33 research outputs found
On the experimental verification of quantum complexity in linear optics
The first quantum technologies to solve computational problems that are
beyond the capabilities of classical computers are likely to be devices that
exploit characteristics inherent to a particular physical system, to tackle a
bespoke problem suited to those characteristics. Evidence implies that the
detection of ensembles of photons, which have propagated through a linear
optical circuit, is equivalent to sampling from a probability distribution that
is intractable to classical simulation. However, it is probable that the
complexity of this type of sampling problem means that its solution is
classically unverifiable within a feasible number of trials, and the task of
establishing correct operation becomes one of gathering sufficiently convincing
circumstantial evidence. Here, we develop scalable methods to experimentally
establish correct operation for this class of sampling algorithm, which we
implement with two different types of optical circuits for 3, 4, and 5 photons,
on Hilbert spaces of up to 50,000 dimensions. With only a small number of
trials, we establish a confidence >99% that we are not sampling from a uniform
distribution or a classical distribution, and we demonstrate a unitary specific
witness that functions robustly for small amounts of data. Like the algorithmic
operations they endorse, our methods exploit the characteristics native to the
quantum system in question. Here we observe and make an application of a
"bosonic clouding" phenomenon, interesting in its own right, where photons are
found in local groups of modes superposed across two locations. Our broad
approach is likely to be practical for all architectures for quantum
technologies where formal verification methods for quantum algorithms are
either intractable or unknown.Comment: Comments welcom
Testing foundations of quantum mechanics with photons
The foundational ideas of quantum mechanics continue to give rise to
counterintuitive theories and physical effects that are in conflict with a
classical description of Nature. Experiments with light at the single photon
level have historically been at the forefront of tests of fundamental quantum
theory and new developments in photonics engineering continue to enable new
experiments. Here we review recent photonic experiments to test two
foundational themes in quantum mechanics: wave-particle duality, central to
recent complementarity and delayed-choice experiments; and Bell nonlocality
where recent theoretical and technological advances have allowed all
controversial loopholes to be separately addressed in different photonics
experiments.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, published as a Nature Physics Insight review
articl
Quantum interferometry with three-dimensional geometry
Quantum interferometry uses quantum resources to improve phase estimation
with respect to classical methods. Here we propose and theoretically
investigate a new quantum interferometric scheme based on three-dimensional
waveguide devices. These can be implemented by femtosecond laser waveguide
writing, recently adopted for quantum applications. In particular, multiarm
interferometers include "tritter" and "quarter" as basic elements,
corresponding to the generalization of a beam splitter to a 3- and 4-port
splitter, respectively. By injecting Fock states in the input ports of such
interferometers, fringe patterns characterized by nonclassical visibilities are
expected. This enables outperforming the quantum Fisher information obtained
with classical fields in phase estimation. We also discuss the possibility of
achieving the simultaneous estimation of more than one optical phase. This
approach is expected to open new perspectives to quantum enhanced sensing and
metrology performed in integrated photonic.Comment: 7 pages (+4 Supplementary Information), 5 figure
Quantum teleportation on a photonic chip
Quantum teleportation is a fundamental concept in quantum physics which now
finds important applications at the heart of quantum technology including
quantum relays, quantum repeaters and linear optics quantum computing (LOQC).
Photonic implementations have largely focussed on achieving long distance
teleportation due to its suitability for decoherence-free communication.
Teleportation also plays a vital role in the scalability of photonic quantum
computing, for which large linear optical networks will likely require an
integrated architecture. Here we report the first demonstration of quantum
teleportation in which all key parts - entanglement preparation, Bell-state
analysis and quantum state tomography - are performed on a reconfigurable
integrated photonic chip. We also show that a novel element-wise
characterisation method is critical to mitigate component errors, a key
technique which will become increasingly important as integrated circuits reach
higher complexities necessary for quantum enhanced operation.Comment: Originally submitted version - refer to online journal for accepted
manuscript; Nature Photonics (2014
Guaranteed violation of a Bell inequality without aligned reference frames or calibrated devices
Bell tests---the experimental demonstration of a Bell inequality
violation---are central to understanding the foundations of quantum mechanics,
underpin quantum technologies, and are a powerful diagnostic tool for
technological developments in these areas. To date, Bell tests have relied on
careful calibration of the measurement devices and alignment of a shared
reference frame between the two parties---both technically demanding tasks in
general. Surprisingly, we show that neither of these operations are necessary,
violating Bell inequalities with near certainty with (i) unaligned, but
calibrated, measurement devices, and (ii) uncalibrated and unaligned devices.
We demonstrate generic quantum nonlocality with randomly chosen local
measurements on a singlet state of two photons implemented with reconfigurable
integrated optical waveguide circuits based on voltage-controlled phase
shifters. The observed results demonstrate the robustness of our schemes to
imperfections and statistical noise. This new approach is likely to have
important applications in both fundamental science and in quantum technologies,
including device independent quantum key distribution.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure
On-chip quantum interference between silicon photon-pair sources
Large-scale integrated quantum photonic technologies will require the on-chip
integration of identical photon sources with reconfigurable waveguide circuits.
Relatively complex quantum circuits have already been demonstrated, but few
studies acknowledge the pressing need to integrate photon sources and waveguide
circuits together on-chip. A key step towards such large-scale quantum
technologies is the integration of just two individual photon sources within a
waveguide circuit, and the demonstration of high-visibility quantum
interference between them. Here, we report a silicon-on-insulator device
combining two four-wave mixing sources, in an interferometer with a
reconfigurable phase shifter. We configure the device to create and manipulate
two-colour (non-degenerate) or same-colour (degenerate), path-entangled or
path-unentangled photon pairs. We observe up to 100.0+/-0.4% visibility quantum
interference on-chip, and up to 95+/-4% off-chip. Our device removes the need
for external photon sources, provides a path to increasing the complexity of
quantum photonic circuits, and is a first step towards fully-integrated quantum
technologies
Witnessing eigenstates for quantum simulation of Hamiltonian spectra
The efficient calculation of Hamiltonian spectra, a problem often intractable on classical machines, can find application in many fields, from physics to chemistry. We introduce the concept of an “eigenstate witness” and, through it, provide a new quantum approach that combines variational methods and phase estimation to approximate eigenvalues for both ground and excited states. This protocol is experimentally verified on a programmable silicon quantum photonic chip, a mass-manufacturable platform, which embeds entangled state generation, arbitrary controlled unitary operations, and projective measurements. Both ground and excited states are experimentally found with fidelities >99%, and their eigenvalues are estimated with 32 bits of precision. We also investigate and discuss the scalability of the approach and study its performance through numerical simulations of more complex Hamiltonians. This result shows promising progress toward quantum chemistry on quantum computers