Noiseless Linear Amplifier Research Articles

Saturating the Maximum Success Probability Bound for Noiseless Linear Amplification Using Linear Optics

A noiseless linear amplifier (NLA) performs the highest-quality amplification allowable under the rules of quantum physics. Unfortunately, these same rules conspire against us via the no-cloning theorem, which constrains NLA operations to the domain of probabilistic processes. Nevertheless, they are useful for a wide variety of quantum protocols, with numerous proposals assuming access to an optimal NLA device that performs with the maximum possible success probability. Here we propose the first linear-optics NLA protocol that asymptotically achieves this success probability bound by modifying the Knill-Laflamme-Milburn near-deterministic teleporter into an amplifier. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Improving the sensitivity of distributed phase estimation under noisy Gaussian environment with noiseless linear amplification

The deterioration of precision caused by quantum decoherence in dissipative environments is a longstanding problem in the development of distributed quantum metrology. Therefore, it is significant to effectively overcome the entanglement-distribution loss and channel noise of dissipative environments and improve the measurement-sensitivity. Here, we introduce noiseless linear amplifier (NLA) based on photon catalysis into distributed phase estimation to mitigate the loss and noise. Through utilizing a series of reduction and equivalence relations to simplify the problem of distributed phase estimation to a single-parameter estimation situation, our results show that Photon catalysis (PC)-NLAs can effectively mitigate the loss and noise of dissipative environments, and greatly improve the measurement-sensitivity. More interestingly, we find that adding thermal photons of environment has positive contributions on the measurement-sensitivity under certain circumstances. Our scheme should prove valuable for the global wide-area quantum sensor network.

Enhanced phase sensitive amplification towards improving noise immunity

Quantum states are essential resource for quantum-enhanced applications. Loss incurred in the distribution channel, however, dissipates the high signal-to-noise ratio advantage enjoyed by the squeezed state. Here, we first demonstrate noise immunity enhancement by using phase-sensitive amplifier (PSA) with measurement-based noiseless linear amplifier (MB-NLA). We explore the signal transfer capability with the amplifier in a noisy channel. The MB-NLA enhanced PSA has obvious suppression effect on channel noises, especially it has improvement for the noise contaminated signal. Better performance can be achieved by flexibly adjusting amplifier parameters. With the amplifier, it is promising to overcome the entanglement-distribution loss and show its superiority in squeezing based quantum sensing.

Noiseless linear amplification in quantum target detection using Gaussian states

Quantum target detection aims to utilise quantum technologies to achieve performances in target detection not possible through purely classical means. Quantum illumination is an example of this, based on signal–idler entanglement, promising a potential 6 dB advantage in error exponent over its optimal classical counterpart. So far, receiver designs achieving this optimal reception remain elusive with many proposals based on Gaussian processes appearing unable to utilise quantum information contained within Gaussian state sources. This paper considers the employment of a noiseless linear amplifier at the detection stage of a quantum illumination-based quantum target detection protocol. Such a non-Gaussian amplifier offers a means of probabilistically amplifying an incoming signal without the addition of noise. Considering symmetric hypothesis testing, the quantum Chernoff bound is derived and limits on detection error probability is analysed for both the two-mode squeezed vacuum state and the coherent state classical benchmark. Our findings show that in such a scheme the potential quantum advantage is amplified even in regimes where quantum illumination alone offers no advantage, thereby extending its potential use. The same cannot be said for coherent states, whose performances are generally bounded by that without amplification.

Performance Analysis of Continuous Variable Quantum Teleportation with Noiseless Linear Amplifier in Seawater Channel

Continuous variable quantum teleportation (CVQT) is one of the technologies currently explored to implement global quantum networks. Entanglement source is an indispensable resource to realize CVQT, and its distribution process has natural symmetry. Though there are many results for CVQT over optical fiber or atmospheric channel, little attention is paid to seawater channel. In this paper, a model based on seawater chlorophyll concentration is used to study the attenuation effect of seawater on light. In our scheme, a noiseless linear amplifier is utilized for enhancing the performance of CVQT under seawater channel. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme has an improvement in terms of fidelity and maximum transmission distance compared with the original scheme.

Continuous variable quantum teleportation through turbulent channels

The turbulence channel, as a potential medium for communications, plays a major role in establishing global quantum networks. However, the weather-tunable channel parameters have an influence on performance of quantum communication system. In this paper, we consider effects of weather conditions on attenuation of the transmission of turbulent channel and thus on performance of continuous variable quantum teleportation (CVQT). The serious weather conditions that involve snow, rain, fog and haze have been employed for security analysis of the practical system. Moreover, a linear optical amplifier is used for performance improvement in terms of the fidelity and transmission distance as well. The simulation results show that the noiseless linear optical amplifier can increase the fidelity and maximal transmission distance of the CVQT system that involves serious weather conditions. This has certain reference guides significance for information transmission in the face of various extreme weathers.

Continuous variable quantum teleportation with noiseless linear amplifier

Continuous variable quantum teleportation (CVQT) plays an important role in practical quantum communication. However, the noise and loss in the actual environment will lead to the degradation of entanglement, which has an effect on the performance of the system in terms of the transmission distance and hence hinders its implementations. In this paper, we suggest an approach to improving the performance of the CVQT system with an embedded noiseless linear amplifier (NLA). By using the NLA, one can amplify the degenerated entangled source to compensate for the attenuation of the fiber. Then we consider the influences of the available gains of the NLA on the performance of the proposed scheme under different lossy channels and entangled sources. The simulation results show that the performance is improved in fidelity and transmission distance, which may provide a feasible and effective method of putting the long-distance CVQT into practical application .

Improving the Performance of Continuous-Variable Measurement-Device-Independent Quantum Key Distribution via a Noiseless Linear Amplifier.

In the continuous variable measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (CV-MDI-QKD) protocol, both Alice and Bob send quantum states to an untrusted third party, Charlie, for detection through the quantum channel. In this paper, we mainly study the performance of the CV-MDI-QKD system using the noiseless linear amplifier (NLA). The NLA is added to the output of the detector at Charlie’s side. The research results show that NLA can increase the communication distance and secret key rate of the CV-MDI-QKD protocol. Moreover, we find that the more powerful the improvement of the performance with the longer gain of NLA and the optimum gain is given under different conditions.

Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution Based on Heralded Hybrid Linear Amplifier with a Local Local Oscillator.

An improved continuous variable quantum key distribution (CVQKD) approach based on a heralded hybrid linear amplifier (HLA) is proposed in this study, which includes an ideal deterministic linear amplifier and a probabilistic noiseless linear amplifier. The CVQKD, which is based on an amplifier, enhances the signal-to-noise ratio and provides for fine control between high gain and strong noise reduction. We focus on the impact of two types of optical amplifiers on system performance: phase sensitive amplifiers (PSA) and phase insensitive amplifiers (PIA). The results indicate that employing amplifiers, local local oscillation-based CVQKD systems can enhance key rates and communication distances. In addition, the PIA-based CVQKD system has a broader application than the PSA-based system.

Noiseless linear amplifiers for multimode states

The entanglement structure between different frequency components within broadband quantum light pulses, forged at entanglement creation, represents a promising route to the practical delivery of many multipartite quantum information applications. However, the scalability of such applications is largely limited by the entanglement decoherence caused by photon loss. One promising method to combat such losses is noiseless linear amplification. However, while there have been various procedures that implement noiseless linear amplification on single-mode states, no realization has thus far been proposed for noiseless linear amplification on quantum states carrying a multimode structure. In this work we close this gap, proposing a novel Noiseless Linear Amplifier (NLA) with Photon Catalysis (PC), namely, the PC-NLA. Constructing a multimode version of an existing NLA that uses Quantum Scissors (QS), the QS-NLA, we then show how the PC-NLA is compatible with the QS-NLA, even though the former uses half the physical resources of the latter. We then apply our newly developed multimode NLA frameworks to the problem of Continuous-Variable (CV) entanglement distillation, determining how the multimode structure of the entanglement impacts the performance of the NLAs. Different from single-mode NLA analyses, we find that a multimode NLA is only effective as a CV entanglement distillation strategy when the channel loss is beyond some threshold - a threshold largely dependent on the multimode structure. The results provided here will be valuable for real-world implementations of multipartite quantum information applications that utilize complex entanglement structure within broadband light pulses.

Quantum repeater for continuous-variable entanglement distribution

Quantum repeaters have been proposed as a way of extending the reach of quantum communication. First generation approaches use entanglement swapping to connect entangled links along a long distance channel. Recently, there have been proposals for first generation quantum repeaters for continuous variables. In this paper, we present an improved continuous variable repeater scheme using optimal Gaussian entanglement swapping. Our scheme uses the noiseless linear amplifier for entanglement distillation. We show that with the simplest configuration of the noiseless linear amplifier and under the assumption of good quantum memories and perfect sources and detectors, our scheme beats the direct transmission upper limit for shorter distances and can offer advantages over previous CV repeater schemes.

Performance Improvement of Discretely Modulated Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution with Untrusted Source via Heralded Hybrid Linear Amplifier

In practical quantum communication networks, the scheme of continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CVQKD) faces a challenge that the entangled source is controlled by a malicious eavesdropper, and although it still can generate a positive key rate and security, its performance needs to be improved, especially in secret key rate and maximum transmission distance. In this paper, we proposed a method based on the four-state discrete modulation and a heralded hybrid linear amplifier to enhance the performance of CVQKD where the entangled source originates from malicious eavesdropper. The four-state CVQKD encodes information by nonorthogonal coherent states in phase space. It has better transmission distance than Gaussian modulation counterpart, especially at low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Moreover, the hybrid linear amplifier concatenates a deterministic linear amplifier (DLA) and a noiseless linear amplifier (NLA), which can improve the probability of amplification success and reduce the noise penalty caused by the measurement. Furthermore, the hybrid linear amplifier can raise the SNR of CVQKD and tune between two types of performance for high-gain mode and high noise-reduction mode, therefore it can extend the maximal transmission distance while the entangled source is untrusted.

High-fidelity heralded quantum squeezing gate based on entanglement.

Squeezing operation is critical in Gaussian quantum information. A high-fidelity heralded squeezing gate was recently realized using a noiseless linear amplifier with moderate ancillary squeezing. Here we analyze the heralded scheme based on squeezing [J. Zhao, Nat. Photonics, 14, 306 (2020)] and find that its fidelity depends heavily on the purity of auxiliary squeezing, and even the fidelity with a 6 dB pure squeezed state is better than with a 15 dB thermal squeezed state. On this basis, we construct a new heralded squeezing gate based on teleportation, which can overcome the shortcomings of the heralded scheme based on squeezing and is immune to the purity of input squeezing. It can better use the current best available squeezing (15 dB) to realize a perfect squeezing gate for fault-tolerant continuous-variable quantum computation. This scheme is promising to realize other single-mode Gaussian operations and non-classical state squeezing operations.

Finite-size effects in continuous-variable quantum key distribution with Gaussian postselection

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.

Performance improvement of unidimensional continuous-variable quantum key distribution using heralded hybrid linear amplifier

We propose an improved scheme for unidimensional continuous-variable quantum key distribution (UCVQKD) using heralded hybrid linear amplifier, aiming to simplify the implementation and improve secret key rate. Different from the symmetrical continuous-variable quantum key distribution protocol (CVQKD), this scheme modulates one quadrature of the coherent state with security insurance. The heralded hybrid linear amplifier concatenates a deterministic linear amplifier (DLA) and a noiseless linear amplifier (NLA), which can tune between the high-gain or high noise-reduction for performance enhancement. Security analysis shows that the proposed scheme can be secured under the collective attacks. Compared with traditional UCVQKD involving noiseless amplifier, the security transmission distance of proposed protocol is increased by 24 kilometers. It not only simplifies the modulation process but also has approximate performance with symmetrical CVQKD in terms of maximal security transmission distance.

Four-State Modulation in Middle of a Quantum Channel for Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution Protocol with Noiseless Linear Amplifier**Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No 61572529.

We characterize a modified continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD) protocol with four states in the middle of a quantum channel. In this protocol, two noiseless linear amplifiers (NLAs) are inserted before each detector of the two parts, Alice and Bob, with the purpose of increasing the secret key rate and the maximum transmission distance. We present the performance analysis of the new four-state CV-QKD protocol over a Gaussian lossy and noisy channel. The simulation results show that the NLAs with a reasonable gain g can effectively enhance the secret key rate as well as the maximum transmission distance, which is generally satisfied in practice.

Teleportation improvement by noiseless linear amplification

We address de-Gaussification of continuous variables Gaussian states by optimal non-deterministic noiseless linear amplifier (NLA) and analyze in details the properties of the amplified states. In particular, we investigate the entanglement content and the non-Gaussian character for the class of non-Gaussian entangled state obtained by using NL-amplification of two-mode squeezed vacua (twin-beam, TWB). We show that entanglement always increases, whereas improved EPR correlations are observed only when the input TWB has low energy. We then examine a Braunstein-Kimble-like protocol for the teleportation of coherent states, and compare the performances of TWB-based teleprotation with those obtained using NL-amplified resources. We show that teleportation fidelity and security may be improved for a large range of NLA parameters (gain and threshold).

Enhancing continuous variable quantum key distribution with a heralded hybrid linear amplifier

We propose a method to improve transmission distance of continuous-variable quantum key distribution via a heralded hybrid linear amplifier (HLA), involving an ideal deterministic linear amplifier and a probabilistic noiseless linear amplifier. The phase-insensitive amplification of quantum light states may experience a degradation of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 3dB which can be surmounted by the probabilistic amplification process. The new hybrid amplifier allows one to tune between the regimes of high gain or high noise reduction and control the trade-off between the amplification coefficient and a finite heralding probability flexibly. Our equipment could clone unknown coherent states with fidelity surpassing the no-cloning limit by abandoning determinism and using probabilistic methods. The setup has a better compatibility with continuous variable protocols as it only uses Gaussian elements and a post-selection algorithm. The hybrid linear amplifier enhances the SNR and hence the transmission distance of the CVQKD protocol is extended. Both the asymptotic secret key rate and the secret key rate in a finite-size scenario are analyzed in this paper.

Security Analysis of Practical Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution Using a Heralded Noiseless Amplifier

The noiseless linear amplifier(NLA) can probabilistically amplify the amplitude of the coherent state while retaining the initial level of noise. It is widely proposed and discussed to enhance various CVQKD protocols. In the previous work, when analyzing the security of the NLA-based CVQKQ protocol, they usually included the impact of NLA in a set of equivalent parameters. In this article, we develop this equivalent method and propose a new one to analyze the protocol with NLA which simplifies the computational complexity. In particular, we have further considered the effect of NLA on entanglement parameter of the EPR state. Then by using our proposed method, we first obtain the secret key rate of the NLA-enhanced CVQKD system with imperfect detection. The results show that the NLA can also improve the transmission distance of CVQKD protocols with imperfect detection by equivalent $20\log _{10}g$ dB of losses.

Practical Analysis of Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution Using a Nondeterministic Noiseless Linear Amplifier

We study the impact of the imperfections and the finite-size effect on the continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CVQKD) protocol with the nondeterministic noiseless linear amplifier (NLA). The imperfections of the homodyne detector and the imperfect amplification process as well as the finite-size effect on parameter estimation procedure are considered. We can see that despite the imperfections of the homodyne detector, the maximum improved transmission distance can still reach the equivalence of 20log10g dB losses theoretically. Moreover, the analysis shows the imperfect amplification process of the NLA will slightly decrease the performance of the system. And we find the finite-size effect significantly influence the secret key rates of the NLA CVQKD protocol and the performance will approach the ideal asymptotic case with the increase of block size.