We propose a method named as double-scanning method, to improve the key rate of measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI-QKD) drastically. In the method, two parameters are scanned simultaneously to tightly estimate the counts of single-photon pairs and the phase-flip error rate jointly. Numerical results show that the method in this work can improve the key rate by $35\%-280\%$ in a typical experimental set-up. Besides, we study the optimization of MDI-QKD protocol with all parameters including the source parameters and failure probability parameters, over symmetric channel or asymmetric channel. Compared with the optimized results with only the source parameters, the all-parameter-optimization method could improve the key rate by about $10\%$.
We propose a linear optical scheme for the teleportation of unknown ionic states, the entanglement concentration for nonmaximally entangled states for ions via entanglement swapping and the remote preparation for ionic entangled states. The unique advantage of the scheme is that the joint Bell-state measurement needed in the previous schemes is not needed in the current scheme, i.e. the joint Bell-state measurement has been converted into the product of separate measurements on single ions and photons. In addition, the current scheme can realize the quantum information processes for ions by us…
Measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI-QKD) provides a method for secret communication whose security does not rely on trusted measurement devices. In all existing MDI-QKD protocols, the participant Charlie has to perform the Bell state measurement or other joint measurements. Here we propose an MDI-QKD protocol which requires individual measurements only. Meanwhile, all operations of the receiver Bob are classical, without the need for preparing and measuring quantum systems. Thus the implementation of the protocol has a lower technical requirement on Bob and Charlie.
Security proofs of quantum key distribution (QKD) often require post-processing schemes to simplify the data structure, and hence the security proof. We show a generic method to improve resulting secure key rates by partially reversing the simplifying post-processing for error correction purposes. We apply our method to the security analysis of device-independent QKD schemes and of detection-device-independent QKD schemes, where in both cases one is typically required to assign binary values even to lost signals. In the device-independent case, the loss tolerance threshold is cut down by our m…
We consider several applications in black-box quantum computation in which untrusted physical quantum devices are connected together to produce an experiment. By examining the outcome statistics of such an experiment, and comparing them against the desired experiment, we may hope to certify that the physical experiment is implementing the desired experiment. This is useful in order to verify that a calculation has been performed correctly, that measurement outcomes are secure, or that the devices are producing the desired state.
We propose a model of a programmable quantum processing device realizable with existing nanophotonic technologies and which can be viewed as a basis for new high performance hardware architectures. We present protocols and their physical implementation on the controlled photon transfer for executing basic single-qubit and multi-qubit gates. The possible operation of this quantum computer scheme is analyzed. The physical architecture is then formalized by a mathematical model of the Quantum Processing Unit (QPU), which is used as a basis for the Quantum Programming Framework that makes it possi…
Coherent oscillations between any two levels from four nuclear spin states of I=3/2 have been demonstrated in a nanometre-scale NMR semiconductor device, where nuclear spins are all-electrically controlled. Using this device, we discuss quantum logic operations on two fictitious qubits of the I=3/2 system, and propose a quantum state tomography scheme based on the measurement of longitudinal magnetization, $M_z$.
The violation of certain Bell inequalities allows for device-independent information processing secure against non-signalling eavesdroppers. However, this only holds for the Bell network, in which two or more agents perform local measurements on a single shared source of entanglement. To overcome the practical constraint that entangled systems can only be transmitted over relatively short distances, large-scale multi-source networks have been employed. Do there exist analogues of Bell inequalities for such networks, whose violation is a resource for device-independence? In this paper, the viol…
We look at what type of arguments can rule out the joint reality (or value definiteness) of two observables of a physical system, such as a qubit, and give several strong yet simple no-go results based on assumptions typically weaker than those considered previously. The first result uses simple geometry combined with a locality assumption to derive device-independent steering inequalities. These may also be regarded as "conditional" Bell inequalities, are simpler in principle to test than standard Bell inequalities, and for two-qubit systems are related to properties of the quantum steering e…
A finite set of quantum observables (positive operator valued measures) is called compatible if these observables are marginals of a some observable, called a joint observable of them. For a given set of compatible observables, their joint observable is in general not unique and it is desirable to take a minimal joint observable in the post-processing order since a less informative observable disturbs less the system. We address the question of the minimality of finite-outcome joint observables and prove that any joint observable is lower bounded by a minimal joint observable in the post-proce…
Nonlocality, as demonstrated by the violation of Bell inequalities, enables device-independent cryptographic tasks that do not require users to trust their apparatus. In this article, we consider devices whose inputs are spatiotemporal degrees of freedom, e.g. orientations or time durations. Without assuming the validity of quantum theory, we prove that the devices' statistical response must respect their input's symmetries, with profound foundational and technological implications. We exactly characterize the bipartite binary quantum correlations in terms of local symmetries, indicating a fun…
Device-independent quantum key distribution provides security even when the equipment used to communicate over the quantum channel is largely uncharacterized. An experimental demonstration of device-independent quantum key distribution is however challenging. A central obstacle in photonic implementations is that the global detection efficiency, i.e., the probability that the signals sent over the quantum channel are successfully received, must be above a certain threshold. We here propose a method to significantly relax this threshold, while maintaining provable device-independent security. T…
We propose the implementation of a light source, which can deterministically generate a rich variety of multi-mode quantum states. The desired states are encoded in the collective population of different ground hyperfine states of an atomic ensemble and converted to multi-mode photonic states by excitation to optically excited levels followed by cooperative spontaneous emission. Among our examples of applications, we demonstrate how two-photon entangled states can be prepared and implemented in a protocol for reference frame free quantum key distribution and how one-dimensional as well as high…
Characterising the input-output photon-number distribution of an unknown optical quantum channel is an important task for many applications in quantum information processing. Ideally, this would require deterministic photon-number sources and photon-number-resolving detectors, but these technologies are still work-in-progress. In this work, we propose a general method to rigorously bound the input-output photon number distribution of an unknown optical channel using standard optical devices such as coherent light sources and non-photon-number-resolving detectors/homodyne detectors. To demonstr…
Quantum measurements are crucial for quantum technologies and give rise to some of the most classically counter-intuitive quantum phenomena. As such, the ability to certify the presence of genuinely non-classical joint measurements in a device-independent fashion is vital. However, previous work has either been non-device-independent, or has relied on post-selection---the ability to discard all runs of an experiment in which a specific event did not occur. In the case of entanglement, the post-selection approach applies an entangled measurement to independent states and post-selects the outcom…
We propose a simple scheme to reduce readout errors in experiments on quantum systems with finite number of measurement outcomes. Our method relies on performing classical post-processing which is preceded by Quantum Detector Tomography, i.e., the reconstruction of a Positive-Operator Valued Measure (POVM) describing the given quantum measurement device. If the measurement device is affected only by an invertible classical noise, it is possible to correct the outcome statistics of future experiments performed on the same device. To support the practical applicability of this scheme for near-te…
Control over electron-spin states, such as coherent manipulation, filtering and measurement promises access to new technologies in conventional as well as in quantum computation and quantum communication. In this paper, we review recent theoretical proposal of using electron spins in quantum confined structures as qubits. We also present a theoretical proposal for testing Bell's inequality in nano-electronics devices. We show that the entanglement of two electron spins can be detected in the spin filter effect in the nanostructure semiconductor / ferromagnetic semiconductor / semiconductor jun…
A hybrid quantum system is proposed by coupling the internal hyperfine transitions of a trapped atomic Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) and a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) via the macroscopic quantum field of the flux qubit. The presence of the condensate leads to a bosonic enhancement of the Rabi frequency over the otherwise small single-particle magnetic dipole transition matrix elements. This enhancement allows for the possibility to rapidly transfer and store qubit states in the BEC that were originally prepared in the SQUID. The fidelity of this transfer for different …
We have developed semiconductor point contact devices in which nuclear spins in a nanoscale region are coherently controlled by all-electrical methods. Different from the standard nuclear-magnetic resonance technique, the longitudinal magnetization of nuclear spins is directly detected by measuring resistance, resulting in ultra-sensitive detection of the microscopic quantity of nuclear spins. All possible coherent oscillations have been successfully demonstrated between two levels from four nuclear spin states of I = 3/2 nuclei. Quantum information processing is discussed based on two fictiti…
Demonstrations of quantum advantage have largely focused on computational speedups and on quantum simulation of many-body physics, limited by fidelity and capability of current devices. Discriminating laser-pulse-modulated classical-communication codewords at the minimum allowable probability of error using universal-quantum processing presents a promising parallel direction, one that is of both fundamental importance in quantum state discrimination, as well as of technological relevance in deep-space laser communications. Here we present an experimental realization of a quantum joint detectio…
In this paper we are interested to model quantum signal by statistical signal processing methods. The Gaussian distribution has been considered for the input quantum signal as Gaussian state have been proven to a type of important robust state and most of the important experiments of quantum information are done with Gaussian light. Along with that a joint noise model has been invoked, and followed by a received signal model has been formulated by using convolution of transmitted signal and joint quantum noise to realized theoretical achievable capacity of the single quantum link. In joint qua…
