We propose a practical quantum cryptographic scheme which combines high information capacity, such as provided by high-dimensional quantum entanglement, with the simplicity of a two-dimensional Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (CHSH) Bell test for security
verification. By applying a state combining entanglement in a two-dimensional degree of freedom, such as photon polarization, with high-dimensional correlations in another degree of freedom, such as photon orbital angular momentum (OAM) or path, the scheme provides a considerably simplified route towards security verification in quantum key distribution (QKD) aimed at exploiting high-dimensional quantum systems for increased secure key rates. It also benefits from security against collective attacks and is feasible using currently available technologies.
An important task for quantum information processing is optimal discrimination between two non-orthogonal quantum states, which until now has only been realized optically. Here, we present and compare experimental realizations of optimal quantum meas
urements for distinguishing between two non-orthogonal quantum states encoded in a single ^14 N nuclear spin. Implemented measurement schemes are the minimum-error measurement (known as Helstrom measurement), unambiguous state discrimination using a standard projective measurement, and optimal unambiguous state discrimination (known as IDP measurement), which utilizes a three-dimensional Hilbert space. Measurement efficiencies are found to be above 80% for all schemes and reach a value of 90% for the IDP measurement
Quantum correlations resulting in violations of Bell inequalities have generated a lot of interest in quantum information science and fundamental physics. In this paper, we address some questions that become relevant in Bell-type tests involving syst
ems with local dimension greater than 2. For CHSH-Bell tests within 2-dimensional subspaces of such high-dimensional systems, it has been suggested that experimental violation of Tsirelsons bound indicates that more than 2-dimensional entanglement was present. We explain that the overstepping of Tsirelsons bound is due to violation of fair sampling, and can in general be reproduced by a separable state, if fair sampling is violated. For a class of Bell-type inequalities generalized to d-dimensional systems, we then consider what level of violation is required to guarantee d-dimensional entanglement of the tested state, when fair sampling is satisfied. We find that this can be used as an experimentally feasible test of d-dimensional entanglement for up to quite high values of d.
Quantum entanglement plays a vital role in many quantum information and communication tasks. Entangled states of higher dimensional systems are of great interest due to the extended possibilities they provide. For example, they allow the realisation
of new types of quantum information schemes that can offer higher information-density coding and greater resilience to errors than can be achieved with entangled two-dimensional systems. Closing the detection loophole in Bell test experiments is also more experimentally feasible when higher dimensional entangled systems are used. We have measured previously untested correlations between two photons to experimentally demonstrate high-dimensional entangled states. We obtain violations of Bell-type inequalities generalised to d-dimensional systems with up to d = 12. Furthermore, the violations are strong enough to indicate genuine 11-dimensional entanglement. Our experiments use photons entangled in orbital angular momentum (OAM), generated through spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC), and manipulated using computer controlled holograms.
Generalized quantum measurements are an important extension of projective or von Neumann measurements, in that they can be used to describe any measurement that can be implemented on a quantum system. We describe how to realize two non-standard quant
um measurements using cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED). The first measurement optimally and unabmiguously distinguishes between two non-orthogonal quantum states. The second example is a measurement that demonstrates superadditive quantum coding gain. The experimental tools used are single-atom unitary operations effected by Ramsey pulses and two-atom Tavis-Cummings interactions. We show how the superadditive quantum coding gain is affected by errors in the field-ionisation detection of atoms, and that even with rather high levels of experimental imperfections, a reasonable amount of superadditivity can still be seen. To date, these types of measurement have only been realized on photons. It would be of great interest to have realizations using other physical systems. This is for fundamental reasons, but also since quantum coding gain in general increases with code word length, and a realization using atoms could be more easily scaled than existing realizations using photons.
