Serial-parallel conversion for single photons with heralding signals

We present serial-parallel conversion for a heralded single photon source (heralded SPS). We theoretically show that with the heralding signal, the serial-parallel converter can route a stream of n photons to n different spatial modes more efficiently than is the case without using a heralding signal. We also experimentally demonstrate serial-parallel conversion for two photons generated from a heralded SPS. We achieve a conversion efficiency of 0.533 \pm 0.003, which exceeds the maximum achievable efficiency of 0.5 for serial-parallel conversion using unheralded photons, and is double the efficiency (0.25) for that using beamsplitters. When the losses in the optical converter are corrected for, the efficiency of the current setup can be increased up to 0.996 \pm 0.006.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Nonlocal Position Changes of a Photon Revealed by Quantum Routers

Since its publication, Aharonov and Vaidman's three-box paradox has undergone three major advances: i). A non-counterfactual scheme by the same authors in 2003 with strong rather than weak measurements for verifying the particle's subtle presence in two boxes. ii) A realization of the latter by Okamoto and Takeuchi in 2016. iii) A dynamic version by Aharonov et al. in 2017, with disappearance and reappearance of the particle. We now combine these advances together. Using photonic quantum routers the particle acts like a quantum "shutter." It is initially split between Boxes A, B and C, the latter located far away from the former two. The shutter particle's whereabouts can then be followed by a probe photon, split in both space and time and reflected by the shutter in its varying locations. Measuring the former is expected to reveal the following time-evolution: The shutter particle was, with certainty, in boxes A+C at t1, then only in C at t2, and finally in B+C at t3. Another branch of the split probe photon can show that boxes A+B were empty at t2. A Bell-like theorem applied to this experiment challenges any alternative interpretation that avoids disappearance-reappearance in favor of local hidden variables.Comment: Revised versio

Demonstration of an optical quantum controlled-NOT gate without path interference

We report the first experimental demonstration of an optical quantum controlled-NOT gate without any path interference, where the two interacting path interferometers of the original proposals (Phys. Rev. A {\bf 66}, 024308 (2001), Phys. Rev. A {\bf 65}, 012314 (2002)) have been replaced by three partially polarizing beam splitters with suitable polarization dependent transmittances and reflectances. The performance of the device is evaluated using a recently proposed method (Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 94}, 160504 (2005)), by which the quantum process fidelity and the entanglement capability can be estimated from the 32 measurement results of two classical truth tables, significantly less than the 256 measurement results required for full quantum tomography.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Beating the Standard Quantum Limit with Four Entangled Photons

Precision measurements are important across all fields of science. In particular, optical phase measurements can be used to measure distance, position, displacement, acceleration and optical path length. Quantum entanglement enables higher precision than would otherwise be possible. We demonstrate an optical phase measurement with an entangled four photon interference visibility greater than the threshold to beat the standard quantum limit--the limit attainable without entanglement. These results open the way for new high-precision measurement applications.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures Author name was slightly modifie

Implementation of a quantum controlled-SWAP gate with photonic circuits

Quantum information science addresses how the processing and transmission of information are affected by uniquely quantum mechanical phenomena. Combination of two-qubit gates has been used to realize quantum circuits, however, scalability is becoming a critical problem. The use of three-qubit gates may simplify the structure of quantum circuits dramatically. Among them, the controlled-SWAP (Fredkin) gates are essential since they can be directly applied to important protocols, e.g., error correction, fingerprinting, and optimal cloning. Here we report a realization of the Fredkin gate for photonic qubits. We achieve a fidelity of 0.85 in the computational basis and an output state fidelity of 0.81 for a 3-photon Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state. The estimated process fidelity of 0.77 indicates that our Fredkin gate can be applied to various quantum tasks.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, Sci. Rep. 7, 45353 (2017

Dispersion cancellation in high resolution two-photon interference

The dispersion cancellation observed in Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) interference between frequency-entangled photon pairs has been the basis of quantum optical coherence tomography and quantum clock synchronization. Here we explore the effect of phase dispersion on ultranarrow HOM dips. We show that the higher-order dispersion, the line width of the pump laser, and the spectral shape of the parametric fluorescence have a strong effect on the dispersion cancellation in the high-resolution regime with several experimental verifications. Perfect dispersion cancellation with a linewidth of 3\mu m is also demonstrated through 25 mm of water.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure

Analysis of an experimental quantum logic gate by complementary classical operations

Quantum logic gates can perform calculations much more efficiently than their classical counterparts. However, the level of control needed to obtain a reliable quantum operation is correspondingly higher. In order to evaluate the performance of experimental quantum gates, it is therefore necessary to identify the essential features that indicate quantum coherent operation. In this paper, we show that an efficient characterization of an experimental device can be obtained by investigating the classical logic operations on a pair of complementary basis sets. It is then possible to obtain reliable predictions about the quantum coherent operations of the gate such as entanglement generation and Bell state discrimination even without performing these operations directly.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figure, 3 tables, Brief Review for Modern Physics Letters A, includes a more detailed analysis of the experimental data in Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 210506 (2005) (quant-ph/0506263). v2 has minor corrections in layou