No Arabic abstract
We theoretically demonstrate dynamically selective bidirectional emission and absorption of a single itinerant microwave photon in a waveguide. The proposed device is an artificial molecule composed of two qubits coupled to a waveguide a quarter-wavelength apart. By using simulations based on the input--output theory, we show that upon preparing an appropriate entangled state of the two qubits, a photon is emitted directionally as a result of the destructive interference occurring either at the right or left of the qubits. Moreover, we demonstrate that this artificial molecule possesses the capability of absorbing and transmitting an incoming photon on-demand, a feature essential to the creation of a fully inter-connected one-dimensional quantum network, in which quantum information can be exchanged between any two given nodes.
Single photon detectors are fundamental tools of investigation in quantum optics and play a central role in measurement theory and quantum informatics. Photodetectors based on different technologies exist at optical frequencies and much effort is currently being spent on pushing their efficiencies to meet the demands coming from the quantum computing and quantum communication proposals. In the microwave regime however, a single photon detector has remained elusive although several theoretical proposals have been put forth. In this article, we review these recent proposals, especially focusing on non-destructive detectors of propagating microwave photons. These detection schemes using superconducting artificial atoms can reach detection efficiencies of 90% with existing technologies and are ripe for experimental investigations.
A localized qubit entangled with a propagating quantum field is well suited to study non-local aspects of quantum mechanics and may also provide a channel to communicate between spatially separated nodes in a quantum network. Here, we report the on demand generation and characterization of Bell-type entangled states between a superconducting qubit and propagating microwave fields composed of zero, one and two-photon Fock states. Using low noise linear amplification and efficient data acquisition we extract all relevant correlations between the qubit and the photon states and demonstrate entanglement with high fidelity.
Realizing a fully connected network of quantum processors requires the ability to distribute quantum entanglement. For distant processing nodes, this can be achieved by generating, routing, and capturing spatially entangled itinerant photons. In this work, we demonstrate the deterministic generation of such photons using superconducting transmon qubits that are directly coupled to a waveguide. In particular, we generate two-photon N00N states and show that the state and spatial entanglement of the emitted photons are tunable via the qubit frequencies. Using quadrature amplitude detection, we reconstruct the moments and correlations of the photonic modes and demonstrate state preparation fidelities of $84%$. Our results provide a path towards realizing quantum communication and teleportation protocols using itinerant photons generated by quantum interference within a waveguide quantum electrodynamics architecture.
Deterministic photon-photon gates enable the controlled generation of entanglement between mobile carriers of quantum information. Such gates have thus far been exclusively realized in the optical domain and by relying on post-selection. Here, we present a non-post-selected, deterministic, photon-photon gate in the microwave frequency range realized using superconducting circuits. We emit photonic qubits from a source chip and route those qubits to a gate chip with which we realize a universal gate set by combining controlled absorption and re-emission with single-qubit gates and qubit-photon controlled-phase gates. We measure quantum process fidelities of $75,%$ for single- and of $57,%$ for two-qubit gates, limited mainly by radiation loss and decoherence. This universal gate set has a wide range of potential applications in superconducting quantum networks.
We develop a wavefunction approach to describe the scattering of two photons on a quantum emitter embedded in a one-dimensional waveguide. Our method allows us to calculate the exact dynamics of the complete system at all times, as well as the transmission properties of the emitter. We show that the non-linearity of the emitter with respect to incoming photons depends strongly on the emitter excitation and the spectral shape of the incoming pulses, resulting in transmission of the photons which depends crucially on their separation and width. In addition, for counter-propagating pulses, we analyze the induced level of quantum correlations in the scattered state, and we show that the emitter behaves as a non-linear beam-splitter when the spectral width of the photon pulses is similar to the emitter decay rate.