Experimentally generating and tuning robust entanglement between photonic qubits

We generate and study the entanglement properties of novel states composed of three polarisation-encoded photonic qubits. By varying a single experimental parameter we can coherently move from a fully separable state to a maximally robust W state, while at all times preserving an optimally robust, symmetric entanglement configuration. We achieve a high fidelity with these configurations experimentally, including the highest reported W state fidelity.Comment: lower print quality for arxiv figure

Entanglement growth in quench dynamics with variable range interactions

Studying entanglement growth in quantum dynamics provides both insight into the underlying microscopic processes and information about the complexity of the quantum states, which is related to the efficiency of simulations on classical computers. Recently, experiments with trapped ions, polar molecules, and Rydberg excitations have provided new opportunities to observe dynamics with long-range interactions. We explore nonequilibrium coherent dynamics after a quantum quench in such systems, identifying qualitatively different behavior as the exponent of algebraically decaying spin-spin interactions in a transverse Ising chain is varied. Computing the build-up of bipartite entanglement as well as mutual information between distant spins, we identify linear growth of entanglement entropy corresponding to propagation of quasiparticles for shorter range interactions, with the maximum rate of growth occurring when the Hamiltonian parameters match those for the quantum phase transition. Counter-intuitively, the growth of bipartite entanglement for long-range interactions is only logarithmic for most regimes, i.e., substantially slower than for shorter range interactions. Experiments with trapped ions allow for the realization of this system with a tunable interaction range, and we show that the different phenomena are robust for finite system sizes and in the presence of noise. These results can act as a direct guide for the generation of large-scale entanglement in such experiments, towards a regime where the entanglement growth can render existing classical simulations inefficient.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figure

Experimental quantum computing without entanglement

Entanglement is widely believed to lie at the heart of the advantages offered by a quantum computer. This belief is supported by the discovery that a noiseless (pure) state quantum computer must generate a large amount of entanglement in order to offer any speed up over a classical computer. However, deterministic quantum computation with one pure qubit (DQC1), which employs noisy (mixed) states, is an efficient model that generates at most a marginal amount of entanglement. Although this model cannot implement any arbitrary algorithm it can efficiently solve a range of problems of significant importance to the scientific community. Here we experimentally implement a first-order case of a key DQC1 algorithm and explicitly characterise the non-classical correlations generated. Our results show that while there is no entanglement the algorithm does give rise to other non-classical correlations, which we quantify using the quantum discord - a stronger measure of non-classical correlations that includes entanglement as a subset. Our results suggest that discord could replace entanglement as a necessary resource for a quantum computational speed-up. Furthermore, DQC1 is far less resource intensive than universal quantum computing and our implementation in a scalable architecture highlights the model as a practical short-term goal.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

EIT ground-state cooling of long ion strings

Electromagnetically-induced-transparency (EIT) cooling is a ground-state cooling technique for trapped particles. EIT offers a broader cooling range in frequency space compared to more established methods. In this work, we experimentally investigate EIT cooling in strings of trapped atomic ions. In strings of up to 18 ions, we demonstrate simultaneous ground state cooling of all radial modes in under 1 ms. This is a particularly important capability in view of emerging quantum simulation experiments with large numbers of trapped ions. Our analysis of the EIT cooling dynamics is based on a novel technique enabling single-shot measurements of phonon numbers, by rapid adiabatic passage on a vibrational sideband of a narrow transition

Experimental demonstration of Shor's algorithm with quantum entanglement

Shor's powerful quantum algorithm for factoring represents a major challenge in quantum computation and its full realization will have a large impact on modern cryptography. Here we implement a compiled version of Shor's algorithm in a photonic system using single photons and employing the non-linearity induced by measurement. For the first time we demonstrate the core processes, coherent control, and resultant entangled states that are required in a full-scale implementation of Shor's algorithm. Demonstration of these processes is a necessary step on the path towards a full implementation of Shor's algorithm and scalable quantum computing. Our results highlight that the performance of a quantum algorithm is not the same as performance of the underlying quantum circuit, and stress the importance of developing techniques for characterising quantum algorithms.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures + half-page additional online materia