Photon Catalysis Research Articles

Advantage of Non‐Gaussian Operations in Phase Estimation via Mach–Zehnder Interferometer

AbstractThis study investigates the benefits of probabilistic non‐Gaussian operations in phase estimation using difference‐intensity and parity detection‐based Mach–Zehnder interferometers (MZI). An experimentally implementable model is considered to perform three different non‐Gaussian operations, namely photon subtraction (PS), photon addition (PA), and photon catalysis (PC) on a single‐mode squeezed vacuum (SSV) state. The findings reveal that all non‐Gaussian operations except one PC operation provide an advantage in either of the measurement schemes. This result is further supported by the analysis of the quantum Cramér–Rao bound. When accounting for the success probability of non‐Gaussian operations, two‐PC and four‐PA emerges as the most optimal operations in difference‐intensity and parity detection‐based MZI, respectively. Additionally, the corresponding squeezing and transmissivity parameters that yields the best performance are identified, making the study relevant for experimentalists. Furthermore, a general expression for the moment‐generating function is derived, which is useful in exploring other detection schemes such as homodyne detection and quadratic homodyne detection.

Non-Gaussian two mode squeezed thermal states in continuous variable quantum teleportation

We consider a practical scheme for the implementation of non-Gaussian operation, viz., photon subtraction, photon addition, and photon catalysis, on two-mode squeezed thermal state. The generated states are employed as resources in continuous-variable quantum teleportation. The results show that the three non-Gaussian operations can enhance the teleportation fidelity. Considering the success probability of the non-Gaussian operations, we identify single-photon catalysis and single photon subtraction to be optimal for teleporting input coherent states and squeezed vacuum states, at low and intermediate squeezing levels, respectively.

Advantage of probabilistic non-Gaussian operations in the distillation of single mode squeezed vacuum state

We consider distillation of squeezing in single mode squeezed vacuum state using three different probabilistic non-Gaussian operations: photon subtraction (PS), photon addition (PA) and photon catalysis (PC). To achieve this, we consider a practical model to implement these non-Gaussian operations and derive the Wigner characteristic function of the resulting non-Gaussian states. Our result shows that while PS and PC operations can distill squeezing, PA operation cannot. Furthermore, we delve into the success probabilities associated with these non-Gaussian operations and identify optimal parameters for the distillation of squeezing. Our current analysis holds significant relevance for experimental endeavors concerned with squeezing distillation.

Phase estimation via coherent and photon-catalyzed squeezed vacuum states.

The research focused on enhancing the measurement accuracy through the use of non-Gaussian states has garnered increasing attention. In this study, we propose a scheme to input the coherent state mixed with a photon-catalyzed squeezed vacuum state into the Mach-Zender interferometer to enhance phase measurement accuracy. The findings demonstrate that photon catalysis, particularly multi-photon catalysis, can effectively improve the phase sensitivity of parity detection and the quantum Fisher information. Moreover, the situation of photon losses in practical measurement was studied. The results indicate that external dissipation has a greater influence on phase sensitivity than the internal dissipation. Compared to input coherent state mixed with squeezed vacuum state, the utilization of coherent state mixed photon-catalyzed squeezed vacuum state, particularly the mixed multi-photon catalyzed squeezed vacuum state as input, can enhance the phase sensitivity and quantum Fisher information. Furthermore, the phase measurement accuracy can exceed the standard quantum limit, and even surpass the Heisenberg limit. This research is expected to significantly contribute to quantum precision measurement.

Generating superpositions of quantum states via a beam splitter with position measurement

We use the quadrature measurement to generate the novel nonclassical states via the beam splitter with two input states, i.e., a Fock state and a vacuum state. It is interesting to find that the desired target states are the Hermite polynomial excited vacuum states. Our results have shown that the zero-position detection for the position detector, the little photon number in the input state, and the high transmittance of the beam splitter (BS) are beneficial to improve the detection efficiency of finding the output states. The proposed states quantum statistical properties and squeezing effects are also studied in detail via different criteria. Our numerical analysis demonstrates that the output quantum states are new nonclassical states. Compared with the method of photon catalysis, position detection is easier to realize in experiments. Therefore, the results in this paper shall provide theoretical support for the experimental generation of several new nonclassical states.

Magnon statistical properties in multiphoton-catalyzed optomagnonics

Generating magnon states with the nonclassical behavior is a key step of implementing quantum magnonic technologies for applications. We proposed a strategy of magnonic state production by using the conditional measurement, derived from the jointed action of a cavity optomagnonics device and a beam splitter. At the case of the quantum catalysis applying to the optical field of optomagnonic system, the characters of yielding catalyzed state rely not only upon the parameters of optomechanic system but also upon the catalysis photon number and the beam splitter angle. We theoretically create a kind of the catalyzed photon–magnon entangled state and examine the statistical properties of the magnon mode of two mode optomagnonic states in the fields of the mean magnon number, the magnon number distribution, the Mandel Q parameter, the second-order autocorrelation function and the Wigner function. We demonstrate that the sub-Poisson distribution, the antibunching effect and the Wigner function negativity in the magnons can be realized via multiphoton catalysis. We also find that the magnon nonclassical statistical feature may be regulated by adjusting parameters of photon catalysis. Our work will provide a good reference for producing magnonic nonclassical state.

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 Estimation in Parity‐Detection‐Based Mach–Zehnder Interferometer using Non‐Gaussian Two‐Mode Squeezed Thermal Input State

AbstractWhile the quantum metrological advantages of performing non‐Gaussian operations on two‐mode squeezed vacuum (TMSV) states have been extensively explored, similar studies in the context of two‐mode squeezed thermal (TMST) states are severely lacking. This paper explores the potential advantages of performing non‐Gaussian operations on TMST state for phase estimation using parity detection‐based Mach–Zehnder interferometry and compares it with the TMSV case. To this end, a realistic photon subtraction, addition, and catalysis model is considered. A unified Wigner function of the photon subtracted, photon added, and photon catalyzed TMST state is derived, which is used to obtain the expression for the phase sensitivity. The results show that performing non‐Gaussian operations on TMST states can enhance the phase sensitivity for significant squeezing and transmissivity parameter ranges. Because of the probabilistic nature of these operations, it is of utmost importance to consider their success probability. When the success probability is considered, the photon catalysis operation performed using a high transmissivity beam splitter is the optimal non‐Gaussian operation. This contrasts with the TMSV case, where photon addition is observed as the most optimal. Further, the derived Wigner function of the non‐Gaussian TMST states will be useful for state characterization and various quantum protocols.

High-probability photon catalysis with non-linear photon beam splitter

Photon catalysis (PC) is an intriguing quantum optical operation wherein the same number of photons are added to and subsequently subtracted from the relevant optical system. It is an important tool that facilitates photon number manipulation. However, most existing PC methods are suitable only for photonic states residing within few-photon subspace. In addition, the probability of PC decreases exponentially with increase in the number n of the Fock state |n〉. Thus, this study proposed a high probability PC scheme for optical quantum states with large Fock state population based on nonlinear beam splitters. The results indicate that the fidelity and the probability of PC are both substantially improved. Moreover, in case of detector inefficiency, the scheme of PC with non-linear beam splitter was more robust. Thus, the proposed method provides a useful tool for manipulating optical quantum states with large Fock number state population.

Optimal entanglement enhancing via conditional measurements

Enhancing quantum entanglement is important for many quantum information processing applications. In this paper, we consider a protocol for entanglement enhancing in a two-mode squeezed vacuum state (TMSVS), attained based on photon subtraction, photon catalysis, and photon addition. Central to such an operation is the task of mixing and detecting number states with each mode of TMSVS. We analyze various settings and find an optimal setup for improving the entanglement of the state.

Realistic non-Gaussian-operation scheme in parity-detection-based Mach-Zehnder quantum interferometry

We theoretically analyze phase sensitivity using parity detection based Mach Zehnder interferometer (MZI) with the input states generated by performing non-Gaussian operations, viz., photon subtraction, photon addition, and photon catalysis on a two-mode squeezed vacuum (TMSV) state. Since these non-Gaussian operations are probabilistic, it is of utmost importance to take the success probability into account. To this end, we consider the realistic model of photon subtraction, addition, and catalysis and derive a single expression of the Wigner function for photon subtracted, added, and catalyzed TMSV state. The Wigner function is used to evaluate the lower bound on the phase sensitivity via quantum Cramer-Rao bound and parity detection based phase sensitivity in MZI. We identify the ranges of squeezing and transmissivity parameters where the non-Gaussian states provide better phase sensitivity than the TMSV state. On qualitatively taking the success probability into account, it turns out that the photon addition is the most advantageous non-Gaussian operation. We hope that the generalized Wigner function derived in this work will be useful in various quantum information protocols and state characterization.

Non-Gaussian operations in measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution

Non-Gaussian operations in continous variable (CV) quantum key distribution (QKD) have been limited to photon subtraction on squeezed vacuum states only. This is mainly due to the ease of calculating the covariance matrix representation of such states. In this paper we study the effects of general non-Gaussian operations corresponding to photon addition, catalysis and subtraction on squeezed coherent states on CV measurement device independent (MDI) QKD. We find that non-Gaussianity coupled with coherence can yield significantly longer transmission distances than without. Particularly we observe that zero photon catalysis on two mode squeezed coherent state (TMSC) is an optimial choice for CV MDI QKD, while single photon subtraction is also a good candidate; both of them offering nearly 70 km of transmission distances. We also derive a single generalized covariance matrix for the aforementioned states which will be useful in several other aspects of CV quantum information processing.

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.

Lengthening Transmission Distance of Continuous Variable Quantum Key Distribution with Discrete Modulation through Photon Catalyzing

Establishing global secure networks is a potential implementation of continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CVQKD) but it is also challenged with respect to long-distance transmission. The discrete modulation (DM) can make up for the shortage of transmission distance in that it has a unique advantage against all side-channel attacks; however, its further performance improvement requires source preparation in the presence of noise and loss. Here, we consider the effects of photon catalysis (PC) on the DM-involved source preparation for improving the transmission distance. We address a zero-photon-catalysis (ZPC)-based source preparation for enhancing the DM–CVQKD system. The statistical fluctuation is taken into account for the practical security analysis. Numerical simulations show that the ZPC-based source preparation can not only achieve the long-distance transmission, but also contributes to the reasonable increase of the secret key rate.

Continuous-variable quantum key distribution with non-Gaussian operations

Continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD) provides an effective way to obtain the high secret key rate, but is limited by practical techniques. To overcome this limitation, we investigate the performance of CV-QKD protocols when non-Gaussian operations are applied to both sides of the channels, including photon subtraction and addition, and photon catalysis. A comparison is also made between Gaussian modulation and non-Gaussian modulation. We show that the optimal transmission distance cannot be improved by non-Gaussian modulation at the sender's side, but it can be improved by single-photon catalysis at the receiver's side. For a given modulation variance that exceeds a certain threshold, the performance of the zero-photon catalysis at the sender's side is the best when compared with other non-Gaussian modulations (except single-photon catalysis at the receiver's side), and it can always reach the optimal distance. Our paper will provide a useful insight for the use of non-Gaussian modulation to other CV-QKD protocols.

Global Entanglement Distribution With Multi-Mode Non-Gaussian Operations

Non-Gaussian operations have been studied intensively in recent years due to their ability to enhance the entanglement of quantum states. However, most previous studies on such operations are carried out in a single-mode setting, even though in reality any quantum state contains multi-mode components in frequency space. Whilst there have been general frameworks developed for multi-mode photon subtraction (PS) and photon addition (PA), an important gap exists in that no framework has thus far been developed for multi-mode photon catalysis (PC). In this work we close that gap. We then apply our newly developed PC framework to the problem of continuous variable (CV) entanglement distribution via quantum-enabled satellites. Due to the high pulse rate envisioned for such systems, multi-mode effects will be to the fore in space-based CV deployments. After determining the entanglement distribution possible via multi-mode PC, we then compare our results with the entanglement distribution possible using multi-mode PS and PA. Our results show that multi-mode PC carried out at the transmitter is the superior non-Gaussian operation when the initial squeezing is below some threshold. When carried out at the receiver, multi-mode PC is found to be the superior non-Gaussian operation when the mean channel attenuation is above some threshold. Our new results should prove valuable for next-generation deployments of CV quantum-enabled satellites.

Non-Gaussian and Gottesman–Kitaev–Preskill state preparation by photon catalysis

Continuous-variable quantum-computing is the most scalable implementation of QC to date but requires non-Gaussian resources to allow exponential speedup and quantum correction, using error encoding such as Gottesman–Kitaev–Preskill (GKP) states. However, GKP state generation is still an experimental challenge. We show theoretically that photon catalysis, the interference of coherent states with single-photon states followed by photon-number-resolved detection, is a powerful enabler for non-Gaussian quantum state engineering such as exactly displaced single-photon states and M-symmetric superpositions of squeezed vacuum (SSV), including squeezed cat states (M = 2). By including photon-counting based state breeding, we demonstrate the potential to enlarge SSV states and produce GKP states.

Improvement of self-referenced continuous-variable quantum key distribution with quantum photon catalysis.

Quantum photon-catalysis operations can be utilized for improving the performance of continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CVQKD) systems. Motivated by characteristics of quantum photon-catalysis operations that can be implemented by the existing technologies, we consider the performance improvement of self-referenced (SR) CVQKD involving zero-photon catalysis operation. We find that the zero-photon catalysis can be regarded as a noiseless attenuation, and the numerical simulations show that the zero-photon catalysis (ZPC)-based SR-CVQKD scheme outperforms the original SR-CVQKD scheme. In addition, to highlight the advantage of applying zero-photon catalysis operation into SR-CVQKD systems, we make a comparison about the performances between the ZPC-based SR-CVQKD scheme and the previous single-photon subtraction (SPS)-based SR-CVQKD scheme. Numerical simulations show that the ZPC-based SR-CVQKD is superior to the single-photon subtraction case with respect to the transmission distance and the tolerable excess noise. Especially, the ZPC-based SR-CVQKD allows the lower quantum detection efficiency and the higher electronic noise to achieve the same performance. These results show that the proposed protocol is expected to provide theoretical reference for the practical application of SR-CVQKD in metropolitan areas.

Nonresonant Photons Catalyze Photodissociation of Phenol.

Phenol represents an ideal polyatomic system for demonstrating photon catalysis because of its large polarizability, well-characterized excited-state potential energy surfaces, and nonadiabatic dissociation dynamics. A nonresonant IR pulse (1064 nm) supplies a strong electric field (4 × 107 V/cm) during the photolysis of isolated phenol (C6H5OH) molecules to yield C6H5O + H near two known energetic thresholds: the S1/S2 conical intersection and the S1 - S0 origin. H-atom speed distributions show marked changes in the relative contributions of dissociative pathways in both cases, compared to the absence of the nonresonant IR pulse. Results indicate that nonresonant photons lower the activation barrier for some pathways relative to others by dynamically Stark shifting the excited-state potential energy surfaces rather than aligning molecules in the strong electric field. Theoretical calculations offer support for the experimental interpretation.

Photon catalysis and quantum state engineering

Photon catalysis is a technique by which a readily available Gaussian state of light prepared in one mode is incident upon a beam splitter with a discrete number of photons, q, prepared in another mode; the resulting two-mode state is then subjected to single-photon resolving detection for q photons on one of the output modes. By employing beam splitters of different transmissivities and reflectivities, the subsequent single-mode state is shown to possess nonclassical properties such as quadrature squeezing and sub-Poissonian statistics. We consider the case in which the input state is the most general of pure single-mode Gaussian states: a squeezed coherent state. Noting the Gaussianity of the initial state, we demonstrate non-Gaussianity of the photon-catalyzed state by analyzing the quadrature uncertainty product and explicitly illustrate it through the Wigner quasi-probability distribution. We extend this technique to the two-mode squeezed states, whereby we perform photon catalysis on one mode of a two-mode squeezed vacuum state. The resulting correlated two-mode state may have applications in fundamental tests of quantum mechanics, such as violations of Bell’s inequalities, as the detection loophole can be closed due to the non-Gaussianity of the photon-catalyzed state. We also generalize our method to include state projective measurements for l≠q photons.