Entangled Photon Pairs Research Articles

Complete Characterization of Quantum Correlations by Randomized Measurements.

The fact that quantum mechanics predicts stronger correlations than classical physics is an essential cornerstone of quantum information processing. Indeed, these quantum correlations are a valuable resource for various tasks, such as quantum key distribution or quantum teleportation, but characterizing these correlations in an experimental setting is a formidable task, especially in scenarios where no shared reference frames are available. By definition, quantum correlations are reference-frame independent, i.e., invariant under local transformations; this physically motivated invariance implies, however, a dedicated mathematical structure and, therefore, constitutes a roadblock for an efficient analysis of these correlations in experiments. Here we provide a method to directly measure any locally invariant property of quantum states using locally randomized measurements, and we present a detailed toolbox to analyze these correlations for two quantum bits. We implement these methods experimentally using pairs of entangled photons, characterizing their usefulness for quantum teleportation and their potential to display quantum nonlocality in its simplest form. Our results can be applied to various quantum computing platforms, allowing simple analysis of correlations between arbitrary distant qubits in the architecture.

High-resolution X-ray diffraction to probe quantum dot asymmetry

The symmetry of nanostructures forming an active part of optoelectronic devices severely impacts their properties. It is crucial for the design of polarization-insensitive semiconductor optical amplifiers or sources of entangled photon pairs. We show how quantum dot symmetry can be measured, including atomic force microscopy and polarization-resolved spectroscopy. We discuss the drawbacks of the typical approaches for nanostructure symmetry detection and propose a way to determine quantum dot geometrical aspect ratio based on high-resolution X-ray diffraction. The offered method provides a non-destructive insight into crystal lattice disturbances reflecting in-plane quantum dot geometrical aspect ratio.

Entangled X-Ray Photon Pair Generation by Free-Electron Lasers.

We investigate entangled x-ray photon pair emissions in a free-electron laser (FEL) and establish a quantum electrodynamical theory for coherently amplified entangled photon pair emission from microbunched electron pulses in the undulator. We provide a scheme to generate highly entangled x-ray photon pairs and numerically demonstrate the properties of entangled emission, which is of great importance in x-ray quantum optics. Our work shows a unique advantage of FELs in entangled x-ray photon pair generation.

Frequency-angular spectrum of entangled photon pairs generated by focused pump

Spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) is a well-established method for generating entangled photon pairs, and their frequency-angular spectrum properties are of significant interest in various applications. Generally, the focused pump can increase the efficiency of single-mode photons generation, and lead to the asymmetric broadening of the SPDC emission cone relative to plane wave, while our analysis shows it will be further intensified when the pump divergence exceeds 1.3°. In this paper, we propose a theoretical model for accurately ascertaining the frequency-angular spectrum of entangled photon pairs produced by arbitrary pumps, then obtain complete spatial distribution and spectral properties of type I and II SPDC photons, and further demonstrate its validity referring to experimental results of other researchers. Our method is available for high-efficient generation of entangled photon pairs through optimizing crystal orientation, pump beam focus, and detection geometry.

Entangled Photon Correlations Allow a Continuous-Wave Laser Diode to Measure Single-Photon, Time-Resolved Fluorescence.

Fluorescence lifetime experiments are a standard approach for measuring excited-state dynamics and local environmental effects. Here, we show that entangled photon pairs produced from a continuous-wave (CW) laser diode can replicate pulsed laser experiments without phase modulation. As a proof of principle, picosecond fluorescence lifetimes of indocyanine green are measured in multiple environments. The use of entangled photons has three unique advantages. First, low-power CW laser diodes and entangled photon source design lead to straightforward on-chip integration for a direct path to distributable fluorescence lifetime measurements. Second, the entangled pair's wavelength is easily tuned by adjusting the temperature or electric field, allowing a single source to cover octave bandwidths. Third, femtosecond temporal resolutions can be reached without requiring major advances in source technology or external phase modulation. Entangled photons could therefore provide increased accessibility to time-resolved fluorescence while also opening new scientific avenues in photosensitive and inherently quantum systems.

Reconfigurable Silicon Photonic Chip for the Generation Of Frequency-Bin-Entangled Qudits

Quantum optical microcombs in integrated ring resonators generate entangled photon pairs over many spectral modes, and allow the preparation of high-dimensional qudit states. Ideally, those sources should be programmable and have a high generation rate, with comb lines tightly spaced for the implementation of efficient qudit gates based on electro-optic frequency mixing. While these requirements cannot all be satisfied by a single resonator device, for which there is a trade-off between the high generation rate and tight bin spacing, a promising strategy is the use of multiple resonators, each generating photon pairs in specific frequency bins via spontaneous four-wave mixing. Based on this approach we present a programmable silicon photonics device for the generation of frequency-bin-entangled qudits, in which bin spacing, qudit dimension, and the bipartite quantum state can be reconfigured on chip. Using resonators with a radius of $22\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{\ensuremath{\mu}}\mathrm{m}$, we achieve a high brightness [about $\mathrm{MHz}/(\mathrm{mW}{)}^{2}$] per comb line with a bin spacing of 15 GHz, and fidelities above 85% with maximally entangled Bell states up to a Hilbert space dimension of 16. By individually addressing each spectral mode, we realize states that cannot be generated on chip using a single resonator. We measure the correlation matrices of maximally entangled two-qubit and two-qutrit states on a set of mutually unbiased bases, finding fidelities exceeding 98%, and indicating that the source can find application in high-dimensional secure communication protocols.

Collective excitation of spatio-spectrally distinct quantum dots enabled by chirped pulses

Nanoscale bright sources that produce high-purity single photons and high-fidelity entangled photon pairs are the building blocks to realize high security quantum communication devices. To achieve high communication rates, it is desirable to have an ensemble of quantum emitters that can be collectively excited, despite their spectral variability. In case of semiconductor quantum dots, Rabi rotations are the most popular method for resonant excitation. However, these cannot assure a universal, highly efficient excited state preparation, due to the sensitivity to excitation parameters. In contrast, adiabatic rapid passage (ARP), relying on chirped optical pulses, is immune to quantum dot spectral inhomogeneity. Here, we show that the robustness of ARP holds true for the simultaneous excitation of the biexciton states in multiple, spatially separated and spectrally different quantum dots. For positive chirps, we also find a regime where the influence of phonons relax the sensitivity to spectral detunings and lower the needed excitation power. Being able to generate high-purity photons from spatially multiplexed quantum dot sources using the biexciton to ground state cascade is a big step towards the implementation of high photon rate, entanglement-based quantum key distribution protocols.

Investigation of the biexciton radiative cascade in a single InAs/GaAs quantum dot embedded in a high-Q microcavity

A biexciton radiative cascade was recorded in the photoluminescence spectra of an InAs/GaAs QD embedded in a λ-cavity with a relatively high-quality factor of 4600, formed in a micropillar with GaAs/AlGaAs distributed Bragg reflectors. The spectrum and kinetics of the radiation, measured under conditions of two-photon excitation, demonstrated a significant effect of the microcavity on the emission process. A possible improvement based on this effect in the generation of entangled photon pairs is discussed.

Understanding the Correlation Between Structure and Entangled Photon Pair Properties with Metal–Organic Frameworks

Spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC) is a quantum second-order nonlinear optical process where the photons generated are frequently used in quantum information processing. Materials with large second-order nonlinearities (χ(2)) can be used as entangled photon sources with a high brightness. The source brightness scales as the square of the effective nonlinearity (deff), which is an intrinsic property of the material. Understanding material factors that can significantly alter this intrinsic property is useful in developing new materials that are SPDC efficient. In our work we focus on understanding factors affecting the entangled photon pair properties, such as the arrangements of ligands within the Zn(3-ptz)2 metal–organic framework (MOF) crystal and temperature. We find that the arrangement and alignment of the pyridine rings in the crystal structure significantly affect the deff and birefringence (Δn). Smaller pyridine ring alignments relative to the optic c-axis increase the Δn, which in turn leads to larger photon pair correlation times (τc) in coincidence measurements. Our work has significant implications in understanding the effect of ligand arrangement on deff and τc for any MOF crystal structure, providing a tool to rationalize the optimization of MOF crystals for the development of efficient nonlinear optical devices.

Zero-threshold correlated-photon laser with a single trapped atom in a bimodal cavity

We demonstrate theoretically the feasibility of correlated entangled photon-pair generation with vanishing threshold in a bimodal cavity setup that uses a single V-type three level atom pumped by dual incoherent sources and driven by two coherent fields. The photon-pair is shown to be entangled only for low levels of the incoherent pumps and owes its origin solely to the coherent drives. Our results show that the dual incoherent pumping with no coherent drive can lead to amplification of the cavity fields with strong inter-mode antibunching but no entanglement. We analyse our results in terms of an interplay between coherent and incoherent processes involving cavity-dressed states. Both the inter- and intra-mode Hanbury–Brown–Twiss (HBT) functions exhibit temporal oscillations in the strong-coupling cavity QED regime. Our theoretical scheme for the generation of nonclassical and entangled photon pairs may find interesting applications in quantum metrology and quantum information science.

Nonlocal interaction enhanced biexciton emission in large CsPbBr3 nanocrystals

Biexciton emission in quantum dots is an efficient way to generate entangled photon pairs, which are key resources in quantum informatics. Compared with epitaxial grown quantum dots, chemically synthesized colloidal quantum dots show advantages of tunable wavelength and easy integration to realize quantum light sources. However, biexciton efficiency of colloidal quantum dots has been limited by Auger recombination. In this paper, we reported nonlocal interaction enhanced biexciton emission with efficiency up to 80% in large perovskite nanocrystals (> 20 nm). The nonlocal interaction between carriers and excitons leads to the abnormal exponential decrease of Auger recombination with volume in large nanocrystals, which distinguishes with the linear scaling in small counterparts. Such an exponential decrease of Auger recombination results in long lifetime of biexcitons, responsible for the required high biexciton efficiency. The discovery of nonlocal effects in large semiconductor nanocrystals provides new strategies to achieve high efficiency multiple excitons for quantum optics and energy conversation applications.

Photoelectron spectroscopy with entangled photons; enhanced spectrotemporal resolution

In this theoretical study, we show how photoelectron signals generated by time-energy entangled photon pairs can monitor ultrafast excited state dynamics of molecules with high joint spectral and temporal resolutions, not limited by the Fourier uncertainty of classical light. This technique scales linearly, rather than quadratically, with the pump intensity, allowing the study of fragile biological samples with low photon fluxes. Since the spectral resolution is achieved by electron detection and the temporal resolution by a variable phase delay, this technique does not require scanning the pump frequency and the entanglement times, which significantly simplifies the experimental setup, making it feasible with current instrumentation. Application is made to the photodissociation dynamics of pyrrole calculated by exact nonadiabatic wave packet simulations in a reduced two nuclear coordinate space. This study demonstrates the unique advantages of ultrafast quantum light spectroscopy.

Testing entanglement of annihilation photons

We present a new experimental study of the quantum entanglement of photon pairs produced in positron-electron annihilation at rest. Each annihilation photon has an energy that is five orders of magnitude higher than the energy of photons in optical experiments. It provides a unique opportunity for controlled Compton pre-scattering of initial photons before the polarization measurements. The experimental setup includes a system of Compton polarimeters to measure the angular correlations of annihilation photons in initial and thus prepared pre-scattered states. For the first time, a direct comparison of the polarization correlations of initial and pre-scattered annihilation photons has been carried out. The angular distributions of scattered in polarimeters photons turned out to be the same for both types of events. Moreover, the correlation function in the Bell’s inequality is also the same for both states. We discuss the implications of our results for quantum measurement theory and for the quantum-entangled positron emission tomography.

Realization of a source-device-independent quantum random number generator secured by nonlocal dispersion cancellation

Quantum random number generators (QRNGs) can provide genuine randomness by exploiting the intrinsic probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics, which play important roles in many applications. However, the true randomness acquisition could be subjected to attacks from untrusted devices involved or their deviations from the theoretical modeling in real-life implementation. We propose and experimentally demonstrate a source-device-independent QRNG, which enables one to access true random bits with an untrusted source device. The random bits are generated by measuring the arrival time of either photon of the time–energy entangled photon pairs produced from spontaneous parametric downconversion, where the entanglement is testified through the observation of nonlocal dispersion cancellation. In experiment, we extract a generation rate of 4 Mbps by a modified entropic uncertainty relation, which can be improved to gigabits per second by using advanced single-photon detectors. Our approach provides a promising candidate for QRNGs with no characterization or error-prone source devices in practice.

Quantum Langevin theory for two coupled phase-conjugated electromagnetic waves

While loss-gain-induced Langevin noises have been intensively studied in quantum optics, the effect of a complex-valued nonlinear coupling coefficient on the noises of two coupled phase-conjugated optical fields has never been questioned before. Here, we provide a general macroscopic phenomenological formula of quantum Langevin equations for two coupled phase-conjugated fields with linear loss (gain) and complex nonlinear coupling coefficient. The macroscopic phenomenological formula is obtained from the coupling matrix to preserve the field commutation relations and correlations, which does not require knowing the microscopic details of light-matter interaction and internal atomic structures. To validate this phenomenological formula, we take spontaneous four-wave mixing in a double-$\Lambda$ four-level atomic system as an example to numerically confirm that our macroscopic phenomenological result is consistent with that obtained from the microscopic Heisenberg-Langevin theory. Finally, we apply the quantum Langevin equations to study the effects of linear gain and loss, complex phase mismatching, as well as complex nonlinear coupling coefficient in entangled photon pair (biphoton) generation, particularly to their temporal quantum correlations.

Compact spin-valley-locked perovskite emission.

Circularly polarized light sources with free-space directional emission play a key role in chiroptics1, spintronics2, valleytronics3 and asymmetric photocatalysis4. However, conventional approaches fail to simultaneously realize pure circular polarization, high directionality and large emission angles in a compact emitter. Metal-halide perovskite semiconductors are promising light emitters5-8, but the absence of an intrinsic spin-locking mechanism results in poor emission chirality. Further, device integration has undermined the efficiency and directionality of perovskite chiral emitters. Here we realize compact spin-valley-locked perovskite emitting metasurfaces where spin-dependent geometric phases are imparted into bound states in the continuum via Brillouin zone folding, and thus, photons with different spins are selectively addressed to opposite valleys. Employing this approach, chiral purity of 0.91 and emission angle of 41.0° are simultaneously achieved, with a beam divergence angle of 1.6°. With this approach, we envisage the realization of chiral light-emitting diodes, as well as the on-chip generation of entangled photon pairs.

Ultra-efficient generation of time-energy entangled photon pairs in an InGaP photonic crystal cavity

The typical approaches to generate heralded single photons rely on parametric processes, with the advantage of generating highly entangled states at the price of a random pair emission. To overcome this limit, degenerate spontaneous Four-Wave-Mixing is a reliable technique which combines two pump photons into a pair of signal and idler photons via Kerr nonlinear optical effect. By exploiting the intrinsic small confinement volume and thermally tuning the resonances of a 20 μm-long Photonic Crystal cavity, we efficiently generate time-energy entangled photon pairs and heralded single photons at a large maximum on-chip rate of 22 MHz, using 36 μW of pump power. We measure time-energy entanglement with net visibility up to 96.6 % using 1 second integration time constant. Our measurements demonstrate the viability of Photonic Crystal cavities to act as an alternative and efficient photon pair source for quantum photonics.

Fabrication of low-loss III-V Bragg-reflection waveguides for parametric down-conversion

Entangled photon pairs are an important resource for many types of quantum protocols. Semiconductor Bragg-reflection waveguides are a promising photon-pair source due to mature fabrication, integrability, large transparency window in the telecom wavelength range, integration capabilities for electro-optical devices as well as a high second-order nonlinear coefficient. To increase performance, we improved the fabrication of Bragg-reflection waveguides by employing fixed-beam-moving-stage optical lithography, low-pressure, and low chlorine concentration etching, and resist reflow. The reduction in sidewall roughness yields a low optical loss coefficient for telecom wavelength light of αreflow = 0.08 (6) mm−1. Owing to the decreased losses, we achieved a photon-pair production rate of 8800 (300) (mW · s · mm)−1, which is 15-fold higher than in previous samples.

Efficient biphoton emission in semiconductors by single-photon recycling

An efficient biphoton emission process in semiconductors can enable the realization of highly tunable lasers, squeezed light sources, and entangled photon pair sources on an integrated platform. We propose a general single-photon recycling scheme to improve the overall efficiency of the typically weak biphoton emission process in a broad class of semiconductor materials. Using a rate-equation-based analysis, we first frame the general design principles and subsequently design a one-dimensional photonic crystal cavity to reach the ideal photon recycling limit for the spontaneously emitted single photons. The cavity is designed with realistic constituent materials to achieve high biphoton output efficiency in the absence of nonradiative recombination channels.

Linear Optical Universal Quantum Gates with Higher Success Probabilities

AbstractUniversal quantum gates lie at the heart of designing quantum computer. Here two compact quantum circuits for implementing post‐selected controlled‐phase‐flip (CPF) gate and Toffoli gate with linear optics are constructed assisted by one and two single photons, respectively. The current existing maximum success probability of 1/4 for linear optical CPF gate is achieved by resorting to an ancillary single photon rather than an entangled photon pair or two single photons. Remarkably, the presented Toffoli gate is accomplished with current maximum success probability of 1/30 and unity fidelity in principle, without using additional entangled photon pairs and the standard decomposition‐based approach. Linear optical implementations of the presented two universal gates are feasible and economical under current technology, and provide a potential application in large‐scale optical quantum computing.