Polarization States Of Photons Research Articles

Theory and experiment for resource-efficient joint weak-measurement

Incompatible observables underlie pillars of quantum physics such as contextuality and entanglement. The Heisenberg uncertainty principle is a fundamental limitation on the measurement of the product of incompatible observables, a 'joint' measurement. However, recently a method using weak measurement has experimentally demonstrated joint measurement. This method [Lundeen, J. S., and Bamber, C. Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 070402, 2012] delivers the standard expectation value of the product of observables, even if they are incompatible. A drawback of this method is that it requires coupling each observable to a distinct degree of freedom (DOF), i.e., a disjoint Hilbert space. Typically, this 'read-out' system is an unused internal DOF of the measured particle. Unfortunately, one quickly runs out of internal DOFs, which limits the number of observables and types of measurements one can make. To address this limitation, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a technique to perform a joint weak-measurement of two incompatible observables using only one DOF as a read-out system. We apply our scheme to directly measure the density matrix of photon polarization states.

Soft decoding of short/medium length codes using ordered statistics for quantum key distribution

Quantum key distribution (QKD) is a cryptographic communication protocol that utilizes quantum mechanical properties for provable absolute security against an eavesdropper. The communication is carried between two terminals using random photon polarization states represented through quantum states. Both these terminals are interconnected through disjoint quantum and classical channels. Information reconciliation using delay controlled joint decoding is performed at the receiving terminal. Its performance is characterized using data and error rates. Achieving low error rates is particularly challenging for schemes based on error correcting codes with short code lengths. This article addresses the decoding process using ordered statistics decoding for information reconciliation of both short and medium length Bose–Chaudhuri–Hocquenghem codes over a QKD link. The link’s quantum channel is modeled as a binary symmetric quantum depolarization channel, whereas the classical channel is configured with additive white Gaussian noise. Our results demonstrate the achievement of low bit error rates, and reduced decoding complexity when compared to other capacity achieving codes of similar length and configuration.

Chiral Lead‐Free Hybrid Perovskites for Self‐Powered Circularly Polarized Light Detection

AbstractMetal‐halide perovskites are recently emerging as the promising alternative for CPL detection owing to their CPL‐sensitive property induced by chiral organics and efficient charge transport of inorganic frameworks. However, most of these reported chiral perovskites involve high concentrations of toxic Pb which will become the potential bottleneck for their further application. Herein, we successfully developed two lead‐free halide double perovskites, [(R)‐β‐MPA]4AgBiI8 ((R)‐β‐MPA=(R)‐(+)‐β‐methylphenethylammonium, 1‐R), and [(S)‐β‐MPA]4AgBiI8 ((S)‐β‐MPA=(S)‐(−)‐β‐methylphenethylammonium, 1‐S). Circular dichroism measurements reveal that these perovskites exhibit notable chirality induced by organic cations to distinguish different polarization states of CPL photons. Significantly, they present unique chiral polar photovoltaic, and resulting self‐powered CPL detection without an external power source is unprecedentedly achieved. Furthermore, an anisotropy factor up to 0.3 is acquired for the self‐powered CPL detection, reaching the highest value among reported chiral perovskites. This work suggests hybrid double perovskites are promising photoelectronic candidates, and provides a new approach for exploring new “green” circularly polarized light‐sensitive materials with high performance.

Chiral Lead-Free Hybrid Perovskites for Self-Powered Circularly Polarized Light Detection.

Metal-halide perovskites are recently emerging as the promising alternative for CPL detection owing to their CPL-sensitive property induced by chiral organics and efficient charge transport of inorganic frameworks. However, most of these reported chiral perovskites involve high concentrations of toxic Pb which will become the potential bottleneck for their further application. Herein, we successfully developed two lead-free halide double perovskites, [(R)-β-MPA]4 AgBiI8 ((R)-β-MPA=(R)-(+)-β-methylphenethylammonium, 1-R), and [(S)-β-MPA]4 AgBiI8 ((S)-β-MPA=(S)-(-)-β-methylphenethylammonium, 1-S). Circular dichroism measurements reveal that these perovskites exhibit notable chirality induced by organic cations to distinguish different polarization states of CPL photons. Significantly, they present unique chiral polar photovoltaic, and resulting self-powered CPL detection without an external power source is unprecedentedly achieved. Furthermore, an anisotropy factor up to 0.3 is acquired for the self-powered CPL detection, reaching the highest value among reported chiral perovskites. This work suggests hybrid double perovskites are promising photoelectronic candidates, and provides a new approach for exploring new "green" circularly polarized light-sensitive materials with high performance.

Exploring the double-slit interference with linearly polarized photons

The linearly polarized quasi-real photons from the highly Lorentz-contracted Coulomb fields of relativistic heavy ions can fluctuate to quark-antiquark pairs, scatter off a target nucleus and emerge as vector mesons. In the process, the two colliding nuclei can switch roles to act as photon emitter or target, forming a double-slit interference pattern. The product from photoproduction inherits the photon polarization states, leading to the asymmetries of the decay angular distributions. In this letter, we study the interference effect in polarization dimension from the asymmetries of the decay angular distributions for photoprodution in heavy-ion collisions and find a periodic oscillation with the transverse momentum of vector meson, which could reasonably explain the transverse momentum dependence of the 2nd-order modulation in azimuth for the $\rho^{0}$ decay observed by the STAR collaboration.

Taking tomographic measurements for photonic qubits 88 ns before they are created* *Project supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2018YFA0306400) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61905234, 11974335, 11574291, and 11774334). GP acknowledges support from the US Army Research Office (ARO) Grant No. W911NF-14- 1-0133, and the Australian Research

We experimentally demonstrate that tomographic measurements can be performed for states of qubits before they are prepared. A variant of the quantum teleportation protocol is used as a channel between two instants in time, allowing measurements for polarization states of photons to be implemented 88 ns before they are created. Measurement data taken at the early time and later unscrambled according to the results of the protocol’s Bell measurements, produces density matrices with an average fidelity of 0.90±0.01 against the ideal states of photons created at the later time. Process tomography of the time reverse quantum channel finds an average process fidelity of 0.84±0.02. While our proof-of-principle implementation necessitates some post-selection, the general protocol is deterministic and requires no post-selection to sift desired states and reject a larger ensemble.

Регистрация однофотонного сигнала от низколетящих спутников для целей спутникового квантового распределения ключей

A ground-based receiving station for quantum key distribution with a satellite, capable of analyzing the quantum polarization states of photons, is demonstrated. In the experiment on tracking a low-Earth orbit satellite, the residual tracking error by the ground station does not exceed 10 μrad, which ensures stable reception of the optical signal in four channels of the polarization state decoder. An estimation of the efficiency of registration of an optical signal in the mode of tracking satellites is carried out.

Privacy amplification of entanglement parametric-down conversion based quantum key distribution via quantum logistic map for photon bases choice

This paper proposes a new quantum key distribution (QKD) protocol, namely the pseudo-random bases entangled-photons based QKD (PRB-EPQKD) protocol. The latest mainly focuses on the privacy amplification analysis of spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC) entangled photon source based QKD using quantum logistic map (QLM) as pseudo-random number generator (PRNG) for photon polarization state measurement bases choice. For this reason, the SPDC wave function is derived and the probability distribution is deduced. The comparison shows that, this probability follows Poisson distribution, implying that the photons pairs produced are independent. Based on this, the quantum bit error rate (QBER) is evaluated and consequently the secure key rate. Simulations show that this protocol is particularly efficient as regard to the maximum tolerable communication distance and the secure key size as well. The fact that, an eavesdropper must crack the chaotic and the QKD systems simultaneously in order to extract any useful information concerning the encryption key makes the key generation protocol more private as compared to existing ones.

Experimental conversion of position correlation into polarization entanglement

This manuscript presents a method to convert position correlation of photon-pairs into polarization entanglement. This is achieved by individually manipulating the polarization state of photons generated in different parts of a non-linear medium and putting them in coherent superposition. This concept is experimentally demonstrated using photon-pairs produced by spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC). The method was used to implement a compact source producing an observed photon-pair rate of 120,000/s/mW with an entanglement fidelity of 0.99. This method can be extended to any photon-pair generation process with initial position correlation.

Optical Fredkin gate assisted by quantum dot within optical cavity under vacuum noise and sideband leakage

We propose a deterministic Fredkin gate which can accomplish controlled-swap operation between three-qubit states. The proposed Fredkin gate consists of a photonic system (single photon) and quantum dots (QDs) confined in single-sided cavities (two electron spin states). In our scheme, the control qubit is the polarization state of the single photon, and two electron spin states in QDs play the role of target qubits (swapped states by control qubit). The interaction between a photon and an electron of QD within the cavity (QD-cavity system) significantly affects the performance of Fredkin gate. Thus, through the analysis of the QD-cavity system under vacuum noise and sideband leakage, we demonstrate that reliable interaction and performance of the QD-cavity system with photonic state (photon) can be acquired in our scheme. Consequently, the Fredkin gate proposed in this paper can be experimentally implemented with high feasibility and efficiency.

A Chiral Reduced-Dimension Perovskite for an Efficient Flexible Circularly Polarized Light Photodetector.

Chiral quasi-2D perovskite single crystals (SCs) were investigated for their circular polarized light (CPL) detecting capability. Quasi-2D chiral perovskites, [(R)-β-MPA]2 MAPb2 I7 ((R)-β-MPA=(R)-(+)-β-methylphenethylamine, MA=methylammonium), have intrinsic chirality and the capability to distinguish different polarization states of CPL photons. Corresponding quasi-2D SCs CPL photodetector exhibit excellent detection performance. In particular, our device responsivity is almost one order of magnitude higher than the reported 2D perovskite CPL detectors to date. The crystallization dynamics of the film were modulated to facilitate its carrier transport. Parallel oriented perovskite films with a homogeneous energy landscape is crucial to maximize the carrier collection efficiency. The photodetector also exhibits superior mechanical flexibility and durability, representing a promising candidate for sensitive and robust CPL photodetectors.

A Chiral Reduced‐Dimension Perovskite for an Efficient Flexible Circularly Polarized Light Photodetector

AbstractChiral quasi‐2D perovskite single crystals (SCs) were investigated for their circular polarized light (CPL) detecting capability. Quasi‐2D chiral perovskites, [(R)‐β‐MPA]2MAPb2I7 ((R)‐β‐MPA=(R)‐(+)‐β‐methylphenethylamine, MA=methylammonium), have intrinsic chirality and the capability to distinguish different polarization states of CPL photons. Corresponding quasi‐2D SCs CPL photodetector exhibit excellent detection performance. In particular, our device responsivity is almost one order of magnitude higher than the reported 2D perovskite CPL detectors to date. The crystallization dynamics of the film were modulated to facilitate its carrier transport. Parallel oriented perovskite films with a homogeneous energy landscape is crucial to maximize the carrier collection efficiency. The photodetector also exhibits superior mechanical flexibility and durability, representing a promising candidate for sensitive and robust CPL photodetectors.

Study of polarization memory's impact on detection range in natural water fogs.

The influence of the initial polarization state of a source on the detection range of a system probing through natural dense water fog is analyzed. Information about the source is conveyed by ballistic, snake, and highly scattered photons. During propagation, the polarization state of ballistic and snake photons is not altered. It is shown that though circular polarization is not altered by simple direction changes during scattering, and has thus a tendency to be preserved longer in the highly scattered photons, it does not necessarily convey more useful information about the source than linear polarization or even an unpolarized beam. It is also shown that in any forward propagating system that can be described by the small-angle approximation the impact of polarization memory can be neglected.

Helicity-dependent THz emission induced by ultrafast spin photocurrent in nodal-line semimetal candidate Mg3Bi2

Helicity-dependent ultrafast spin current generated by circularly polarized photons in topological materials holds the crux to many technological improvements, such as quantum communications, on-chip communication processing and storage. Here, we present the manipulation of helicity-dependent terahertz emission generated in a nodal line semimetal candidate Mg3Bi2 by using photon polarization states. The terahertz emission is mainly ascribed to the helicity-dependent photocurrent that is originated from circular photogalvanic effects, and the helicity-independent photocurrent that is attributed to linear photogalvanic effect. Our work will inspire more explorations into novel nodal line semimetals and open up new opportunities for developing ultrafast optoelectronics in the topological system.

Naimark extension for the single-photon canonical phase measurement

We address the implementation of the positive operator-valued measure (POVM) describing the optimal M-outcomes discrimination of the polarization state of a single photon. Initially, the POVM elements are extended to projective operators by Naimark theorem, then the resulting projective measure is implemented by a Knill-Laflamme-Milburn scheme involving an optical network and photon counters. We find the analytical expression of the Naimark extension and the detection scheme that realise it for an arbitrary number of outcomes M = 2^N.

Hybrid Toffoli gates with dipole-induced transparency effect in series and parallel cavity-waveguide systems

We propose two feasible schemes for realizing hybrid Toffoli gates with dipole-induced transparency (DIT) effect in series and parallel cavity-waveguide systems. The gate operations are accomplished by encoding information on flying photon and dipole emitter evanescently coupled to the microcavity, and the spatial as well as polarization states of photon will be flipped conditional on the quantum states of dipole emitters. The schemes could be physically realized in one step and straightforwardly extended to realize the N-qubit Toffoli gate, which greatly simplifies the experimental implementation of Toffoli gate and promises a much higher fidelity compared to those based on elementary gate decomposition. Benefiting from DIT effect, the schemes can be achievable without requirement of strong coupling condition of cavity-waveguide system, and they are insensitive to experimental noises, imperfections and the phase delay of adjacent microcavities, which may be feasible with present accessible technology.

Reversible Mapping and Sorting the Spin of Photons on the Nanoscale: A Spin-Optical Nanodevice.

The photon spin is an important resource for quantum information processing as is the electron spin in spintronics. However, for subwavelength confined optical excitations, polarization as a global property of a mode cannot be defined. Here, we show that any polarization state of a plane-wave photon can reversibly be mapped to a pseudospin embodied by the two fundamental modes of a subwavelength plasmonic two-wire transmission line. We design a device in which this pseudospin evolves in a well-defined fashion throughout the device reminiscent of the evolution of photon polarization in a birefringent medium and the behavior of electron spins in the channel of a spin field-effect transistor. The significance of this pseudospin is enriched by the fact that it is subject to spin-orbit locking. Combined with optically active materials to exert external control over the pseudospin precession, our findings could enable spin-optical transistors, that is, the routing and processing of quantum information with light on a subwavelength scale.

Remote preparation for single-photon two-qubit hybrid state with hyperentanglement via linear-optical elements

Linear-optical-based quantum information processing has attached much attention since photon is an ideal medium for transmitting quantum information remotely. Until now, there are some important works in quantum state remote preparation, the method for reconstructing quantum state deterministically via linear optics. However, most of the methods are protocols to prepare single-qubit states remotely via linear-optical elements. In this article, we investigate the methods to prepare two-qubit hybrid states remotely. We present a deterministic remote state preparation scheme for an arbitrary two-qubit hybrid state via a hyperentangled Bell state, resorting to linear-optical elements only. The sender rotates the spatial-mode state and polarization state of the hyperentangled photon respectively in accordance with his knowledge of the two-qubit hybrid state, and the receiver can reconstruct the original two-qubit hybrid state by applying appropriate recovery operations. Moreover, we discuss the remote state preparation scheme for the two-qubit hybrid state via partially hyperentangled Bell state.

Experimental realization of a resource-saving polarization-independent orbital-angular-momentum-preserving tunable beam splitter.

The tunable beam splitter (TBS) is a fundamental component used in optical experiments. A TBS can preserve the orbital angular momentum (OAM) states; in addition, the polarization states of photons are valuable for some particular experiments, such as high-dimensional quantum information processing. We use polarization beam splitters and half-wave plates to realize such a TBS under a compact structure, which can reduce the number of elements that require comparing with existing works. The experiments verify that the TBS has good performances in tunability, polarization, and OAM state preservation. A Sagnac interferometer is implemented with the proposed TBS to evaluate its practical usability, and the mean visibilities greater than 99.30% under varying polarization states demonstrate its potential for optical information processing.

Direct Reconstruction of the Quantum Density Matrix by Strong Measurements.

New techniques based on weak measurements have recently been introduced to the field of quantum state reconstruction. Some of them allow the direct measurement of each matrix element of an unknown density operator and need only O(d) different operations, compared to d^{2} linearly independent projectors in the case of standard quantum state tomography, for the reconstruction of an arbitrary mixed state. However, due to the weakness of these couplings, these protocols are approximated and prone to large statistical errors. We propose a method which is similar to the weak measurement protocols but works regardless of the coupling strength: our protocol is not approximated and thus improves the accuracy and precision of the results with respect to weak measurement schemes. We experimentally apply it to the polarization state of single photons and compare the results to those of preexisting methods for different values of the coupling strength. Our results show that our method outperforms previous proposals in terms of accuracy and statistical errors.