Quantum Sensors: Improved Optical Measurement via Specialized Quantum States

Classical measurement strategies in many areas are approaching their maximum resolution and sensitivity levels, but these levels often still fall far short of the ultimate limits allowed by the laws of physics. To go further, strategies must be adopted that take into account the quantum nature of the probe particles and that optimize their quantum states for the desired application. Here, we review some of these approaches, in which quantum entanglement, the orbital angular momentum of single photons, and quantum interferometry are used to produce optical measurements beyond the classical limit

Experimental demonstration of a directionally-unbiased linear-optical multiport

All existing optical quantum walk approaches are based on the use of beamsplitters and multiple paths to explore the multitude of unitary transformations of quantum amplitudes in a Hilbert space. The beamsplitter is naturally a directionally biased device: the photon cannot travel in reverse direction. This causes rapid increases in optical hardware resources required for complex quantum walk applications, since the number of options for the walking particle grows with each step. Here we present the experimental demonstration of a directionally-unbiased linear-optical multiport, which allows reversibility of photon direction. An amplitude-controllable probability distribution matrix for a unitary three-edge vertex is reconstructed with only linear-optical devices. Such directionally-unbiased multiports allow direct execution of quantum walks over a multitude of complex graphs and in tensor networks. This approach would enable simulation of complex Hamiltonians of physical systems and quantum walk applications in a more efficient and compact setup, substantially reducing the required hardware resources

Joint Entanglement of Topology and Polarization Enables Error-Protected Quantum Registers

Linear-optical systems can implement photonic quantum walks that simulate systems with nontrivial topological properties. Here, such photonic walks are used to jointly entangle polarization and winding number. This joint entanglement allows information processing tasks to be performed with interactive access to a wide variety of topological features. Topological considerations are used to suppress errors, with polarization allowing easy measurement and manipulation of qubits. We provide three examples of this approach: production of two-photon systems with entangled winding number (including topological analogs of Bell states), a topologically error-protected optical memory register, and production of entangled topologicallyprotected boundary states. In particular it is shown that a pair of quantum memory registers, entangled in polarization and winding number, with topologically-assisted error suppression can be made with qubits stored in superpositions of winding numbers; as a result, information processing with winding number-based qubits is a viable possibility

Directionally-unbiased unitary optical devices in discrete-time quantum walks

The optical beam splitter is a widely-used device in photonics-based quantum information processing. Specifically, linear optical networks demand large numbers of beam splitters for unitary matrix realization. This requirement comes from the beam splitter property that a photon cannot go back out of the input ports, which we call “directionally-biased”. Because of this property, higher dimensional information processing tasks suffer from rapid device resource growth when beam splitters are used in a feed-forward manner. Directionally-unbiased linear-optical devices have been introduced recently to eliminate the directional bias, greatly reducing the numbers of required beam splitters when implementing complicated tasks. Analysis of some originally directional optical devices and basic principles of their conversion into directionally-unbiased systems form the base of this paper. Photonic quantum walk implementations are investigated as a main application of the use of directionally-unbiased systems. Several quantum walk procedures executed on graph networks constructed using directionally-unbiased nodes are discussed. A significant savings in hardware and other required resources when compared with traditional directionally-biased beam-splitter-based optical networks is demonstrated.Accepted manuscriptPublished versio

Coherent State Quantum Key Distribution with Entanglement Witnessing

An entanglement witness approach to quantum coherent state key distribution and a system for its practical implementation are described. In this approach, eavesdropping can be detected by a change in sign of either of two witness functions, an entanglement witness S or an eavesdropping witness W. The effects of loss and eavesdropping on system operation are evaluated as a function of distance. Although the eavesdropping witness W does not directly witness entanglement for the system, its behavior remains related to that of the true entanglement witness S. Furthermore, W is easier to implement experimentally than S. W crosses the axis at a finite distance, in a manner reminiscent of entanglement sudden death. The distance at which this occurs changes measurably when an eavesdropper is present. The distance dependance of the two witnesses due to amplitude reduction and due to increased variance resulting from both ordinary propagation losses and possible eavesdropping activity is provided. Finally, the information content and secure key rate of a continuous variable protocol using this witness approach are given

Discrimination and synthesis of recursive quantum states in high-dimensional Hilbert spaces

We propose an interferometric method for statistically discriminating between nonorthogonal states in high dimensional Hilbert spaces for use in quantum information processing. The method is illustrated for the case of photon orbital angular momentum (OAM) states. These states belong to pairs of bases that are mutually unbiased on a sequence of two-dimensional subspaces of the full Hilbert space, but the vectors within the same basis are not necessarily orthogonal to each other. Over multiple trials, this method allows distinguishing OAM eigenstates from superpositions of multiple such eigenstates. Variations of the same method are then shown to be capable of preparing and detecting arbitrary linear combinations of states in Hilbert space. One further variation allows the construction of chains of states obeying recurrence relations on the Hilbert space itself, opening a new range of possibilities for more abstract information-coding algorithms to be carried out experimentally in a simple manner. Among other applications, we show that this approach provides a simplified means of switching between pairs of high-dimensional mutually unbiased OAM bases