We report experimental distribution of time-bin entangled qubits over 50 km of optical fibers. Using actively stabilized preparation and measurement devices we demonstrate violation of the CHSH Bell inequality by more than 15 standard deviations without removing the detector noise. In addition we report a proof of principle experiment of quantum key distribution over 50 km of optical fibers using entangled photon.
We propose two experimental schemes to implement arbitrary unitary single qubit operations on single photons encoded in time-bin qubits. Both schemes require fiber optics components that are available with current technology.
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…
Three unit spheres were used to represent the two-qubit pure states. The three spheres are named the base sphere, entanglement sphere, and fiber sphere. The base sphere and entanglement sphere represent the reduced density matrix of the base qubit and the non-local entanglement measure, concurrence, while the fiber sphere represents the fiber qubit via a simple rotation under a local single-qubit unitary operation; however, in an entangled bipartite state, the fiber sphere has no information on the reduced density matrix of the fiber qubit. When the bipartite state becomes separable, the base …
Quantum Fourier transform (QFT) is a key function to realize quantum computers. A QFT followed by measurement was demonstrated on a simple circuit based on fiber-optics. The QFT was shown to be robust against imperfections in the rotation gate. Error probability was estimated to be 0.01 per qubit, which corresponded to error-free operation on 100 qubits. The error probability can be further reduced by taking the majority of the accumulated results. The reduction of error probability resulted in a successful QFT demonstration on 1024 qubits.
We theoretically investigate the influence of dynamical decoupling sequence in preserving entanglement of polarized photons in polarization-maintaining birefringent fibers(PMF) under a classic Gauss 1/f noise. We study the dynamic evolution of entanglement along the control sequence embedded fibers. Decoherence due to dispersion of polarization mode in PMF can be dramatically depressed, even for a wild optical width. Entanglement degree can be effectively preserved while the control pulse is implemented.
We experimentally demonstrate that the nonlocal nature of time-bin entangled photonic qubits persists when one or two qubits of the pair are converted to polarization qubits. This is possible by implementing a novel Universal Time-Bin Qubit Analyzer (UTBA), which, for the first time, allows analyzing time-bin qubits in any basis. We reveal the nonlocal nature of the emitted light by violating the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality with measurement bases exploring all the dimensions of the Bloch sphere. Moreover, we conducted experiments where one qubit is transmitted over a 12.4 km undergro…
We demonstrate non-degenerate down-conversion at 810 and 1550 nm for long-distance fiber based quantum communication using polarization entangled photon pairs. Measurements of the two-photon visibility, without dark count subtraction, have shown that the quantum correlations (raw visibility 89%) allow secure quantum cryptography after 100 km of non-zero dispersion shifted fiber using commercially available single photon detectors. In addition, quantum state tomography has revealed little degradation of state negativity, decreasing from 0.99 at the source to 0.93 after 100 km, indicating minima…
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…
Useful fault-tolerant quantum computers require very large numbers of physical qubits. Quantum computers are often designed as arrays of static qubits executing gates and measurements. Photonic qubits require a different approach. In photonic fusion-based quantum computing (FBQC), the main hardware components are resource-state generators (RSGs) and fusion devices connected via waveguides and switches. RSGs produce small entangled states of a few photonic qubits, whereas fusion devices perform entangling measurements between different resource states, thereby executing computations. In additio…
We study the case of two polaritonic qubits localized in two separate cavities coupled by a fiber/additional cavity. We show that surprisingly enough, even a coherent classical pump in the intermediate cavity/fiber can lead to the creation of entanglement between the two ends in the steady state. The stationary nature of this entanglement and its survival under dissipation opens possibilities for its production under realistic laboratory conditions. To facilitate the verification of the entanglement in an experiment we also construct the relevant entanglement witness measurable by accessing on…
Quantum memories at telecom wavelengths are crucial for the construction of large-scale quantum networks based on existing fiber networks. On-demand storage of telecom photonic qubits is a fundamental request for such networking applications but yet to be demonstrated. Here we demonstrate the storage and on-demand retrieval of telecom photonic qubits using a laser-written waveguide fabricated in an $^{167}$Er$^{3+}$:Y$_2$SiO$_5$ crystal. Both ends of the waveguide memory are directly connected with fiber arrays with a fiber-to-fiber efficiency of 51%. Storage fidelity of 98.3(1)% can be obtain…
A scheme for the implementation of the cluster state model of quantum computing in optical fibers, which enables the feedforward feature, is proposed. This scheme uses the time-bin encoding of qubits. Following previously suggested methods of applying arbitrary one-qubit gates in optical fibers, two different ways for the realization of fusion gate types I and II for cluster production are proposed: a fully time-bin based encoding scheme and a combination of time-bin and polarization based encoding scheme. Also the methods of measurement in any desired bases for the purpose of the processing o…
We compare several optical implementations of phase-covariant cloning machines. The experiments are based on copying of the polarization state of a single photon in bulk optics by special unbalanced beam splitter or by balanced beam splitter accompanied by a state filtering. Also the all-fiber based setup is discussed, where the information is encoded into spatial modes, i.e., the photon can propagate through two optical fibers. Each of the four implementations possesses some advantages and disadvantages that are discussed.
We report the experimental demonstration of a transmission scheme of photonic qubits over unstabilized optical fibers, which has the plug-and-play feature as well as the ability to transmit any state of a qubit, regardless of whether it is known, unknown, or entangled to other systems. A high fidelity to the noiseless quantum channel was achieved by adding an ancilla photon after the signal photon within the correlation time of the fiber noise and by performing quantum parity checking. Simplicity, maintenance-free feature and robustness against path-length mismatches among the nodes make our s…
This paper reports the first demonstration of the generation and distribution of entangled photon pairs in the 1.5-um band using spontaneous four-wave mixing in a cooled fiber. Noise photons induced by spontaneous Raman scattering were suppressed by cooling a dispersion shifted fiber with liquid nitrogen, which resulted in a significant improvement in the visibility of two-photon interference. By using this scheme, time-bin entangled qubits were successfully distributed over 60 km of optical fiber with a visibility of 76%, which was obtained without removing accidental coincidences.
We employ quantum state and process tomography with time-bin qubits to benchmark a city-wide metropolitan quantum communication system. Over this network, we implement real-time feedback control systems for stabilizing the phase of the time-bin qubits, and obtain a 99.3% quantum process fidelity to the ideal channel, indicating the high quality of the whole quantum communication system. This allows us to implement field trial of high performance quantum key distribution using coherent one way protocol with average quantum bit error rate and visibility of 0.25% and 99.2% during 12 hours over 61…
A theoretical model for driving a two qubit system to a stable long-lived entanglement is discussed. The entire system is represented by two atoms, initially in ground states and disentangled, each one coupled to a separate cavity with the cavities connected by a fiber. The cavities and fiber exchange energy with their individual thermal environments. Under these conditions, we apply the theory of microscopic master equation developed for the dynamics of the open quantum system. Deriving the density operator of the two-qubit system we found that stable long-lived quantum correlations are gener…
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…
A long distance quantum teleportation experiment with a fiber-delayed Bell State Measurement (BSM) is reported. The source creating the qubits to be teleported and the source creating the necessary entangled state are connected to the beam splitter realizing the BSM by two 2 km long optical fibers. In addition, the teleported qubits are analyzed after 2,2 km of optical fiber, in another lab separated by 55 m. Time bin qubits carried by photons at 1310 nm are teleported onto photons at 1550 nm. The fidelity is of 77%, above the maximal value obtainable without entanglement. This is the first re…
This paper reports 1.5-um band time-bin entanglement generation. We employed a spontaneous four-wave mixing process in a dispersion shifted fiber, with which correlated photon pairs with very narrow bandwidths were generated efficiently. To observe two-photon interference, we used planar lightwave circuit based interferometers that were operated stably without feedback control. As a result, we obtained coincidence fringes with 99 % visibilities after subtracting accidental coincidences, and successfully distributed entangled photons over 20-km standard single-mode fiber without any deteriorati…
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…
We describe an adiabatic state transfer mechanism that allows for high-fidelity transfer of a microwave quantum state from one cavity to another through an optical fiber. The conversion from microwave frequency to optical frequency is enabled by an optomechanical transducer. The transfer process utilizes a combined dark state of the mechanical oscillator and fiber modes, making it robust against both mechanical and fiber loss. We anticipate this scheme being an enabling component of a hybrid quantum computing architecture consisting of superconducting qubits with optical interconnects.
A time-bin qubit is a promising candidate qubit for advanced quantum information processing systems operating over optical fibers or integrated quantum photonic circuits. However, the single- and two-qubit operations of time-bin qubits have been largely unexplored compared with those of polarization qubits. Here, I present a simple scheme for implementing a basic two-qubit operation, namely an "entangling" operation of two independent time-bin qubits, based on Hong-Ou-Mandel quantum interference in a high-speed 2x2 optical switch. With the proposed scheme, the formation of a time-bin entanglem…
We present the experimental realization of optimal symmetric and asymmetric phase-covariant 1->2 cloning of qubit states using fiber optics. State of each qubit is encoded into a single photon which can propagate through two optical fibers. The operation of our device is based on one- and two-photon interference. We have demonstrated creation of two copies of any state of a qubit from the equator of the Bloch sphere. The measured fidelities of both copies are close to the theoretical values and they surpass the theoretical maximum obtainable with the universal cloner.
When photons are sent through a fiber as part of a quantum communication protocol, the error that is most difficult to correct is photon loss. Here, we propose and analyze a two-to-four qubit encoding scheme, which can recover the loss of one qubit in the transmission. This device acts as a repeater when it is placed in series to cover a distance larger than the attenuation length of the fiber, and it acts as an optical quantum memory when it is inserted in a fiber loop. We call this dual-purpose device a ``quantum transponder.''
Realizing long distance entanglement swapping with independent sources in the real-world condition is important for both future quantum network and fundamental study of quantum theory. Currently, demonstration over a few of tens kilometer underground optical fiber has been achieved. However, future applications demand entanglement swapping over longer distance with more complicated environment. We exploit two independent 1-GHz-clock sequential time-bin entangled photon-pair sources, develop several automatic stability controls, and successfully implement a field test of entanglement swapping o…
Adopting quantum communication to modern networking requires transmitting quantum information through fiber-based infrastructure. We report the first demonstration of superdense coding over optical fiber links, taking advantage of a complete Bell-state measurement enabled by time-polarization hyperentanglement, linear optics, and common single-photon detectors. We demonstrate the highest single-qubit channel capacity to date utilizing linear optics, $1.665 \pm 0.018$, and we provide a full experimental implementation of a hybrid, quantum-classical communication protocol for image transfer.
We introduce an entanglement-related quantity that we call the binegativity. Based on numerical evidence, we conjecture that the binegativity is an entanglement measure for two-qubit states. The binegativity is compared to the concurrence and negativity, the only known entanglement measures that can be computed analytically for all two-qubit states. The ordering of entangled two-qubit mixed states induced by the binegativity is distinct from the ordering determined by previously known measures, yielding possible new insights into the structure of entangled two-qubit mixed states.
Robust implementation of quantum key distribution requires precise state generation and measurements, as well as a transmission that is resistant to channel disturbances. However, the choice of the optimal encoding scheme is not trivial and depends on external factors such as the quantum channel. In fact, stable and low-error encoders are available for polarization encoding, suitable for free-space channels, whereas time-bin encoding represent a good candidate for fiber-optic channels, as birefingence does not perturb this kind of states. Here we present a cross-encoded scheme where high accur…
Bidirectional conversion of electrical and optical signals lies at the foundation of the global internet. Such converters are employed at repeater stations to extend the reach of long-haul fiber optic communication systems and within data centers to exchange high-speed optical signals between computers. Likewise, coherent microwave-to-optical conversion of single photons would enable the exchange of quantum states between remotely connected superconducting quantum processors, a promising quantum computing hardware platform. Despite the prospects of quantum networking, maintaining the fragile q…
Quantum teleportation is essential for many quantum information technologies including long-distance quantum networks. Using fiber-coupled devices, including state-of-the-art low-noise superconducting nanowire single photon detectors and off-the-shelf optics, we achieve quantum teleportation of time-bin qubits at the telecommunication wavelength of 1536.5 nm. We measure teleportation fidelities of >=90% that are consistent with an analytical model of our system, which includes realistic imperfections. To demonstrate the compatibility of our setup with deployed quantum networks, we teleport qub…
We report on the realization and verification of quantum entanglement between an NV electron spin qubit and a telecom-band photonic qubit. First we generate entanglement between the spin qubit and a 637 nm photonic time-bin qubit, followed by photonic quantum frequency conversion that transfers the entanglement to a 1588 nm photon. We characterize the resulting state by correlation measurements in different bases and find a lower bound to the Bell state fidelity of F = 0.77 +/- 0.03. This result presents an important step towards extending quantum networks via optical fiber infrastructure.
Entanglement between light and matter combines the advantage of long distance transmission of photonic qubits with the storage and processing capabilities of atomic qubits. To distribute photonic states efficiently over long distances several schemes to encode qubits have been investigated -- time-bin encoding being particularly promising due to its robustness against decoherence in optical fibers. Here, we demonstrate the generation of entanglement between a photonic time-bin qubit and a single collective atomic spin excitation (spin-wave) in a cold atomic ensemble, followed by the mapping of…
We prove that the binegativity is always positive for any two-qubit state. As a result, as suggested by the previous works, the asymptotic relative entropy of entanglement in two qubits does not exceed the Rains bound, and the PPT-entanglement cost for any two-qubit state is determined to be the logarithmic negativity of the state. Further, the proof reveals some geometrical characteristics of the entangled states, and shows that the partial transposition can give another separable approximation of the entangled state in two qubits.
We experimentally generate arbitrary time-bin qubits using continuous-wave light. The advantage unique to our qubit is its compatibility with deterministic continuous-variable quantum information processing. This compatibility comes from its optical coherence with continuous waves, well-defined spatio-temporal mode, and frequency spectrum within the operational bandwidth of the current continuous-variable technology. We also demonstrate an efficient scheme to characterize time-bin qubits via eight-port homodyne measurement. This enables the complete characterization of the qubits as two-mode s…
Quantum logic gates are important for quantum computations and quantum information processing in numerous physical systems. While time-bin qubits are suited for quantum communications over optical fiber, many essential quantum logic gates for them have not yet been realized. Here, we demonstrated a controlled-phase (C-Phase) gate for time-bin qubits that uses a 2x2 optical switch based on an electro-optic modulator. A Hong-Ou-Mandel interference measurement showed that the switch could work as a time-dependent beam splitter with a variable spitting ratio. We confirmed that two independent time…
Noise in optical Telecom fibers is an important limitation on optical quantum data transmission. Unfortunately, the classically successful amplifiers (such as EDFA) cannot be used in quantum communication because of the no-cloning theorem. We propose a simple method to reduce quantum noise: the insertion of phase-shifters and/or beam-splitters at regular distance intervals into a fiber. We analyze in detail the case of qubits encoded into polarization states of low-intensity light, which is of central importance to various quantum information tasks, such as quantum cryptography and communicati…
Time-bin qubits, where information is encoded in a single photon at different times, have been widely used in optical fiber and waveguide based quantum communications. With the recent developments in distributed quantum computation, it is logical to ask whether time-bin encoded qubits may be useful in that context. We have recently realized a time-bin qubit controlled-phase (C-Phase) gate using a 2 X 2 optical switch based on a lithium niobate waveguide, with which we demonstrated the generation of an entangled state. However, the experiment was performed with only a pair of input states, and …
We experimentally demonstrate a high-efficiency Bell state measurement for time-bin qubits that employs two superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors with short dead-times, allowing projections onto two Bell states, |Psi>- and |Psi+>. Compared to previous implementations for time-bin qubits, this yields an increase in the efficiency of Bell state analysis by a factor of thirty.
Photon-based quantum information processing promises new technologies including optical quantum computing, quantum cryptography, and distributed quantum networks. Polarization-encoded photons at telecommunication wavelengths provide a compelling platform for practical realization of these technologies. However, despite important success towards building elementary components compatible with this platform, including sources of entangled photons, efficient single photon detectors, and on-chip quantum circuits, a missing element has been atomic quantum memory that directly allows for reversible m…
A scheme for heralded generation of frequency-bin photonic qubits via spontaneous four-wave mixing in a system of coupled microring resonators (photonic molecule) is developed so that the qubit state is fully controlled by the frequency amplitude of the pump field. It is shown that coupling parameters of the photonic molecule can be optimized to provide generation of nearly pure heralded photons. The heralded qubit state does not depend on the microring resonator mode frequency, thereby allowing to take advantage of frequency multiplexing for improving efficiency of quantum information process…
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 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…
