When a single emitter is excited by two phase-coherent pulses with a time delay, each of the pulses can lead to the emission of a photon pair, thus creating a ``time-bin entangled'' state. Double pair emission can be avoided by initially preparing the emitter in a metastable state. We show how photons from separate emissions can be made indistinguishable, permitting their use for multi-photon interference. Possible realizations are discussed. The method might also allow the direct creation of n-photon entangled states (n>2).
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 scheme for the observation of micro-macro entanglement in photon number based on amplifying and de-amplifying a single-photon entangled state in combination with homodyne quantum state tomography. The created micro-macro entangled state, which exists between the amplification and de-amplification steps, is a superposition of two components with mean photon numbers that differ by approximately a factor of three. We show that for reasonable values of photon loss it should be possible to detect micro-macro photon-number entanglement where the macro system has a mean number of one hun…
Radio-frequency phase modulation of frequency entangled photons leads to a two-photon interference pattern in the frequency domain. In recent experiments, the pattern was measured with narrow-band frequency filters which select photons belonging to a given frequency bin. Here we show how photons can be grouped into even and odd frequencies by using periodic frequency filters called interleavers. In our theoretical analysis we show how this reduces the high-dimensional photon state to an effective two-dimensional state. This is of interest for applications such as quantum cryptography or low-di…
We propose a protocol to create maximally entangled pairs, triplets, quartiles, and other clusters of Bose condensed atoms starting from a condensate in the Mott insulator state. The essential element is to drive single atom Raman transitions using laser pulses. Our scheme is simple, efficient, and can be readily applied to the recent experimental system as reported by Greiner {\it et al.} [ Nature {\bf 413}, 44 (2002)].
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…
We introduce a general method of gluing multi-partite states and show that entanglement swapping is a special class of a wider range of gluing operations. The gluing operation of two m and n qudit states consists of an entangling operation on two given qudits of the the two states followed by operations of measurements of the two qudits in the computational basis. Depending on how many qudits (two, one or zero) we measure, we have three classes of gluing operation, resulting respectively in m+n-2, m+n-1 or m+n qudit states. Entanglement swapping belongs to the first class and has been widely s…
We present a scheme for creating quantum entangled atomic states through the coherent spin-exchange collision of a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate. The state generated possesses macroscopic Einstein-Podolsky-Roson correlation and the fluctuation in one of its quasi-spin components vanishes. We show that an elongated condensate with large aspect ratio is most suitable for creating such a state.
The general concept of entangled photon holes is based on a correlated absence of photon pairs in an otherwise constant optical background. Here we consider the specialized case when this background is confined to two well-defined time bins, which allows the formation of time-bin entangled photon holes. We show that when the typical coherent state background is replaced by a true single-photon (Fock state) background, the basic time-bin entangled photon-hole state becomes equivalent to one of the time-bin entangled photon-pair states. We experimentally demonstrate these ideas using a parametri…
Inspired by laser operation, we address the question of whether stimulated emission into polarization entangled modes can be achieved. We describe a state produced by stimulated emission of the singlet Bell state and propose a setup for creating it. As a first important step towards an entangled-photon laser we demonstrate experimentally interference-enhanced polarization entanglement.
The distribution of high-quality Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states is at the heart of many quantum communication tasks, ranging from extending the baseline of telescopes to secret sharing. They also play an important role in error-correction architectures for distributed quantum computation, where Bell pairs can be leveraged to create an entangled network of quantum computers. We investigate the creation and distillation of GHZ states out of non-perfect Bell pairs over quantum networks. In particular, we introduce a heuristic dynamic programming algorithm to optimize over a large class …
We experimentally show that two-photon path-entangled states can be coherently manipulated by multi-mode interference in multi-mode waveguides. By measuring the output two-photon spatial correlation function versus the phase of the input state, we show that multi-mode waveguides perform as nearly-ideal multi-port beam splitters at the quantum level, creating a large variety of entangled and separable multi-path two-photon states.
We analyze optical binary communication assisted by entanglement and show that: i) ideal entangled channels have smaller error probability than ideal single-mode coherent channels if the photon number of the channel is larger than one; ii) realistic entangled channels with heterodyne receivers have smaller error probability than ideal single-mode coherent channels if the photon number of the channel is larger than a threshold of about five photons.
We consider entangled two-photon generalized binomial states of the electromagnetic field in two separate cavities. The nonlocal properties of this entangled field state are analyzed by studying the electric field correlations between the two cavities. A Bell's inequality violation is obtained using an appropriate dichotomic cavity operator, that is in principle measurable.
We experimentally investigate a double-pass parametric down-conversion scheme for producing pulsed, polarization-entangled photon pairs with high visibility. The amplitudes for creating photon pairs on each pass interfere to compensate for distinguishing characteristics that normally degrade two-photon visibility. The result is a high-flux source of polarization-entangled photon pulses that does not require spectral filtering. We observe quantum interference visibility of over 95% without the use of spectral filters for 200 femtosecond pulses, and up to 98.1% with 5 nm bandwidth filters.
We present a feasible and efficient scheme, and its proof-of-principle demonstration, of creating entangled photon pairs in an event-ready way using only simple linear optical elements and single photons. The quality of entangled photon pair produced in our experiment is confirmed by a strict violation of Bell's inequality. This scheme and the associated experimental techniques present an important step toward linear optics quantum computation.
We study single-photon emission of a classically pumped three-level $Λ$-type emitter in a high-$Q$ cavity. In particular, generation of single-photon time-bin double-peak wave packets is shown.
A novel method for preparation of a single photon in temporally-delocalized entangled modes is proposed and analyzed. We show that two single-photon pulses propagating in a driven nonabsorbing medium with different group velocities are temporally split under parametric interaction into well-separated pulses. In consequence, the single-photon "time-bin-entangled" states are generated with a programmable entanglement easily controlled by driving field intensity. The experimental study of nonclassical features and nonlocality of generated states by means of balanced homodyne tomography is discuss…
We propose a conditional scheme to generate entangled two-photons generalized binomial states inside two separate single-mode high-Q cavities. This scheme requires that the two cavities are initially prepared in entangled one-photon generalized binomial states and exploits the passage of two appropriately prepared two-level atoms one in each cavity. The measurement of the ground state of both atoms is finally required when they exit the cavities. We also give a brief evaluation of the experimental feasibility of the scheme.
A monochromatic laser pumping a parametric down conversion crystal generates frequency entangled photon pairs. We study this experimentally by addressing such frequency entangled photons at telecommunication wavelengths (around 1550 nm) with fiber optics components such as electro-optic phase modulators and narrow band frequency filters. The theory underlying our approach is developed by introducing the notion of frequency bin entanglement. Our results show that the phase modulators address coherently up to eleven frequency bins, leading to an interference pattern which can violate a Bell ineq…
High-dimensional quantum entanglement is drawing attention because it enables us to perform quantum information tasks that are robust against noises. To test the nonlocality of entangled qudits, the Collins-Gisin-Linden-Massar-Popescu (CGLMP) inequality has been proposed and demonstrated using qudits based on orbital angular momentum, time-energy uncertainty, and frequency bins. Here, we report the generation and observation of time-bin entangled ququarts. We implemented a measurement for the CGLMP inequality test using cascaded delay Mach-Zehnder interferometers fabricated by using planar lig…
We report on the implementation of a new interferometric scheme that allows the generation of photon pairs entangled in the time-energy degree of freedom. This scheme does not require any kind of temporal post-selection on the generated pairs and can be used even with lasers with short coherence time.
We address binary optical communication in single-mode and entangled quantum noisy channels. For single-mode we present a systematic comparison between direct photodetection and homodyne detection in realistic conditions, i.e. taking into account the noise that occurs both during the propagation and the detection of the signals. We then consider entangled channels based on twin-beam state of radiation, and show that with realistic heterodyne detection the error probability at fixed channel energy is reduced in comparison to the single-mode cases for a large range of values of quantum efficienc…
We demonstrate time-bin entanglement generation in telecom wavelength using a 7 μm radius Si micro-ring resonator pumped by a continuous wave laser. The resonator structure can enhance spontaneous four wave mixing, leading to a photon pair generation rate of about 90-100 Hz with a laser pump power of as low as -3.92 dBm (0.41 mW). We succeed in observing time-bin entanglement with the visibility over 92%. Moreover, wavelength-tunability of the entangled photon pair is demonstrated by changing the operation temperature.
We create pairs of non-degenerate time-bin entangled photons at telecom wavelengths with ultra-short pump pulses. Entanglement is shown by performing Bell kind tests of the Franson type with visibilities of up to 91%. As time-bin entanglement can easily be protected from decoherence as encountered in optical fibers, this experiment opens the road for complex quantum communication protocols over long distances. We also investigate the creation of more than one photon pair in a laser pulse and present a simple tool to quantify the probability of such events to happen.
Time-bin entangled single-photons are highly demanded for long distance quantum communication. We propose a heralded source of tunable narrowband single photons entangled in well-separated multiple temporal modes (time bins) with controllable amplitudes. The detection of a single Stokes photon generated in a cold atomic ensemble via Raman scattering of a weak write pulse heralds the preparation of one spin excitation stored within the atomic medium. A train of read laser pulses deterministically converts the atomic excitation into a single anti-Stokes photon delocalized in multi-time-bins. The…
Using 2 km of standard telecom optical fibres, we teleport qubits carried by photons of 1310 nm wavelength to qubits in another lab carried by a photons of 1550 nm wavelength. The photons to be teleported and the necessary entangled photon pairs are created in two different non-linear crystals. The measured mean fidelity is of 81.2 %. We discuss how this could be used as quantum repeaters without quantum memories.
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…
We have generated a new type of biphoton state by cavity-enhanced down-conversion in a type-II phase-matched, periodically-poled KTiOPO_4 (PPKTP) crystal. By introducing a weak intracavity birefringence, the polarization-entangled output was modulated between the singlet and triplet states according to the arrival-time difference of the signal and idler photons. This cavity-enhanced biphoton source is spectrally bright, yielding a single-mode fiber-coupled coincidence rate of 0.7 pairs/s per mW of pump power per MHz of down-conversion bandwidth. Its novel biphoton behavior may be utilized in s…
We demonstrate the capability to discretize the frequency spectrum of broadband energy-time entangled photons by means of a spatial light modulator to encode qudits in various bases. Exemplarily, we implement three different discretization schemes, namely frequency bins, time bins and Schmidt modes. Entangled qudits up to dimension $d=4$ are then revealed by two-photon interference experiments with visibilities violating a $d$-dimensional Bell inequality.
We devise a mathematical framework for assessing the fidelity of multi-photon entangled states generated by a single solid-state quantum emitter, such as a quantum dot or a nitrogen-vacancy center. Within this formalism, we theoretically study the role of imperfections present in real systems on the generation of time-bin encoded Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger and one-dimensional cluster states. We consider both fundamental limitations, such as the effect of phonon-induced dephasing, interaction with the nuclear spin bath, and second-order emissions, as well as technological imperfections, such a…
Semiconductor Bragg-reflection waveguides are well-established sources of correlated photon pairs as well as promising candidates for building up integrated quantum optics devices. Here, we use such a source with optimized non-linearity for preparing time-bin entangled photons in the telecommunication wavelength range. By taking advantage of pulsed state preparation and efficient free-running single-photon detection, we drive our source at low pump powers, which results in a strong photon-pair correlation. The tomographic reconstruction of the state's density matrix reveals that our source exh…
Two trapped ions that are kilometers apart can be entangled by the joint detection of two photons, each coming from one of the ions, in a basis of entangled states. Such a detection is possible with linear optical elements. The use of two-photon interference allows entanglement distribution without interferometric sensitivity to the path length of the photons. The present method of creating entangled ions also opens up the possibility of a loophole-free test of Bell's inequalities.
Entanglement, describing the inseparability of a quantum multiparty system, is one of the most intriguing features of quantum mechanics. Violation of Bell inequality, for ruling out the possibility of local hidden variable theories, is commonly used as a strong witness for quantum entanglement. In previous Bell test experiments with photonic entanglement based on two-photon coincidence measurement, the photon temporal wave packets are absorbed completely by the detectors. That is, the photon coherence time is much shorter than the detection time window. Here we demonstrate generation of freque…
We experimentally study the violation of the CGLMP inequality for entangled 2-qubit and 2-qutrit states with different degrees of entanglement using numerically optimized measurement settings. The qudits are encoded and manipulated in the frequency spectrum of broadband energy-time entangled photons by taking into account a spatial light modulator. The latter allows to discretize the spectrum into bins. By controlling each frequency bin individually, the generation of maximally and non-maximally entangled qutrits is verified through quantum state tomography.
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…
We show that the transfer of the angular spectrum of the pump beam to the two-photon state in spontaneous parametric down-conversion enables the generation of entangled Hermite-Gaussian modes. We derive an analytical expression for the two-photon state in terms of these modes and show that there are restrictions on both the parity and order of the down-converted Hermite-Gaussian fields. Using these results, we show that the two-photon state is indeed entangled in Hermite-Gaussian modes. We propose experimental methods of creating maximally-entangled Bell states and non-maximally entangled pure…
Quantum state tomography (QST) is an essential tool for characterizing an unknown quantum state. Recently, QST has been performed for entangled qudits based on orbital angular momentum, time-energy uncertainty, and frequency bins. Here, we propose a QST for time-bin qudits, with which the number of measurement settings scales linearly with dimension $d$. Using the proposed scheme, we performed QST for a four-dimensional time-bin maximally entangled state with 16 measurement settings. We successfully reconstructed the density matrix of the entangled qudits, with which the average fidelity of th…
For entangled states of light both the amount of entanglement and the sensitivity to noise generally increase with the number of photons in the state. The entanglement-sensitivity tradeoff is investigated for a particular set of states, multi-dimensional entangled coherent states. Those states possess an arbitrarily large amount of entanglement $E$ provided the number of photons is at least of order $2^{2E}$. We calculate how fast that entanglement decays due to photon absorption losses and how much entanglement is left. We find that for very small losses the amount of entanglement lost is equ…
We present a new scheme to generate high dimensional entanglement between two photonic systems. The idea is based on parametric down conversion with a sequence of pump pulses generated by a mode-locked laser. We prove experimentally the feasibility of this scheme by performing a Franson-type Bell test using a 2-way interferometer with path-length difference equal to the distance between 2 pump pulses. With this experiment, we can demonstrate entanglement for a two-photon state of at least dimension D=11. Finally, we propose a feasible experiment to show a Fabry-Perot like effect for a high dim…
We put forward an effective amplification protocol for protecting the single-photon entangled state of the time-bin qubit. The protocol only requires one pair of the single-photon entangled state and some auxiliary single photons. With the help of the 50:50 beam splitters, variable beam splitters with the transmission of $t$ and the polarizing beam splitters, we can increase the fidelity of the single-photon entangled state under $t<\frac{1}{2}$. Moreover, the encoded time-bin information can be perfectly contained. Our protocol is quite simple and economical. More importantly, it can be reali…
Time-bin entangled photons are ideal for long-distance quantum communication via optical fibers. Here we present a source where, even at high creation rates, each excitation pulse generates at most one time-bin entangled pair. This is important for the accuracy and security of quantum communication. Our site-controlled quantum dot generates single polarization-entangled photon pairs, which are then converted, without loss of entanglement strength, into single time-bin entangled photon pairs.
We present two hyperentanglement concentration schemes for two-photon states that are partially entangled in the polarization and time-bin degrees of freedom. The first scheme distills a maximally hyperentangled state from two identical less-entangled states with unknown parameters via the Schmidt projection method. The other scheme can be used to concentrate an initial state with known parameters, and requires only one copy of the initial state for the concentration process. Both these two protocols can be generalized to concentrate N-photon hyperentangled Greenberger- Horne-Zeilinger states …
We introduce a scalable photonic platform that enables efficient generation of entangled photon pairs from a semiconductor quantum dot. Our system, which is based on a self-aligned quantum dot-micro-cavity structure, erases the need for complex steps of lithography and nanofabrication. We experimentally show collection efficiency of 0.17 combined with a Purcell enhancement of up to 1.7 in the pair emission process. We harness the potential of our device to generate photon pairs entangled in time bin, reaching a fidelity of 0.84(5) with the maximally entangled state. The achieved pair collectio…
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 report a simple scheme for direct generation of frequency-bin entangled photon pairs via spontaneous parametric downconversion. Our fabricated nonlinear optical crystal with two different poling periods can simultaneously satisfy two different, spectrally symmetric nondegenerate quasi-phase-matching conditions, enabling the direct generation of entanglement in two discrete frequency-bin modes. Our produced photon pairs exhibited Hong-Ou-Mandel interference with high-visibility beating oscillations, a signature of two-mode frequency-bin entanglement. Moreover, we demonstrate deterministic en…
We show that two initially non-resonant quantum dots may be brought into resonance by the application of a single detuned laser. This allows for control of the inter-dot interactions and the generation of highly entangled excitonic states on the picosecond timescale. Along with arbitrary single qubit manipulations, this system would be sufficient for the demonstration of a prototype excitonic quantum computer.
We experimentally investigate the robustness of maximal and non-maximal Time-Bin entangled photons over distances up to 11 km. The entanglement is determined by controllable parameters and in all cases is shown to be robust, in that the photons maintain their degree of entanglement after transmission.
We show how to create practical, efficient, quantum repeaters, employing double-photon guns, for long-distance optical quantum communication. The guns create polarization-entangled photon pairs on demand. One such source might be a semiconducter quantum dot, which has the distinct advantage over parametric down-conversion that the probability of creating a photon pair is close to one, while the probability of creating multiple pairs vanishes. The swapping and purifying components are implemented by polarizing beam splitters and probabilistic optical CNOT gates.
Many quantum information protocols require a Bell-state measurement of entangled systems. Most optical Bell-state measurements utilize two-photon interference at a beam splitter. By creating polarization-entangled photons with spontaneous parametric down-conversion using a first-order Hermite-Gaussian pump beam, we invert the usual interference behavior and perform an incomplete Bell-state measurement in the coincidence basis. We discuss the possibility of a complete Bell-state measurement in the coincidence basis using hyperentangled states [Phys. Rev. A, \textbf{58}, R2623 (1998)].
Long distance quantum communication is one of the prime goals in the field of quantum information science. With information encoded in the quantum state of photons, existing telecommunication fiber networks can be effectively used as a transport medium. To achieve this goal, a source of robust entangled single photon pairs is required. While time-bin entanglement offers the required robustness, currently used parametric down-conversion sources have limited performance due to multi-pair contributions. We report the realization of a source of single time-bin entangled photon pairs utilizing the …
Resonant excitation of the biexciton state in an InAsP quantum dot by a phase-coherent pair of picosecond pulses allows preparing time-bin entangled pairs of photons via the biexciton-exciton cascade. We show that this scheme can be implemented for a dot embedded in an InP nanowire. The underlying physical mechanisms can be represented and quantitatively analyzed by an effective three-level open system master equation. Simulation parameters including decay and intensity dependent dephasing rates are extracted from experimental data, which in turn let us predict the resulting entanglement and o…
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.
Quantum frequency combs from chip-scale integrated sources are promising candidates for scalable and robust quantum information processing (QIP). However, to use these quantum combs for frequency domain QIP, demonstration of entanglement in the frequency basis, showing that the entangled photons are in a coherent superposition of multiple frequency bins, is required. We present a verification of qubit and qutrit frequency-bin entanglement using an on-chip quantum frequency comb with 40 mode pairs, through a two-photon interference measurement that is based on electro-optic phase modulation. Ou…
We present a scheme to realize a deterministic solid state source of time-bin entangled photon pairs using cavity-assisted stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) in a single quantum dot. The quantum dot is embedded inside a semiconductor cavity, and the interaction of a coherent superposition of two temporally separated input pulses and the cavity mode leads to a two-photon Raman transition, which produces a time-bin entangled photon pair through the biexciton-exciton cascade. We show that the entanglement of the generated state can be measured using triple coincidence detection, and the …
