We present a scheme to conditionally engineer an optical quantum system via continuous-variable measurements. This scheme yields high-fidelity squeezed single photon and superposition of coherent states, from input single and two photon Fock states respectively. The input Fock state is interacted with an ancilla squeezed vacuum state using a beam-splitter. We transform the quantum system by post-selecting on the continuous-observable measurement outcome of the ancilla state. We experimentally demonstrate the principles of this scheme using displaced coherent states and measure experimentally fidelities that are only achievable using quantum resources.
We introduce a robust scheme for long-distance continuous-variable (CV) measurement-device-independent (MDI) quantum key distribution (QKD) in which we employ post-selection between distant parties communicating through the medium of an untrusted relay. We perform a security analysis that allows for general transmissivity and thermal noise variance of each link, in which we assume an eavesdropper performs a collective attack and controls the excess thermal noise in the channels. The introduction of post-selection enables the parties to sustain a secret key rate over distances exceeding those of existing CV MDI protocols. In the worst-case scenario in which the relay is positioned equidistant between them, we find that the parties may communicate securely over a range of 14 km in standard optical fiber. Our protocol helps to overcome the rate-distance limitations of previously proposed CV MDI protocols while maintaining many of their advantages.
In a continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD) protocol, which is based on heterodyne detection at the receiver, the application of a noiseless linear amplifier (NLA) on the received signal before the detection can be emulated by the post-selection of the detection outcome. Such a post-selection, which is also called a measurement-based NLA, requires a cut-off to produce a normalisable filter function. Increasing the cut-off with respect to the received signals results in a more faithful emulation of the NLA and nearly Gaussian output statistics at the cost of discarding more data. While recent works have shown the benefits of post-selection via an asymptotic security analysis, we undertake the first investigation of such a post-selection utilising a composable security proof in the realistic finite-size regime, where this trade-off is extremely relevant. We show that this form of post-selection can improve the secure range of a CV-QKD over lossy thermal channels if the finite block size is sufficiently large and that the optimal value for the filter cut-off is typically in the non-Gaussian regime. The relatively modest improvement in the finite-size regime as compared to the asymptotic case highlights the need for new tools to prove the security of non-Gaussian cryptographic protocols. These results also represent a quantitative assessment of a measurement-based NLA with an entangled-state input in both the Gaussian and non-Gaussian regime.
In this paper we study the protocol implementation and property analysis for several practical quantum secret sharing (QSS) schemes with continuous variable graph state (CVGS). For each QSS scheme, an implementation protocol is designed according to its secret and communication channel types. The estimation error is derived explicitly, which facilitates the unbiased estimation and error variance minimization. It turns out that only under infinite squeezing can the secret be perfectly reconstructed. Furthermore, we derive the condition for QSS threshold protocol on a weighted CVGS. Under certain conditions, the perfect reconstruction of the secret for two non-cooperative groups is exclusive, i.e. if one group gets the secret perfectly, the other group cannot get any information about the secret.
We propose a procedure for tomographic characterization of continuous variable quantum operations which employs homodyne detection and single-mode squeezed probe states with a fixed degree of squeezing and anti-squeezing and a variable displacement and orientation of squeezing ellipse. Density matrix elements of a quantum process matrix in Fock basis can be estimated by averaging well behaved pattern functions over the homodyne data. We show that this approach can be straightforwardly extended to characterization of quantum measurement devices. The probe states can be mixed, which makes the proposed procedure feasible with current technology.
We present an experimental realization of a low-noise, phase-insensitive optical amplifier using a four-wave mixing interaction in hot Rb vapor. Performance near the quantum limit for a range of amplifier gains, including near unity, can be achieved. Such low-noise amplifiers are essential for so-called quantum cloning machines and are useful in quantum information protocols. We demonstrate that amplification and ``cloning of one half of a two-mode squeezed state is possible while preserving entanglement.