No Arabic abstract
The global quantum network requires the distribution of entangled states over long distances, with significant advances already demonstrated using entangled polarisation states, reaching approximately 1200 km in free space and 100 km in optical fibre. Packing more information into each photon requires Hilbert spaces with higher dimensionality, for example, that of spatial modes of light. However spatial mode entanglement transport requires custom multimode fibre and is limited by decoherence induced mode coupling. Here we transport multi-dimensional entangled states down conventional single-mode fibre (SMF). We achieve this by entangling the spin-orbit degrees of freedom of a bi-photon pair, passing the polarisation (spin) photon down the SMF while accessing multi-dimensional orbital angular momentum (orbital) subspaces with the other. We show high fidelity hybrid entanglement preservation down 250 m of SMF across multiple 2x2 dimensions, demonstrating quantum key distribution protocols, quantum state tomographies and quantum erasers. This work offers an alternative approach to spatial mode entanglement transport that facilitates deployment in legacy networks across conventional fibre.
High-dimensional entanglement promises to greatly enhance the performance of quantum communication and enable quantum advantages unreachable by qubit entanglement. One of the great challenges, however, is the reliable production, distribution and local certification of high-dimensional sources of entanglement. In this article, we present an optical setup capable of producing quantum states with an exceptionally high-level of scalability, control and quality, that, together with novel certification techniques, achieve the highest amount of entanglement recorded so far. We showcase entanglement in $32$-spatial dimensions with record fidelity to the maximally entangled state ($F=0.933pm0.001$) and introduce measurement efficient schemes to certify entanglement of formation ($E_{oF}=3.728pm0.006$). Combined with the existing multi-core fibre technology, our results will lay a solid foundation for the construction of high-dimensional quantum networks.
A thermal field, which frequently appears in problems of decoherence, provides us with minimal information about the field. We study the interaction of the thermal field and a quantum system composed of two qubits and find that such a chaotic field with minimal information can nevertheless entangle the qubits which are prepared initially in a separable state. This simple model of a quantum register interacting with a noisy environment allows us to understand how memory of the environment affects the state of a quantum register.
We study the quantum properties of the polarization of the light produced in type II spontaneous parametric down-conversion in the framework of a multi-mode model valid in any gain regime. We show that the the microscopic polarization entanglement of photon pairs survives in the high gain regime (multi-photon regime), in the form of nonclassical correlation of all the Stokes operators describing polarization degrees of freedom.
Entanglement verification and measurement is essential for experimental tests of quantum mechanics and also for quantum communication and information science. Standard methods of verifying entanglement in a bipartite mixed state require detection of both particles and involve coincidence measurement. We present a method that enables us to verify and measure entanglement in a two-photon mixed state without detecting one of the photons, i.e., without performing any coincidence measurement or postselection. We consider two identical sources, each of which can generate the same two-photon mixed state but they never emit simultaneously. We show that one can produce a set of single-photon interference patterns, which contain information about entanglement in the two-photon mixed state. We prove that it is possible to retrieve the information about entanglement from the visibility of the interference patterns. Our method reveals a distinct avenue for verifying and measuring entanglement in mixed states.
Entanglement is a fundamental feature of quantum mechanics, considered a key resource in quantum information processing. Measuring entanglement is an essential step in a wide range of applied and foundational quantum experiments. When a two-particle quantum state is not pure, standard methods to measure the entanglement require detection of both particles. We introduce a method in which detection of only one of the particles is required to characterize the entanglement of a two-particle mixed state. Our method is based on the principle of quantum interference. We use two identical sources of a two-photon mixed state and generate a set of single-photon interference patterns. The entanglement of the two-photon quantum state is characterized by the visibility of the interference patterns. Our experiment thus opens up a distinct avenue for verifying and measuring entanglement, and can allow for mixed state entanglement characterization even when one particle in the pair cannot be detected.