Multiphoton entanglement, as a quantum resource, plays an essential role in linear optical quantum information processing. Krenn et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 080401 2017) proposed an innovative scheme that generating entanglement by path identity, in which two-photon interference (called Hong-Ou-Mandel effect) is not necessary in experiment. However, the experiments in this scheme have strict requirements in stability and scalability, which is difficult to be realized in bulk optics. To solve this problem, in this paper we first propose an on-chip scheme to generate multi-photon polarization entangled states, including Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states and W states. Moreover, we also present a class of generalized graphs for W states (odd-number-photon) by path identity in theory. The on-chip scheme can be implemented in existing integrated optical technology which is meaningful for multi-party entanglement distribution in quantum communication networks.
Multiphoton entanglement plays a critical role in quantum information processing, and greatly improves our fundamental understanding of the quantum world. Despite tremendous efforts in either bulk media or fiber-based devices, nonlinear interactions in integrated circuits show great promise as an excellent platform for photon pair generation with its high brightness, stability and scalability \cite{Caspani2017}. Here, we demonstrate the generation of bi- and multiphoton polarization entangled qubits in a single silicon nanowire waveguide, and these qubits directly compatible with the dense wav…
Bound entangled states are the exotic objects in the entangled world. They require entanglement to create them, but once they are formed, it is not possible to locally distill any free entanglement from them. It is only until recently that a few bound entangled states were realized in the laboratory. Motivated by these experiments, we propose schemes for creating various classes of bound entangled states with photon polarization. These include Acin-Bruss-Lewenstein-Sanpara states, Dur's states, Lee-Lee-Kim bound entangled states, and an unextendible-product-basis bound entangled state.
We propose a fruitful scheme for exploring multiphoton entangled states based on linear optics and weak nonlinearities. Compared with the previous schemes the present method is more feasible because there are only small phase shifts instead of a series of related functions of photon numbers in the process of interaction with Kerr nonlinearities. In the absence of decoherence we analyze the error probabilities induced by homodyne measurement and show that the maximal error probability can be made small enough even when the number of photons is large. This implies that the present scheme is quit…
It has been shown that there are not only transverse but also longitudinal couplings between microwave fields and a superconducting qubit with broken inversion symmetry of the potential energy. Using multiphoton processes induced by longitudinal coupling fields and frequency matching conditions, we design a universal algorithm to produce arbitrary superpositions of two-mode photon states of microwave fields in two separated transmission line resonators, which are coupled to a superconducting qubit. Based on our algorithm, we analyze the generation of evenly-populated states and NOON states. Co…
We theoretically investigate the spectral entanglement of a multiphoton source generated from the cascade emissions in the cascaded cold atomic ensembles.\ This photon source is highly directional, guaranteed under the four-wave mixing condition, and is also highly frequency-correlated due to finite driving pulse durations and superradiant decay constants.\ We utilize Schmidt decomposition to study the bipartite entanglement of the biphoton states projected from the multiphoton ones.\ This entropy of entanglement can be manipulated by controlling the driving parameters and superradiant decay r…
Multiphoton path entanglement is created without applying post-selection, by manipulating the state of stimulated parametric down-conversion. A specific measurement on one of the two output spatial modes leads to the non-local bunching of the photons of the other mode, forming the desired multiphoton path entangled state. We present experimental results for the case of a heralded two-photon path entangled state and show how to extend this scheme to higher photon numbers.
Within the matrix product state framework, we study the non-Markovian feedback dynamics of a two-level system interacting with the electromagnetic field inside a semi-infinite waveguide where the excitation of an atom-photon bound state is possible. Taking the steady-state excitation of the emitter as a figure of merit, we compare the trapped excitation for an initially excited quantum emitter and an emitter prepared via quantized pulses containing up to four photons. In the latter case, we find that for large feedback delay times, multi-photon pulses can yield a significantly higher steady-st…
A scheme is discussed for measuring Nth-order coherences of two orthogonally polarized light fields in a single spatial mode at very limited experimental cost. To implement the scheme, the only measurements needed are the Nth-order intensity moments after the light beam has passed through two quarter-wave plates, one half-wave plate, and a polarizing beam splitter for specific settings of the wave plates. It is shown that this method can be applied for arbitrarily large N. A set of explicit values is given for the settings of the wave plates, constituting an optimal measurement of the Nth-orde…
We present the proposition of an experiment in which the multiphoton quantum superposition consisting of N= 10^5 particles generated by a quantum-injected optical parametric amplifier (QI-OPA), seeded by a single-photon belonging to an EPR entangled pair, is made to interact with a Mirror-BEC shaped as a Bragg interference structure. The overall process will realize a Macroscopic Quantum Superposition (MQS) involving a microscopic single-photon state of polarization entangled with the coherent macroscopic transfer of momentum to the BEC structure, acting in space-like separated distant places.
Unwanted multiphoton emission commonly reduces the degree of entanglement of photons generated by non-classical light sources and, in turn, hampers their exploitation in quantum information science and technology. Quantum emitters have the potential to overcome this hurdle but, so far, the effect of multiphoton emission on the quality of entanglement has never been addressed in detail. Here, we tackle this challenge using photon pairs from a resonantly-driven quantum dot and comparing quantum state tomography and second-order coherence measurements as a function of the excitation power. We obs…
Photon entanglement is an essential ingredient for linear optics quantum computing schemes, quantum cryptographic protocols and fundamental tests of quantum mechanics. Here we describe a setup that allows for the generation of polarisation-entangled N-photon states on demand. The photons are obtained by mapping the entangled state of N atoms, each of them trapped inside an optical cavity, onto the free radiation field. The required initial state can be prepared by performing postselective measurements on the collective emission from the cavities through a multiport beamsplitter.
We have examined both single and entangled two-mode multiphoton coherent states and shown how the `Janus-faced' properties between two partner states are mirrored in appropriate tomograms. Entropic squeezing, quadrature squeezing and higher-order squeezing properties for a wide range of nonclassical states are estimated directly from tomograms. We have demonstrated how squeezing properties of two-mode entangled states produced at the output port of a quantum beamsplitter are sensitive to the relative phase between the reflected and transmitted fields. This feature allows for the possibility of…
The generation of quantum entangled states of many particles is a central goal of quantum information science. Characterizing such states is a complex task that demands exponentially large resources as particles are being added. Previously, we demonstrated a resource efficient source that can generate, in principal, entanglement between any number of photons. This source recursively fuse photon pairs generated by a pulsed laser into a multiphoton entangled state. In the current work, we perform quantum state tomography on the photon pair source and quantum process tomography on the fusion oper…
We address binary and quaternary communication channels based on correlated multiphoton two-mode states of radiation in the presence of losses. The protocol are based on photon number correlations and realized upon choosing a shared set of thresholds to convert the outcome of a joint photon number measurement into a symbol from a discrete alphabet. In particular, we focus on channels build using feasible photon-number entangled states (PNES) as two-mode coherently-correlated (TMC) or twin-beam (TWB) states and compare their performances with that of channels built using feasible classically co…
We present a scheme, based only on linear optics and standard photon detection, that allows to generate heralded multiphoton entangled states of arbitrary photon number from spontaneous parametric downconversion (PDC) in the weak interaction regime. The scheme also works in the strong interaction regime, i.e., for the production of large photon numbers, when photon-number resolving detectors with nearly perfect quantum efficiency are used. In addition, the same setup can be used for quantum metrology as multiphoton interferometer with sensitivity at the Heisenberg limit.
The thesis is divided into three parts. In the first part a new theoretical analysis of interferometric experiments by Alley-Shih, Ou-Mandel and the entanglement swapping experiment is performed. It is shown that the double- and single-photon distinguishability is not necessary for the experiments to be genuine tests against local realism. In the second part, basing on simple geometrical properties of Hilbert space, new, stronger Bell inequalities for M qubits in a maximally entangled state are derived. Application of the same method to two maximally entangled qubits yields an inequality for a…
Multiphoton entanglement is an important resource for linear optics quantum computing. Here we show that a wide range of highly entangled multiphoton states, including W-states, can be prepared by interfering single photons inside a Bell multiport beam splitter and using postselection. A successful state preparation is indicated by the collection of one photon per output port. An advantage of the Bell multiport beam splitter is that it redirects the photons without changing their inner degrees of freedom. The described setup can therefore be used to generate polarisation, time-bin and frequenc…
Generating nonclassical states of photons such as polarization entangled states on a monolithic chip is a crucial step towards practical applications of optical quantum information processing such as quantum computing and quantum key distribution. Here we demonstrate two polarization entangled photon sources in a single monolithic semiconductor waveguide. The first source is achieved through the concurrent utilization of two spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) processes, namely type-0 and type-I SPDC processes. The chip can also generate polarization entangled photons via the type-II…
Generating entangled photons from a monolithic chip is a major milestone towards real-life applications of optical quantum information processing including quantum key distribution and quantum computing. Ultrabroadband entangled photons are of particular interest to various applications such as quantum metrology and multi-party entanglement distribution. In this work, we demonstrate the direct generation of broadband wavelength multiplexed polarization entangled photons from a semiconductor chip for the first time. Without the use of any on-chip compensation, interferometry, entangled photons …
In spite of decades of effort, it has not yet been possible to create single-mode multiphoton states of light with high success probability and near unity fidelity. Complex quantum states of propagating optical photons would be an enabling resource for diverse protocols in quantum information science, including for interconnecting quantum nodes in quantum networks. Here, we propose several methods to generate heralded mutipartite entangled atomic and photonic states by using the strong and long-range dissipative couplings between atoms emerging in waveguide QED setups. Our theoretical analysis…
Exploiting semiconductor fabrication techniques, natural carriers of quantum information such as atoms, electrons, and photons can be embedded in scalable integrated devices. Integrated optics provides a versatile platform for large-scale quantum information processing and transceiving with photons. Scaling up the integrated devices for quantum applications requires highperformance single-photon generation and photonic qubit-qubit entangling operations. However, previous demonstrations report major challenges in producing multiple bright, pure and identical single-photons, and entangling multi…
The new process of quantum-injection into an optical parametric amplifier operating in entangled configuration is adopted to amplify into a large dimensionality spin 1/2 Hilbert space the quantum entanglement and superposition properties of the photon-couples generated by parametric down-conversion. The structure of the Wigner function and of the field's correlation functions shows a decoherence-free, multiphoton Schroedinger-cat behaviour of the emitted field which is largely detectable against the squeezed-vacuum noise. Furthermore, owing to its entanglement character, the system is found to…
We propose a scheme for implementing a multipartite quantum filter that uses entangled photons as a resource. It is shown that the success probability for the 2-photon parity filter can be as high as 1/2, which is the highest that has so far been predicted without the help of universal two-qubit quantum gates. Furthermore, the required number of ancilla photons is the least of all current parity filter proposals. Remarkably, the quantum filter operates with probability 1/2 even in the N-photon case, irregardless of the number of photons in the input state.
We present a review of theoretical and experimental aspects of multiphoton quantum optics. Multiphoton processes occur and are important for many aspects of matter-radiation interactions that include the efficient ionization of atoms and molecules, and, more generally, atomic transition mechanisms; system-environment couplings and dissipative quantum dynamics; laser physics, optical parametric processes, and interferometry. A single review cannot account for all aspects of such an enormously vast subject. Here we choose to concentrate our attention on parametric processes in nonlinear media, w…
Dynamical decoupling of a quantum dot spin in a micropillar cavity for spin-multiphoton entanglement
Université Paris-Saclay（巴黎萨克雷大学）；Centre de Nanosciences et de Nanotechnologies, CNRS（国家科学研究中心纳米科学和纳米技术研究中心）；Quandela SAS（Quandela公司）；Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory（约翰斯·霍普金斯大学应用物理实验室）；University of Delaware（特拉华大学）
In view of real world applications of quantum information technologies, the combination of miniature quantum resources with existing fibre networks is a crucial issue. Among such resources, on-chip entangled photon sources play a central role for applications spanning quantum communications, computing and metrology. Here, we use a semiconductor source of entangled photons operating at room temperature in conjunction with standard telecom components to demonstrate multi-user quantum key distribution, a core protocol for securing communications in quantum networks. The source consists of an AlGa…
The emerging strategy to overcome the limitations of bulk quantum optics consists of taking advantage of the robustness and compactness achievable by the integrated waveguide technology. Here we report the realization of a directional coupler, fabricated by femtosecond laser waveguide writing, acting as an integrated beam splitter able to support polarization encoded qubits. This maskless and single step technique allows to realize circular transverse waveguide profiles able to support the propagation of Gaussian modes with any polarization state. Using this device, we demonstrate the quantum …
We present a protocol for generating on-demand, indistinguishable single photons on a silicon photonic integrated chip. The source is a time-multiplexed spontaneous parametric down-conversion element that allows optimization of single-photon versus multiphoton emission while realizing high output rate and indistinguishability. We minimize both the scaling of active elements and the scaling of active element loss with multiplexing. We then discuss detection strategies and data processing to further optimize the procedure. We simulate an improvement in single-photon-generation efficiency over pr…
We propose an entanglement purification scheme based on material qubits and ancillary coherent multiphoton states. We consider a typical QED scenario where material qubits implemented by two-level atoms fly sequentially through a cavity and interact resonantly with a single mode of the radiation field. We explore the theoretical possibilities of realizing a high-fidelity two-qubit quantum operation necessary for the purification protocol with the help of a postselective balanced homodyne photodetection. We demonstrate that the obtained probabilistic quantum operation can be used as a bilateral…
Multiphoton quantum interference underpins fundamental tests of quantum mechanics and quantum technologies. Consequently, the detrimental effect of photon distinguishability in multiphoton interference experiments can be catastrophic. Here, we employ correlation measurements in the photonic inner modes, time or frequency, to restore quantum interference between photons differing in their colors or injection times in arbitrary linear optical networks, without the need for additional filtering or post selection. Interestingly, we demonstrate how harnessing the multiphoton inner-mode quantum info…
When an atom is strongly coupled to a cavity, the two systems can exchange a single photon through a coherent Rabi oscillation. This process enables precise quantum-state engineering and manipulation of atoms and photons in a cavity, which play a central role in quantum information and measurement. Recently, a new regime of cavity QED has been reached experimentally where the strength of the interaction between light and artificial atoms (qubits) becomes comparable to the atomic transition frequency or the resonance frequency of the cavity mode. Here we show that this regime can strongly modif…
Bright, entangled multiphoton sources based on atom photon interactions are an essential requirement in the realization of several quantum information and quantum computation schemes based on photonic quantum systems. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a four photon polarization entangled GHZ state obtained from Doppler broadened atomic ensembles of 87Rb atoms. Owing to collective two photon coherence in the Doppler broadened cascade-type atomic system, our setup enables the generation of robust four photon GHZ states with a fidelity of 0.82 and a measured four photon average coincidence rate…
High-quality entangled photon pairs generated via spontaneous parametric down-conversion have made great contributions to the modern quantum information science and the fundamental tests of quantum mechanics. However, the quality of the entangled states decreases sharply when moving from biphoton to multiphoton experiments, mainly due to the lack of interactions between photons. Here, for the first time, we generate a four-photon Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state with a fidelity of $98\%$, which is even comparable to the best fidelity of biphoton entangled states. Thus, it enables us to demons…
Quantum optical microcombs in integrated ring resonators generate entangled photon pairs over many spectral modes, and allow the preparation of high dimensional qudit states. Ideally, those sources should be programmable and have a high generation rate, with comb lines tightly spaced for the implementation of efficient qudit gates based on electro-optic frequency mixing. While these requirements cannot all be satisfied by a single resonator device, for which there is a trade-off between high generation rate and tight bin spacing, a promising strategy is the use of multiple resonators, each gen…
An integrated photonic approach for complex quantum state generation through dynamical Casimir effect (DCE) is demonstrated. This approach provides a scheme to realize multipartite high-dimensional entangled states in the microwave (MW) and terahertz (THz) regimes, through the modulation in a MW-resonator coupled to an optical microresonator supporting temporal optical solitons. The states at the MW-resonator evolve from the ground state, realizing real-photons from the virtual photons at the ground state. The periodic modulation of the MW-resonator through a Kerr-induced refractive index chan…
Quantum lithography achieves phase super-resolution using fragile, experimentally challenging entangled states of light. We propose a scalable scheme for creating features narrower than classically achievable, with reduced use of quantum resources and consequently enhanced resistance to loss. The scheme is an implementation of interferometric lithography using a mixture of an SPDC entangled state with intense classical coherent light. We measure coincidences of up to four photons mimicking multiphoton absorption. The results show a narrowing of the interference fringes of up to 30% with respec…
Integrated optics allow the generation and control of increasingly complex photonic states on chip based architectures. Here, we implement two entangled qutrits - a 9-dimensional quantum system - and demonstrate an exceptionally high degree of experimental control. The approach which is conceptually different to common bulk optical implementations is heavily based on methods of integrated in-fiber and on-chip technologies and further motivated by methods commonly used in today's telecommunication industry. The system is composed of an in-fiber source creating entangled qutrit states of any amp…
We describe a protocol to entangle two qubits at a distance by using resonance fluorescence. The scheme makes use of the postselection of large and distinguishable fluorescence signals corresponding to entangled and unentangled qubit states and has the merits of both high success probability and high entanglement fidelity owing to the multiphoton nature. Our result shows that the entanglement generation is robust against photon fluctuations in the fluorescence signals for a wide range of driving fields. We also demonstrate that this new protocol has an average entanglement duration within the …
The quantum theory of electromagnetic radiation predicts characteristic statistical fluctuations for light sources as diverse as sunlight, laser radiation and molecule fluorescence. Indeed, these underlying statistical fluctuations of light are associated with the fundamental physical processes behind their generation. In this contribution, we demonstrate that the manipulation of the quantum electromagnetic fluctuations of a pair of vacuum states leads to a novel family of quantum-correlated multiphoton states with tunable mean photon numbers and degree of correlation. Our technique relies on …
We propose a resource-efficient error-rejecting entangled-state analyzer for polarization-encoded multiphoton systems. Our analyzer is based on two single-photon quantum-nondemolition detectors, where each of them is implemented with a four-level emitter (e.g., a quantum dot) coupled to a one-dimensional system (such as a micropillar cavity or a photonic nanocrystal waveguide). The analyzer works in a passive way and can completely distinguish $2^n$ Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger~(GHZ) states of $n$ photons without using any active operation or fast switching. The efficiency and fidelity of the G…
Integrated optics provides the platform for the experimental implementation of highly complex and compact circuits for quantum information applications. In this context integrated waveguide sources represent a powerful resource for the generation of quantum states of light due to their high brightness and stability. However, the confinement of the light in a single spatial mode limits the realization of multi-channel sources. Due to this challenge one of the most adopted sources in quantum information processes, i.e. a source which generates spectrally indistinguishable polarization entangled …
We consider a multiphoton Bell-type inequality to study nonlocality in four-mode continuous variable systems, which goes beyond two-photon states and can be applied to mixed as well as states with fluctuating photon number. We apply the inequality to a wide variety of states such as pure and mixed Gaussian states (including squeezed thermal states) and non-Gaussian states. We consider beam splitters as a model for leakage and show that the inequality is able to detect nonclassicality of noisy Gaussian states as well. Finally, we investigate nonlocality in pair-coherent states and entangled coh…
