High Fidelities Research Articles

Conversion of Knill–Laflamme–Milburn Entanglement to Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger Entanglement

AbstractSchemes for converting photonic polarized‐entangled Knill–Laflamme–Milburn (KLM) states to Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger (GHZ) states are proposed using weak cross‐Kerr nonlinearity and X‐quadrature homodyne measurement. Analyses show that the two‐qubit (Bell state) and three‐qubit conversion cases have very high fidelities and close‐to‐unity probabilities. The conversion processes are robust against photon loss. The schemes linking these two entangled states may be helpful to the study of quantum information processing based on them.

Heisenberg-limited single-mode quantum metrology in a superconducting circuit

Two-mode interferometers lay the foundations for quantum metrology. Instead of exploring quantum entanglement in the two-mode interferometers, a single bosonic mode also promises a measurement precision beyond the shot-noise limit (SNL) by taking advantage of the infinite-dimensional Hilbert space of Fock states. Here, we demonstrate a single-mode phase estimation that approaches the Heisenberg limit (HL) unconditionally. Due to the strong dispersive nonlinearity and long coherence time of a microwave cavity, quantum states of the form left( {left| 0 rightrangle + left| N rightrangle } right)/sqrt 2 can be generated, manipulated and detected with high fidelities, leading to an experimental phase estimation precision scaling as ∼N−0.94. A 9.1 dB enhancement of the precision over the SNL at N = 12 is achieved, which is only 1.7 dB away from the HL. Our experimental architecture is hardware efficient and can be combined with quantum error correction techniques to fight against decoherence, and thus promises quantum-enhanced sensing in practical applications.

Optical control of entanglement and coherence for polar molecules in pendular states.

Quantum entanglement and coherence are both essential physical resources in quantum theory. Cold polar molecules have long coherence time and strong dipole-dipole interaction and thus have been suggested as a platform for quantum information processing. In this paper, we employ the pendular states of the polar molecules trapped in static electric fields as the qubits, and put forward several theoretical schemes to generate the entanglement and coherence for two coupled dipoles by using optimal control theory. Through the designs of appropriate laser pulses, the transitions from the ground state to the Bell state and maximally coherent state can be realized with high fidelities 0.9906 and 0.9943 in the two-dipole system, respectively. Meanwhile, we show that the degrees of entanglement and coherence between the two pendular qubits are effectively enhanced with the help of optimized control fields. Furthermore, our schemes are generalized to the preparation of the Hardy state and even to the creation of arbitrary two-qubit states. Our findings can shed some light on the implementation of quantum information tasks with the molecular pendular states.

High-fidelity Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state generation within nearby nodes

Generating entanglement in a distributed scenario is a fundamental task for implementing the quantum network of the future. We here report a protocol that uses only linear optics for generating Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states with high fidelities in a nearby node configuration. Moreover, we analytically show that the scheme is optimal for certain initial states in providing the highest success probability for sequential protocols. Finally, we give some estimates for the generation rate in a real scenario.

Optimized cavity-mediated dispersive two-qubit gates between spin qubits

The recent realization of a coherent interface between a single electron in a silicon quantum dot and a single photon trapped in a superconducting cavity opens the way for implementing photon-mediated two-qubit entangling gates. In order to couple a spin to the cavity electric field some type of spin-charge hybridization is needed, which impacts spin control and coherence. In this work we propose a cavity-mediated two-qubit gate and calculate cavity-mediated entangling gate fidelities in the dispersive regime, accounting for errors due to the spin-charge hybridization, as well as photon- and phonon-induced decays. By optimizing the degree of spin-charge hybridization, we show that two-qubit gates mediated by cavity photons are capable of reaching fidelities exceeding 90% in present-day device architectures. High iSWAP gate fidelities are achievable even in the presence of charge noise at the level of $2\,\mu\text{eV}$.

Efficient Generation of Many-Body Entangled States by Multilevel Oscillations.

We generate high-fidelity massively entangled states in an antiferromagnetic spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) by utilizing multilevel oscillations. Combining the multilevel oscillations with additional adiabatic drives, we greatly shorten the necessary evolution time and relax the requirement on the control accuracy of quadratic Zeeman splitting, from microgauss to milligauss, for a ^{23}Na spinor BEC. The achieved high fidelities over 96% show that two kinds of massively entangled states, the many-body singlet state and the twin-Fock state, are almost perfectly generated. The generalized spin squeezing parameter drops to a value far below the standard quantum limit even with the presence of atom number fluctuations and stray magnetic fields, illustrating the robustness of our protocol under real experimental conditions. The generated many-body entangled states can be employed to achieve the Heisenberg-limit quantum precision measurement and to attack nonclassical problems in quantum information science.

Towards long-distance quantum networks with superconducting processors and optical links

We design a quantum repeater architecture, necessary for long distance quantum networks, using the recently proposed microwave cat state qubits, formed and manipulated via interaction between a superconducting nonlinear element and a microwave cavity. These qubits are especially attractive for repeaters because in addition to serving as excellent computational units with deterministic gate operations, they also have coherence times long enough to deal with the unavoidable propagation delays. Since microwave photons are too low in energy to be able to carry quantum information over long distances, as an intermediate step, we expand on a recently proposed microwave to optical transduction protocol using excited states of a rare-earth ion (Er3+) doped crystal. To enhance the entanglement distribution rate, we propose to use spectral multiplexing by employing an array of cavities at each node. We compare our achievable rates with direct transmission and with two other promising repeater approaches, and show that ours could be higher in appropriate regimes, even in the presence of realistic imperfections and noise, while maintaining reasonably high fidelities of the final state. Thus, in the short term, our work could be directly useful for secure quantum communication, whereas in the long term, we can envision a large scale distributed quantum computing network built on our architecture.

Orbital Angular Momentum States Enabling Fiber-based High-dimensional Quantum Communication

Quantum networks are the ultimate target in quantum communication, where many connected users can share information carried by quantum systems. The keystones of such structures are the reliable generation, transmission and manipulation of quantum states. Two-dimensional quantum states, qubits, are steadily adopted as information units. However, high-dimensional quantum states, qudits, constitute a richer resource for future quantum networks, exceeding the limitations imposed by the ubiquitous qubits. The generation and manipulation of such $D$-level systems have been improved over the last ten years, but their reliable transmission between remote locations remains the main challenge. Here, we show how a recent air-core fiber supporting orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes can be exploited to faithfully transmit $D$-dimensional states. Four OAM quantum states and their superpositions are created, propagated in a 1.2 km long fiber and detected with high fidelities. In addition, three quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols are implemented as concrete applications to assert the practicality of our results. This experiment enhances the distribution of high-dimensional quantum states, attesting the orbital angular momentum as vessel for the future quantum network.

Adiabatic quantum dynamics under decoherence in a controllable trapped-ion setup

Suppressing undesired nonunitary effects is a major challenge in quantum computation and quantum control. In this work, by considering the adiabatic dynamics in presence of a surrounding environment, we theoretically and experimentally analyze the robustness of adiabaticity in open quantum systems. More specifically, by considering a decohering scenario, we exploit the validity conditions of the adiabatic approximation as well as its sensitiveness to the resonance situation, which typically harm adiabaticity in closed systems. As an illustration, we implement an oscillating Landau-Zener Hamiltonian, which shows that decoherence may drive the resonant system with high fidelities to the adiabatic behavior of open systems. Moreover we also implement the adiabatic quantum algorithm for the Deutsch problem, where a distinction is established between the open system adiabatic density operator and the target pure state expected in the computation process. Preferred time windows for obtaining the desired outcomes are then analyzed. We experimentally realize these systems through a single trapped Ytterbium ion $^{171}$Yb$^+$, where the ion hyperfine energy levels are used as degrees of freedom of a two-level system, with both driven field and decohering strength efficiently controllable.

Quantum Storage of Single-Photon and Two-Photon Fock States with an All-Optical Quantum Memory.

Quantum memories are a crucial element toward efficient quantum protocols. In the continuous variables domain, such memories need to provide high fidelity with an efficiency set to one. Moreover, one needs to store complex quantum states exhibiting negative Wigner functions after storage. We report the storage of single- and two-photon Fock states in an all-optical quantum memory. The Wigner functions of these states show negativity after a storage time of several hundred nanoseconds. This is, to our knowledge, the first demonstration of the storage in the optical domain of non-Gaussian states with more than one photon, captured from an external source and characterized with homodyne detection.

Gradient-based optimal control of open quantum systems using quantum trajectories and automatic differentiation

We present a gradient-based optimal-control technique for open quantum systems that utilizes quantum trajectories to simulate the quantum dynamics during optimization. Using trajectories allows for optimizing open systems with less computational cost than the regular density matrix approaches in most realistic optimization problems. We introduce an improved-sampling algorithm which minimizes the number of trajectories needed per optimization iteration. Together with employing stochastic gradient descent techniques, this reduces the complexity of optimizing many realistic open quantum systems to the complexity encountered with closed systems. Our optimizer harnesses automatic differentiation to provide flexibility in optimization and to suit the different constraints and diverse parameter regimes of real-life experiments. We utilize the optimizer in a variety of applications to demonstrate how the use of quantum trajectories significantly reduces the computation complexity while achieving a multitude of simultaneous optimization targets. Demonstrated targets include high state-transfer fidelities despite dissipation, faster gate times and maximization of qubit-readout fidelity while maintaining the quantum non-demolition nature of the measurement and allowing for subsequent fast resonator reset.

Fidelity benchmarks for two-qubit gates in silicon.

Universal quantum computation will require qubit technology based on a scalable platform1, together with quantum error correction protocols that place strict limits on the maximum infidelities for one- and two-qubit gate operations2,3. Although various qubit systems have shown high fidelities at the one-qubit level4-10, the only solid-state qubits manufactured using standard lithographic techniques that have demonstrated two-qubit fidelities near the fault-tolerance threshold6 have been in superconductor systems. Silicon-based quantum dot qubits are also amenable to large-scale fabrication and can achieve high single-qubit gate fidelities (exceeding 99.9 per cent) using isotopically enriched silicon11,12. Two-qubit gates have now been demonstrated in a number of systems13-15, but as yet an accurate assessment of their fidelities using Clifford-based randomized benchmarking, which uses sequences of randomly chosen gates to measure the error, has not been achieved. Here, for qubits encoded on the electron spin states of gate-defined quantum dots, we demonstrate Bell state tomography with fidelities ranging from 80 to 89 per cent, and two-qubit randomized benchmarking with an average Clifford gate fidelity of 94.7 per cent and anaverage controlled-rotation fidelity of 98 per cent. These fidelities are found to be limited by the relatively long gate times used here compared with the decoherence times of the qubits. Silicon qubit designs employing fast gate operations with high Rabi frequencies16,17, together with advanced pulsing techniques18, should therefore enable much higher fidelities in the near future.

Experimental detection of qubit-ququart pseudo-bound entanglement using three nuclear spins

In this work, we experimentally created and characterized a class of qubit-ququart PPT (positive under partial transpose) entangled states using three nuclear spins on an nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) quantum information processor. Entanglement detection and characterization for systems with a Hilbert space dimension ≥2⊗3 is nontrivial since there are states in such systems which are both PPT as well as entangled. The experimental detection scheme that we devised for the detection of qubit-ququart PPT entanglement was based on the measurement of three Pauli operators with high precision, and is a key ingredient of the protocol in detecting entanglement. The family of PPT-entangled states considered in the current study are incoherent mixtures of five pure states. All the five states were prepared with high fidelities and the resulting PPT entangled states were prepared with mean fidelity ≥ 0.95. The entanglement thus detected was validated by carrying out full quantum state tomography (QST).

High production rate of single-photon and two-photon Fock states for quantum state engineering.

We report the implementation of a high-rate source of single- and two-photon states. By combining the advantages of short pulses and cavities, heralding rates as high as 200 kHz have been obtained for the single photons, as well as 250 Hz for the two-photon states. In this setup, homodyne measurements are conditioned by the heralding of the quantum states thanks to the introduction of a low-loss optical delay line in the heralded states path. This enables the detection of most of the heralded events, and fidelities reaching 68.5% (91% with correction for detection efficiency) and 50.4% (85% with correction) were obtained for the single- and two-photon states, respectively. Such high rates and fidelities in the generation of elementary Fock states may open the path for the production of complex quantum states.

Machine learning method for state preparation and gate synthesis on photonic quantum computers

We show how techniques from machine learning and optimization can be used to find circuits of photonic quantum computers that perform a desired transformation between input and output states. In the simplest case of a single input state, our method discovers circuits for preparing a desired quantum state. In the more general case of several input and output relations, our method obtains circuits that reproduce the action of a target unitary transformation. We use a continuous-variable quantum neural network as the circuit architecture. The network is composed of several layers of optical gates with variable parameters that are optimized by applying automatic differentiation using the TensorFlow backend of the Strawberry Fields photonic quantum computer simulator. We demonstrate the power and versatility of our methods by learning how to use short-depth circuits to synthesize single photons, Gottesman–Kitaev–Preskill states, NOON states, cubic phase gates, random unitaries, cross-Kerr interactions, as well as several other states and gates. We routinely obtain high fidelities above 99% using short-depth circuits, typically consisting of a few hundred gates. The circuits are obtained automatically by simply specifying the target state or gate and running the optimization algorithm.

Quantum-inspired microwave signal processing for implementing unitary transforms.

Inspired by photonic one-way quantum computation, we describe a microwave signal processing method for implementing unitary transforms based on measuring the cebits encoded in the "classical microwave graph state (CMGS)." Here the terms "cebit" and "CMGS" defined in our system are classical analogies of a qubit and certain target quantum graph states in quantum physics respectively, which can exhibit some similar behaviors and resultants. The constructions of 4- and 16-cebit CMGSs as examples are discussed in detail and specific tomography methods are introduced to characterize their qualities. By performing operations on these CMGSs, we implement some basic 2 × 2, 4 × 4, and specific generalized unitary transforms, and obtain output results with high fidelities. Furthermore, we also demonstrate that a simulation of an efficient Grover's search algorithm, which has been executed in one-way quantum computing schemes, can be directly realized via a certain 4-cebit CMGS. Due to the excellent parallel efficiency and credible outcomes in the proposal, this quantum-inspired method may provide benefits for exploring new ways to microwave information processing, or in turn as an alternative tool for simulating particular quantum systems to some extent.

Complex Inverse Design of Meta-optics by Segmented Hierarchical Evolutionary Algorithm.

With the recent burgeoning advances in nano-optics, ultracompact, miniaturized photonic devices with high-quality and spectacular functionalities are highly desired. Such devices' design paradigms often call for the solution of a complex inverse nonanalytical/semianalytical problem. However, currently reported strategies dealing with amplitude-controlled meta-optics devices achieved limited functionalities mainly due to restricted search space and demanding computational schemes. Here, we established a segmented hierarchical evolutionary algorithm, aiming to solve large-pixelated, complex inverse meta-optics design and fully demonstrate the targeted performance. This paradigm allows significantly extended search space at a rapid converging speed. As typical complex proof-of-concept examples, large-pixelated meta-holograms are chosen to demonstrate the validity of our design paradigm. An improved fitness function is proposed to reinforce the performance balance among image pixels, so that the image quality is improved and computing speed is further accelerated. Broadband and full-color meta-holograms with high image fidelities using binary amplitude control are demonstrated experimentally. Our work may find important applications in the advanced design of future nanoscale high-quality optical devices.

Integrated photonic devices based on adiabatic transitions between supersymmetric structures.

We introduce adiabatic transitions connecting two supersymmetric partner profiles by smoothly modifying the transverse refractive index profile along the propagation direction. With this transformation, one of the transverse electric modes evolves adapting its shape and propagation constant without being coupled to other guided or radiated modes while the rest of the modes are radiated. This technique offers a systematic way to manipulate the modal content in systems of optical waveguides and engineer efficient and robust photonic devices such as tapered waveguides, single-waveguide mode filters, beam splitters and interferometers. Numerical simulations show that very high fidelities and transmitted powers are obtained for a broad range of devices lengths and light's wavelengths.

High-performance source of spectrally pure, polarization entangled photon pairs based on hybrid integrated-bulk optics.

Entangled photon pair sources based on bulk optics are approaching optimal design and implementation, with high state fidelities, spectral purities and heralding efficiencies, but generally low brightness. Integrated entanglement sources, while providing higher brightness and low-power operation, often sacrifice performance in output state quality and coupling efficiency. Here we present a polarization-entangled pair source based on a hybrid approach of waveguiding and bulk optics, addressing every metric simultaneously. We show 96 % fidelity to the singlet state, 82 % Hong-Ou-Mandel interference visibility, 43 % average Klyshko efficiency, and a high brightness of 2.9 × 106 pairs/(mode·s·mW), while requiring only microwatts of pump power.

Chimeric padlock and iLock probes for increased efficiency of targeted RNA detection

Many approaches exist to detect RNA using complementary oligonucleotides. DNA ligation-based techniques can improve discrimination of subtle sequence variations, but they have been difficult to implement for direct RNA analysis due to the infidelity and inefficiency of most DNA ligases on RNA. In this report, we have systematically studied if ribonucleotide substitutions in padlock probes can provide higher catalytic efficiencies for Chlorella virus DNA ligase (PBCV-1 DNA ligase) and T4 RNA ligase 2 (T4Rnl2) on RNA. We provide broad characterization of end-joining fidelity for both enzymes in RNA-templated 3′-OH RNA/5′-pDNA chimeric probe ligation. Both ligases showed increased ligation efficiency toward chimeric substrates on RNA. However, end-joining fidelity of PBCV-1 DNA ligase remained poor, while T4Rnl2 showed a somewhat better end-joining fidelity compared to PBCV-1 DNA ligase. The recently presented invader padlock (iLock) probes overcome the poor end-joining fidelity of PBCV-1 DNA ligase by the requirement of target-dependent 5′ flap removal prior to ligation. Here we show that two particular ribonucleotide substitutions greatly improve the activation and ligation rate of chimeric iLock probes on RNA. We characterized the end-joining efficiency and fidelity of PBCV-1 DNA ligase and T4Rnl2 with chimeric iLock probes on RNA and found that both enzymes exhibit high ligation fidelities for single nucleotide polymorphisms on RNA. Finally, we applied the chimeric probe concept to directly differentiate between human and mouse ACTB mRNA in situ, demonstrating chimeric padlock and iLock probes as superior to their DNA equivalents.