondegenerate optical parametric amplifier and a beamsplitter. Differently from previously proposed linear-optics-based quantum scissors devices, which depend on reliable Fock states sources, our scheme requires only readily available Gaussian states, such as coherent states inputs (vacuum state included). A truncated state is generated after performing photodetections in the global state. We find that, depending on which output ports each of the two photodetectors is positio…
We compare and contrast the entangling properties of a three-well Bose-Hubbard model and an optical beamsplitter. The coupling between the different modes is linear in both cases, and we may identify two output modes. Obvious differences are that our Bose-Hubbard model, with only the middle well initially occupied, does not have a vacuum input port, there is no equivalent of a collisional, $χ^{(3)}$ nonlinearity with the beamsplitter, and the results of the Bose-Hubbard model show a time-dependence. In the non-interacting case, we obtain analytic solutions and show that, like a beamsplitter, t…
Wave propagation on the surface of cylinders exhibits interferometric self imaging, much like the Talbot effect in the near-field diffraction at periodic gratings. We report the experimental observation of the cylindrical Talbot carpet in weakly-guiding ring-core fibers for classical light fields. We further show that the ring-core fiber acts as a high-order optical beamsplitter for single photons, whose output can be controlled by the relative phase between the input light fields. By also demonstrating high-quality two-photon interference between indistinguishable photons sent into the ring-c…
Generalised quantum measurements go beyond the textbook concept of a projection onto an orthonormal basis in Hilbert space. They are not only of fundamental relevance but have also an important role in quantum information tasks. However, it is highly demanding to certify that a generalised measurement is indeed required to explain the results of a quantum experiment in which only the degrees of freedom are assumed to be known. Here, we use state-of-the-art multicore optical fiber technology to build multiport beamsplitters and faithfully implement a seven-outcome generalised measurement in a f…
We theoretically demonstrate a method for producing the maximally path-entangled state (1/Sqrt[2]) (|N,0> + exp[iN phi] |0,N>) using intensity-symmetric multiport beamsplitters, single photon inputs, and either photon-counting postselection or conditional measurement. The use of postselection enables successful implementation with non-unit efficiency detectors. We also demonstrate how to make the same state more conveniently by replacing one of the single photon inputs by a coherent state.
The implementation of a fully integrated Hadamard gate on one single chip is currently one of the major goals in the quantum computation and communication community. Prerequisites for such a chip are the integration of single-photon sources and detectors into waveguide structures such as photonic crystals or slab and ridge waveguide. Here, we present an implementation of a single-photon on-chip experiment based on a III-V semiconductor platform. Individual semiconductor quantum dots were used as pulsed single-photon sources integrated in ridge waveguides, and on-chip waveguide-beamsplitter ope…
Recently, Motes, Gilchrist, Dowling & Rohde [Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 120501 (2014)] presented a scheme for photonic boson-sampling using a fiber-loop architecture. Here we show that the same architecture can be modified to implement full, universal linear optics quantum computing, in various incarnations. The scheme employs two embedded fiber-loops, a single push-button photon source, three dynamically controlled beamsplitters, and a single time-resolved photo-detector. The architecture has only a single point of interference, and thus may be significantly easier to align than other schemes. The…
Measuring the dispersion of photonic devices with small dispersion-length products is challenging due to the phase-sensitive, and alignment-intensive nature of conventional methods. In this letter, we demonstrate a quantum technique to extract the second-, and third-order chromatic dispersion of a short single-mode fiber using a fiber-based quantum nonlinear interferometer. The interferometer consists of two cascaded fiber-based biphoton sources, with each source acting as a nonlinear beamsplitter. A fiber under test is placed in between these two sources, and introduces a frequency-dependent …
The addressability of parallel spatially multimode quantum memory for light allows one to control independent collective spin waves within the same cold atomic ensemble. Generally speaking, there are transverse and longitudinal degrees of freedom of the memory that one can address by a proper choice of the pump (control) field spatial pattern. Here we concentrate on the mutual evolution and transformation of quantum states of the longitudinal modes of collective spin coherence in the cavity-based memory scheme. We assume that these modes are coherently controlled by the pump waves of the on--d…
We present a novel, single-ion trap with integrated optical fibers directly embedded within the trap structure to deliver laser light as well as collect the ion's fluorescence. This eliminates the need for optical windows. We characterise the system's performance and measure signal-to-background ratios in the ion's fluorescence on the order of 50, which allows us to perform state readout with a fidelity over 99% in 600 $μ$s. We test the system's resilience to thermal variations in the range between 22°C and 53°C, and the system's vibration resilience at 34 Hz and 300 Hz and find no effect on i…
We present the experimental realization of a theoretical effect discovered by Olivares and Paris, in which a pair of entangled optical beams undergoing independent losses can see nonlocal correlations restored by the use of a nonlocal resource correlating the losses. Twin optical beams created in an entangled Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) state by an optical parametric oscillator above threshold were subjected to 50% loss from beamsplitters in their paths. The resulting severe degradation of the signature quantum correlations observed between the two beams was then suppressed when another, ind…
We have previously shown that quantum-enhanced atom interferometry can be achieved by mapping the quantum state of squeezed optical vacuum to one of the atomic inputs via a beamsplitter-like process [Phys.~Rev.~A \textbf{90}, 063630 (2014)]. Here we ask the question: is a better phase sensitivity possible if the quantum state transfer (QST) is described by a three-mode-mixing model, rather than a beamsplitter? The answer is yes, but only if the portion of the optical state not transferred to the atoms is incorporated via information recycling. Surprisingly, our scheme gives a better sensitivit…
We demonstrate remote entanglement of trapped-ion qubits via a quantum-optical fiber link with fidelity and rate approaching those of local operations. Two ${}^{88}$Sr${}^{+}$ qubits are entangled via the polarization degree of freedom of two photons which are coupled by high-numerical-aperture lenses into single-mode optical fibers and interfere on a beamsplitter. A novel geometry allows high-efficiency photon collection while maintaining unit fidelity for ion-photon entanglement. We generate remote Bell pairs with fidelity $F=0.940(5)$ at an average rate $182\,\mathrm{s}^{-1}$ (success proba…
We report preparation and characterization of coherent superposition states t |0> + alpha |1> of electromagnetic field by conditional measurements on a beamsplitter. The state is generated in one of the beam splitter output channels if a coherent state and a single-photon Fock state |1> are present in the two input ports and a single photon is registered in the other beam splitter output. The single photon thus plays a role of a "catalyst": it is explicitly present in both the input and the output channels of the interaction yet facilitates generation of a nonclassical state of light.
Many components that are employed in quantum information and communication systems are well known photonic devices encountered in standard optical fiber communication systems, such as optical beamsplitters, waveguide couplers and junctions, electro-optic modulators and optical fiber links. The use of these photonic devices is becoming increasingly important especially in the context of their possible integration either in a specifically designed system or in an already deployed end-to-end fiber link. Whereas the behavior of these devices is well known under the classical regime, in some cases …
The process of single-photon subtraction (SPS) is known to dramatically alter the properties of certain quantum optical states. Somewhat surprisingly, subtracting zero photons can also modify quantum states and has practical applications in quantum communication. Here we experimentally investigate zero-photon subtraction (ZPS) using a wide variety of input states and conditional measurements based on actively detecting zero photons in one output port of a variable beamsplitter. We find that SPS and ZPS can exhibit complementary behavior depending on the photon statistics of the input states, a…
Entangled photon pairs generated within integrated devices must often be spatially separated for their subsequent manipulation in quantum circuits. Separation that is both deterministic and universal can in principle be achieved through anti-coalescent two-photon quantum interference. However, such interference-facilitated pair separation (IFPS) has not been extensively studied in the integrated setting, where the strong polarization and wavelength dependencies of integrated couplers -- as opposed to bulk-optics beamsplitters -- can have important implications for performance beyond the identi…
We present a quantum key distribution (QKD) system based on polarisation entanglement for use in telecom fibers. A QKD exchange up to 50km was demonstrated in the laboratory with a secure key rate of 550 bit/s. The system is compact, portable with a fully automated start-up and stabilisation modules for polarisation, synchronisation and photon coupling allow a hands-off operation. Stable and reliable key exchange in a deployed optical fiber of 16km length was demonstrated. In this fiber network we achieved over two weeks an automatic key generation with an average key rate of 2000 bit/s withou…
Spin-photon interfaces based on solid-state atomic defects have enabled a variety of key applications in quantum information processing. To maximize the light-matter coupling strength, defects are often placed inside nanoscale devices. Efficiently coupling light and microwave radiation into these structures is an experimental challenge, especially in cryogenic or high vacuum environments with limited sample access. In this work, we demonstrate a fiber-based scanning probe that simultaneously couples light into a planar photonic circuit and delivers high power microwaves for driving electron sp…
Applying the recently developed formalism of quantum-state transformation at absorbing dielectric four-port devices [L.~Knöll, S.~Scheel, E.~Schmidt, D.-G.~Welsch, and A.V.~Chizhov, Phys. Rev. A {\bf 59}, 4716 (1999)], we calculate the quantum state of the outgoing modes of a two-mode squeezed vacuum transmitted through optical fibers of given extinction coefficients. Using the Peres--Horodecki separability criterion for continuous variable systems [R.~Simon, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 84}, 2726 (2000)], we compute the maximal length of transmission of a two-mode squeezed vacuum through an absorbin…
We review our recent work on tunable, ultrahigh quality factor whispering-gallery-mode bottle microresonators and highlight their applications in nonlinear optics and in quantum optics experiments. Our resonators combine ultra-high quality factors of up to Q = 3.6 \times 10^8, a small mode volume, and near-lossless fiber coupling, with a simple and customizable mode structure enabling full tunability. We study, theoretically and experimentally, nonlinear all-optical switching via the Kerr effect when the resonator is operated in an add-drop configuration. This allows us to optically route a si…
Linear optical multiports are widely used in photonic quantum information processing. Naturally, these devices are directionally-biased since photons always propagate from the input ports toward the output ports. Recently, the concept of directionally-unbiased linear optical multiports was proposed. These directionally-unbiased multiports allow photons to propagate along a reverse direction, which can greatly reduce the number of required linear optical elements for complicated linear optical quantum networks. Here, we report an experimental demonstration of a 3 x 3 directionally-unbiased line…
Magnetic field sensors that exploit quantum effects have shown that they can outperform classical sensors in terms of sensitivity enabling a range of novel applications in future, such as a brain machine interface. Negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond have emerged as a promising high sensitivity platform for measuring magnetic fields at room temperature. Transferring this technology from laboratory setups into products and applications, the total size of the sensor, the overall power consumption, and the costs need to be reduced and optimized. Here, we demonstrate a fibe…
We present a bright, narrowband, portable, quasi-phase-matched two-crystal source generating polarization-entangled photon pairs at 809 nm and 1555 nm at a maximum rate of 1.2 10^6 s-1 THz-1 mW-1 after coupling to single-mode fiber. The quantum channel at 1555 nm and the synchronization signal gating the single photon detector are multiplexed in the same optical fiber of length 27 km by means of wavelength division multiplexers (WDM) having 100 GHz (0.8 nm) spacing between channels. This implementation makes quantum communication applications compatible with current high-speed optical networks…
Monolithic integration of control technologies for atomic systems is a promising route to the development of quantum computers and portable quantum sensors. Trapped atomic ions form the basis of high-fidelity quantum information processors and high-accuracy optical clocks. However, current implementations rely on free-space optics for ion control, which limits their portability and scalability. Here we demonstrate a surface-electrode ion-trap chip using integrated waveguides and grating couplers, which delivers all the wavelengths of light required for ionization, cooling, coherent operations,…
Hong-Ou-Mandel interference, the fact that identical photons that arrive simultaneously on different input ports of a beam splitter bunch into a common output port, can be used to measure optical delays between different paths. It is generally assumed that great precision in the measurement requires that photons contain many frequencies, i.e., a large bandwidth. Here we challenge this well-known assumption and show that the use of two well-separated frequencies embedded in a quantum entangled state (discrete color entanglement) suffices to achieve great precision. We determine optimum working …
Converting low-frequency electrical signals into much higher frequency optical signals has enabled modern communications networks to leverage both the strengths of microfabricated electrical circuits and optical fiber transmission, allowing information networks to grow in size and complexity. A microwave-to-optical converter in a quantum information network could provide similar gains by linking quantum processors via low-loss optical fibers and enabling a large-scale quantum network. However, no current technology can convert low-frequency microwave signals into high-frequency optical signals…
A broad range of scientific and industrial disciplines require precise optical measurements at very low light levels. Single-photon detectors combining high efficiency and high time resolution are pivotal in such experiments. By using relatively thick films of NbTiN (8-11\,nm) and improving the pattern fidelity of the nano-structure of the superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPD), we fabricated devices demonstrating superior performance over all previously reported detectors in the combination of efficiency and time resolution. Our findings prove that small variations in the na…
The future envisaged global-scale quantum communication network will comprise various nodes interconnected via optical fibers or free-space channels, depending on the link distance. The free-space segment of such a network should guarantee certain key requirements, such as daytime operation and the compatibility with the complementary telecom-based fiber infrastructure. In addition, space-to-ground links will require the capability of designing light and compact quantum devices to be placed in orbit. For these reasons, investigating available solutions matching all the above requirements is st…
We have demonstrated a metropolitan all-pass quantum communication network in field fiber for four nodes. Any two nodes of them can be connected in the network to perform quantum key distribution (QKD). An optical switching module is presented that enables arbitrary 2-connectivity among output ports. Integrated QKD terminals are worked out, which can operate either as a transmitter, a receiver, or even both at the same time. Furthermore, an additional link in another city of 60 km fiber (up to 130 km) is seamless integrated into this network based on a trusted relay architecture. On all the li…
