No Arabic abstract
It is shown that a classical optical Fourier processor can be used for the shaping of quantum correlations between two or more photons, and the class of Fourier masks applicable in the multiphoton Fourier space is identified. This concept is experimentally demonstrated using two types of periodic phase masks illuminated with path-entangled photon pairs, a highly non-classical state of light. Applied first were sinusoidal phase masks, emulating two-particle quantum walk on a periodic lattice, yielding intricate correlation patterns with various spatial bunching and anti-bunching effects depending on the initial state. Then, a periodic Zernike-like filter was applied on top of the sinusoidal phase masks. Using this filter, phase information lost in the original correlation measurements was retrieved.
Fourier transform spectroscopy with classical interferometry corresponds to the measurement of a single-photon intensity spectrum from the viewpoint of the particle nature of light. In contrast, the Fourier transform of two-photon quantum interference patterns provides the intensity spectrum of the two photons as a function of the sum or difference frequency of the constituent photons. This unique feature of quantum interferometric spectroscopy offers a different type of spectral information from the classical measurement and may prove useful for nonlinear spectroscopy with two-photon emission. Here, we report the first experimental demonstration of two-photon quantum interference of photon pairs emitted via biexcitons in the semiconductor CuCl. Besides applying Fourier transform to quantum interference patterns, we reconstruct the intensity spectrum of the biexciton luminescence in the two-photon sum or difference frequency. We discuss the connection between the reconstructed spectra and exciton states in CuCl as well as the capability of quantum interferometry in solid-state spectroscopy.
High-dimensional entangled photons are a key resource for advanced quantum information processing. Efficient processing of high-dimensional entangled photons requires the ability to synthesize their state using general unitary transformations. The leading technology for processing photons in high-dimensions is integrated multiport interferometers. However, such devices are incompatible with free-space and fiber-based systems, and their architecture poses significant scaling challenges. Here we unlock these limitations by demonstrating a reconfigurable processor of entangled photons that is based on multi-plane light conversion (MPLC), a technology that was recently developed for multiplexing hundreds of spatial modes for classical free-space and fiber communication. To demonstrate the flexibility of MPLC, we perform four key tasks of quantum information processing using the same MPLC hardware: entanglement certification, tailored two-photon interference, arbitrary state transformations, and mode conversion. Based on the high degree of control we obtain, we expect MPLC will become a leading platform for future quantum technologies.
We investigate experiments of continuous-variable quantum information processing based on the teleportation scheme. Quantum teleportation, which is realized by a two-mode squeezed vacuum state and measurement-and-feedforward, is considered as an elementary quantum circuit as well as quantum communication. By modifying ancilla states or measurement-and-feedforwards, we can realize various quantum circuits which suffice for universal quantum computation. In order to realize the teleportation-based computation we improve the level of squeezing, and fidelity of teleportation. With a high-fidelity teleporter we demonstrate some advanced teleportation experiments, i.e., teleportation of a squeezed state and sequential teleportation of a coherent state. Moreover, as an example of the teleportation-based computation, we build a QND interaction gate which is a continuous-variable analog of a CNOT gate. A QND interaction gate is constructed only with ancillary squeezed vacuum states and measurement-and-feedforwards. We also create continuous-variable four mode cluster type entanglement for further application, namely, one-way quantum computation.
We show that it is possible to estimate the shape of an object by measuring only the fluctuations of a probing field, allowing us to expose the object to a minimal light intensity. This scheme, based on noise measurements through homodyne detection, is useful in the regime where the number of photons is low enough that direct detection with a photodiode is difficult but high enough such that photon counting is not an option. We generate a few-photon state of multi-spatial-mode vacuum-squeezed twin beams using four-wave mixing and direct one of these twin fields through a binary intensity mask whose shape is to be imaged. Exploiting either the classical fluctuations in a single beam or quantum correlations between the twin beams, we demonstrate that under some conditions quantum correlations can provide an enhancement in sensitivity when estimating the shape of the object.
Entanglement in high-dimensional quantum systems, where one or more degrees of freedom of light are involved, offers increased information capacities and enables new quantum protocols. Here, we demonstrate a functional source of high-dimensional, noise-resilient hyperentangled states encoded in time-frequency and vector-vortex structured modes, which in turn carry single-particle entanglement between polarisation and orbital angular momentum. Pairing nonlinearity-engineered parametric downconversion in an interferometric scheme with spin-to-orbital-angular-momentum conversion, we generate highly entangled photon pairs at telecom wavelength that we characterise via two-photon interference and quantum state tomography, achieving near-unity visibilities and fidelities. While hyperentanglement has been demonstrated before in photonic qubits, this is the first instance of such a rich entanglement structure involving spectrally and spatially structured light, where three different forms of entanglement coexist in the same biphoton state.