Quantum communication networks enable applications ranging from highly secure communication to clock synchronization and distributed quantum computing. Miniaturized, flexible, and cost-efficient resources will be key elements for ensuring the scalability of such networks as they progress towards large-scale deployed infrastructures. Here, we bring these elements together by combining an on-chip, telecom-wavelength, broadband entangled photon source with industry-grade flexible-grid wavelength division multiplexing techniques, to demonstrate reconfigurable entanglement distribution between up to 8 users in a resource-optimized quantum network topology. As a benchmark application we use quantum key distribution, and show low error and high secret key generation rates across several frequency channels, over both symmetric and asymmetric metropolitan-distance optical fibered links and including finite-size effects. By adapting the bandwidth allocation to specific network constraints, we also illustrate the flexible networking capability of our configuration. Together with the potential of our semiconductor source for distributing secret keys over a 60 nm bandwidth with commercial multiplexing technology, these results offer a promising route to the deployment of scalable quantum network architectures.
Nonlinear frequency conversion is ubiquitous in laser engineering and quantum information technology. A long-standing goal in photonics is to integrate on-chip semiconductor laser sources with nonlinear optical components. Engineering waveguide lasers with spectra that phase-match to nonlinear processes on the same device is a formidable challenge. Here, we demonstrate difference-frequency generation in an AlGaAs Bragg reflection waveguide which incorporates the gain medium for the pump laser in its core. We include quantum dot layers in the AlGaAs waveguide that generate electrically driven l…
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 generation of nonclassical states of light in miniature chips is a crucial step towards practical implementations of future quantum technologies. Semiconductor materials are ideal to achieve extremely compact and massively parallel systems and several platforms are currently under development. In this context, spontaneous parametric down conversion in AlGaAs devices combines the advantages of room temperature operation, possibility of electrical injection and emission in the telecom band. Here we report on a chip-based AlGaAs source, producing indistinguishable and energy-time entangled ph…
We report parametric gain by utilizing $ χ^{(2)} $ non-linearities in a semiconductor Bragg Reflection Waveguide (BRW) waveguide chip. Under the two-mode degenerate type II phase matching, it can be shown that more than 18 dBs of parametric gain for both TE and TM modes is tenable in 100s of micrometers of device length. Polarization insensitive parametric gain can be attained within the 1550 nm region of the spectrum. These AlGaAs BRW waveguides exhibit sub-photon per pulse sensitivity. This is in sharp contrast to other types of parametric gain devices which utilize $ χ^{(3)} $, where the pu…
We demonstrate a monolithic III-V photonic circuit combining a heralded single photon source with a beamsplitter, at room temperature and telecom wavelength. Pulsed parametric down-conversion in an AlGaAs waveguide generates counterpropagating photons, one of which is used to herald the injection of its twin into the beamsplitter. We use this configuration to implement an integrated Hanbury-Brown and Twiss experiment, yielding a heralded second-order correlation $g^{(2)}_{\rm her}(0)=0.10 \pm 0.02$ that confirms single-photon operation. The demonstrated generation and manipulation of quantum s…
We demonstrate a chip-integrated semiconductor source that combines polarization and frequency entanglement, allowing the generation of entangled biphoton states in a hybrid degree of freedom without postmanipulation. Our AlGaAs device is based on type-II spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) in a counterpropagating phase-matching scheme, in which the modal birefringence lifts the degeneracy between the two possible nonlinear interactions. This allows the direct generation of polarization-frequency entangled photons, at room temperature and telecom wavelength, and in two distinct spati…
Entangled-photon pairs are an essential resource for quantum information technologies. Chip-scale sources of entangled pairs have been integrated with various photonic platforms, including silicon, nitrides, indium phosphide, and lithium niobate, but each has fundamental limitations that restrict the photon-pair brightness and quality, including weak optical nonlinearity or high waveguide loss. Here, we demonstrate a novel, ultra-low-loss AlGaAs-on-insulator platform capable of generating time-energy entangled photons in a $Q$ $>1$ million microring resonator with nearly 1,000-fold improvement…
We present high-reflectivity mechanical resonators fabricated from AlGaAs heterostructures for use in free-space optical cavities operating in the telecom wavelength regime. The mechanical resonators are fabricated in slabs of GaAs and patterned with a photonic crystal to increase their out-of-plane reflectivity. Characterization of the mechanical modes reveals residual tensile stress in the GaAs device layer. This stress results in higher mechanical frequencies than in unstressed GaAs and can be used for strain engineering of mechanical dissipation. Simultaneously, we find that the finite wai…
Modern communication strives towards provably secure systems which can be widely deployed. Quantum key distribution provides a methodology to verify the integrity and security of a key exchange based on physical laws. However, physical systems often fall short of theoretical models, meaning they can be compromised through uncharacterized side-channels. The complexity of detection means that the measurement system is a vulnerable target for an adversary. Here, we present secure key exchange up to 200 km while removing all side-channels from the measurement system. We use mass-manufacturable, mo…
Silicon photonics holds the promise of the miniaturization of quantum communication devices. Recently, silicon chip optical transmitters for quantum key distribution (QKD) have been built and demonstrated experimentally. Nonetheless, these silicon chips suffer substantial polarization and phase dependent loss which, if unchecked, could compromise the security of QKD systems. Here, we first restore the security by regarding the single photons without phase and polarization dependence as untagged and secure qubits. Next, by using a post-selection technique, one could implement a secure QKD proto…
Quantum cryptography is set to become a key technology for future secure communications. However, to get maximum benefit in communication networks, transmission links will need to be shared among several quantum keys for several independent users. Such links will enable switching in quantum network nodes of the quantum keys to their respective destinations. In this paper we present an experimental demonstration of a photonic integrated silicon chip quantum key distribution protocols based on space division multiplexing (SDM), through multicore fiber technology. Parallel and independent quantum…
Large-Area Spatially Ordered Mesa Top Single Quantum Dots: Suitable Single Photon Emitters for On-Chip Integrated Quantum Information Processing Platforms
Measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI-QKD) removes all detector side channels and enables secure QKD with an untrusted relay. It is suitable for building a star-type quantum access network, where the complicated and expensive measurement devices are placed in the central untrusted relay and each user requires only a low-cost transmitter, such as an integrated photonic chip. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a 1.25 GHz silicon photonic chip-based MDI-QKD system using polarization encoding. The photonic chip transmitters integrate the necessary encoding components for a …
The security of electronic devices has become a key requisite for the rapidly-expanding pervasive and hyper-connected world. Robust security protocols ensuring secure communication, device's resilience to attacks, authentication control and users privacy need to be implemented. Random Number Generators (RNGs) are the fundamental primitive in most secure protocols but, often, also the weakest one. Establishing security in billions of devices requires high quality random data generated at a sufficiently high throughput. On the other hand, the RNG should exhibit a high integration level with on-c…
Joint spectral characterization of SPDC photon pairs near 2 $μ$m in (Al)GaAs-on-insulator waveguides
Université de Moncton（蒙克顿大学）；Aarhus University（奥胡斯大学）；QVersion；University of Toronto（多伦多大学）；National Institute of Standards and Technology（美国国家标准与技术研究院）；EMode Photonix
We demonstrate a client-server quantum key distribution (QKD) scheme, with large resources such as laser and detectors situated at the server-side, which is accessible via telecom-fibre, to a client requiring only an on-chip polarisation rotator, that may be integrated into a handheld device. The detrimental effects of unstable fibre birefringence are overcome by employing the reference frame independent QKD protocol for polarisation qubits in polarisation maintaining fibre, where standard QKD protocols fail, as we show for comparison. This opens the way for quantum enhanced secure communicati…
BB84-based quantum key distribution system is limited in high speed and chip integration due to the requirement of four states preparation and measurement. Recently, the simplified BB84 protocol with only three states preparation and measurement has showed the approximate secret key rate with standard BB84. However, the security proof is only valid under the collective attack and requires the basis-independent detection efficiency condition. Here, we provide a security proof against the coherent attack, which simultaneously removes the basis-independent detection efficiency condition. Importan…
Quantum networks will enable a variety of applications, from secure communication and precision measurements to distributed quantum computing. Storing photonic qubits and controlling their frequency, bandwidth and retrieval time are important functionalities in future optical quantum networks. Here we demonstrate these functions using an ensemble of erbium ions in yttrium orthosilicate coupled to a silicon photonic resonator and controlled via on-chip electrodes. Light in the telecommunication C-band is stored, manipulated and retrieved using a dynamic atomic frequency comb protocol controlled…
Improvement in secure transmission of information is an urgent practical need for governments, corporations and individuals. Quantum key distribution (QKD) promises security based on the laws of physics and has rapidly grown from proof-of-concept to robust demonstrations and even deployment of commercial systems. Despite these advances, QKD has not been widely adopted, and practical large-scale deployment will likely require integrated chip-based devices for improved performance, miniaturisation and enhanced functionality, fully integrated into classical communication networks. Here we report …
Quantum key distribution (QKD) has convincingly been proven compatible with real life applications. Its wide-scale deployment in optical networks will benefit from an optical platform that allows miniature devices capable of encoding the necessarily complex signals at high rates and with low power consumption. While photonic integration is the ideal route toward miniaturisation, an efficient route to high-speed encoding of the quantum phase states on chip is still missing. Consequently, current devices rely on bulky and high power demanding phase modulation elements which hinder the sought-aft…
Ensembles of solid-state optical emitters enable broadband quantum storage and transduction of photonic qubits, with applications in high-rate optical quantum networks for secure communications, global time-keeping, and interconnecting future quantum computers. To realize coherent quantum information transfer using ensembles, spin rephasing techniques are currently used to mitigate fast decoherence resulting from inhomogeneous broadening. Here we use a dense ensemble of neodymium rare-earth ions strongly coupled to a nanophotonic resonator to demonstrate that decoherence of a single photon exc…
Recent development in quantum photonics allowed to start the process of bringing photonic-quantum-based systems out of the lab into real world applications. As an example, devices for the exchange of a cryptographic key secured by the law of quantum mechanics are currently commercially available. In order to further boost this process, the next step is to migrate the results achieved by means of bulky and expensive setups to miniaturized and affordable devices. Integrated quantum photonics is exactly addressing this issue. In this paper we briefly review the most recent advancements in the gen…
Due to the limited availability of quantum computing power in the near future, cryptographic security techniques must be developed for secure remote use of current and future quantum computing hardware. Prominent among these is Universal Blind Quantum Computation (UBQC) and its variations such as Quantum Fully Homomorphic Encryption (QFHE), which herald interactive and remote secure quantum computing power becoming available to parties that require little more than the ability to prepare and measure single qubits. Here I present a simulation of such a protocol, tested classically on the simula…
Quantum key distribution (QKD) is nowadays a well established method for generating secret keys at a distance in an information-theoretic secure way, as the secrecy of QKD relies on the laws of quantum physics and not computational complexity. In order to industrialize QKD, low-cost, mass-manufactured and practical QKD setups are required. Hence, photonic and electronic integration of the sender's and receiver's respective components is currently in the spotlight. Here we present a high-speed (2.5 GHz) integrated QKD setup featuring a transmitter chip in silicon photonics allowing for high-spe…
