Quantum state engineering and state tomography using photon-number-resolving measurements (Conference Presentation)

A single-photon state was generated by heralding cavity-enhanced spontaneous parametric downconversion in a PPKTP optical parametric oscillator. The Wigner distribution was reconstructed by quantum state tomography, using photon-number-resolving measurements with a system efficiency of 58±2%. © 2019 The Author(s)

We report the implementation of a high-rate source of single- and two-photon states. By combining the advantages of short pulses and cavities, heralding rates as high as 200 kHz have been obtained for the single photons, as well as 250 Hz for the two-photon states. In this setup, homodyne measurements are conditioned by the heralding of the quantum states thanks to the introduction of a low-loss optical delay line in the heralded states path. This enables the detection of most of the heralded events, and fidelities reaching 68.5% (91% with correction for detection efficiency) and 50.4% (85% with correction) were obtained for the single- and two-photon states, respectively. Such high rates and fidelities in the generation of elementary Fock states may open the path for the production of complex quantum states.

Quantum state estimation (or state tomography) is an indispensable task in quantum information processing. Because full state tomography that determines all elements of the density matrix is computationally demanding, one usually takes the strategy of assuming a certain model of quantum states and identifying the model parameters. However, it is difficult to make a valid assumption given little prior knowledge on a quantum state of interest, and thus we need a reasonable model selection method for quantum state estimation. Actually, in the classical statistical estimation theory, several types of information criteria have been established and widely used in practice for appropriately choosing a classical statistical model. In this study, we propose quantum information criteria for evaluating the quality of the estimated quantum state in terms of the quantum relative entropy, which is a natural quantum analogue of the classical information criterion defined in terms of Kullback–Leibler divergence. In particular, we derive two quantum information criteria depending on the type of an estimator for the quantum relative entropy; one uses the log-likelihood and the other uses the classical shadow. The general role of information criteria is to predict the performance of an estimated model for unseen data, although it is a function of only sampled data; this generalization capability of the proposed quantum information criteria is evaluated in numerical simulations.

Quantum optics has proved a fertile field for experimental tests of quantum information science, from experimental verification of the violation of the Bell inequalities to quantum teleportation. However it was long believed that quantum optics would not provide a practical path to efficient and scaleable quantum computation, and most current efforts to achieve a scaleable quantum computer have focussed on solid state implementations. This orthodoxy was challenged recently when Knill et al. showed that given single photon sources and single photon detectors, linear optics alone would suffice to implement efficient quantum computation. While this result is surprising, the complexity of the optical networks required is daunting. In this talk we propose an efficient scheme which is elegant in its simplicity. We indicate how fundamental single and two qubit gates can be achieved. By encoding the quantum information in multi-photon coherent states, rather than single photon states, simple optical manipulations acquire unexpected power. As an application of this new information processing ability we investigate a class of high precision measurements. We show how superpositions of coherent states allow displacement measurements at the Heisenberg limit. Entangling many superpositions of coherent states offers a significant advantage over a single mode superposition states with the same mean photon number.

The parametric interaction of light beams in nonlinear materials is usually thought to be too weak to be observed when the fields involved are at the single-photon level. However, such single-photon level nonlinearity is not only fundamentally fascinating but holds great potential for emerging technologies and applications involving heralding entanglement at a distance. Here we use a high-efficiency waveguide to demonstrate the sum-frequency generation between a single photon and a single-photon level coherent state. The use of an integrated, solid state, room temperature device and telecom wavelengths makes this type of system directly applicable to future quantum communication technologies such as device-independent quantum key distribution.

We investigate the behaviour of an atom–cavity system via an adiabatic passage technique using a three-level ladder atom both for one-mode and for two-mode cavity QED. For one-mode cavity QED, we find that a single-photon Fock state can be generated via the technique of stimulated Raman adiabatic passage in the microwave domain. For two-mode cavity QED, we find that a two-photon pair can be generated via the technique of Stark shift rapid adiabatic passage (SRAP). We also find, for the two-mode cavity QED system, that an entangled state of the two modes in a microwave cavity can be prepared via the SRAP technique, in which the number of steps required is significantly reduced due to the adiabatic passage of the ladder atom–cavity coupled system.

A new class of non-classical light states has been experimentally generated and their complete phase-space characterization has been achieved by quantum homodyne tomography. Such states are produced by the action of the photon creation operator on a coherent light field and are thus the result of the elementary excitation process of a classical field by a single quantum. Being intermediate between a single-photon Fock state and a coherent one, they offer the unique opportunity to closely follow the smooth evolution between the particle-like and the wave-like behavior of the light field.

Optimal generation of photon Fock states is of significance to quantum science and technology. Here we develop a theoretical scheme for fast generating microwave photon Fock states in a circuit quantum electrodynamics (QED) via invariant-based shortcuts to adiabaticity. A superconducting transmon qubit is dispersively coupled to a cavity field of transmission line resonator. Two classical drivings are applied to a composite system, consisting of a transmon qubit and cavity field. In the two-photon resonance with a large intermediate-level detuning, a single-photon Fock state can be fast created by inversely engineering Rabi couplings. With the assistance of auxiliary driving, qubit state can be initialized for inducing multi-photon Fock states in the shortcut manner. Due to negligible leakage effects and high robustness, our scheme offers a potential way to rapidly prepare photon Fock states with a superconducting qubit in circuit QED.

By periodical two-step modulation, we demonstrate that the dynamics of a multilevel system can evolve even in a multiple large detunings regime and provide the effective Hamiltonian (of interest) for this system. We then illustrate this periodical modulation in quantum state engineering, including achieving direct transition from the ground state to the Rydberg state or the desired superposition of two Rydberg states without satisfying the two-photon resonance condition, switching between the Rydberg blockade regime and the Rydberg antiblockade regime, stimulating distinct atomic transitions by the same laser field, and implementing selective transitions in the same multilevel system. Particularly, it is robust against perturbation of control parameters. Another advantage is that the waveform of the laser field has a simple square-wave form, which is readily implemented in experiments. Thus, it offers us a novel method of quantum state engineering in quantum information processing.

Quantum computation requires controlled engineering of quantum states to perform tasks that go beyond those possible with classical computers. Topological quantum computation aims to achieve this goal by using non-Abelian quantum phases of matter. Such phases allow for quantum information to be stored and manipulated in a nonlocal manner, which protects it from imperfections in the implemented protocols and from interactions with the environment. Recently, substantial progress in this field has been made on both theoretical and experimental fronts. We review the basic concepts of non-Abelian phases and their topologically protected use in quantum information processing tasks. We discuss different possible realizations of these concepts in experimentally available solid-state systems, including systems hosting Majorana fermions, their recently proposed fractional counterparts, and non-Abelian quantum Hall states.

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.

We study a coherent superposition $t\mathrm{a\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}+r{\mathrm{a\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}}^{\ifmmode\dagger\else\textdagger\fi{}}$ of field annihilation and creation operators acting on continuous variable systems and propose its application for quantum state engineering. Specifically, it is investigated how the superposed operation transforms a classical state to a nonclassical one, together with emerging nonclassical effects. We also propose an experimental scheme to implement this elementary coherent operation and discuss its usefulness to produce an arbitrary superposition of number states involving up to two photons.

Owing to the long lifetime of Rydberg atom, easy to operate and easy to control the interaction between Rydberg atoms, Rydberg atom has attracted considerable attention in quantum information and quantum optics fields. Specially, the anti-blockade effect, as a physical resource, can be used to implement various tasks in quantum information processing. Based on the rigid dipole blockade, an ensemble of two-level Rydberg atoms trapped in three magneto-optical traps can be regarded as a superatom. Based on the superatom model, the in-phase and anti-phase dynamics of the three-body Rydberg superatoms are studied by adjusting the numbers of atoms, and the W state and two kinds of maximal entangled states are generated simultaneously. Our work has great potential applications in coherent manipulation and quantum information processing.The numerical simulations are performed based on the superatom model and thereby the formidable obstacle that the Hilbert space dimension grows exponentially with the particle number increasing can be completely removed. As a result, the quantum control and quantum entanglement can be achieved from the single-quanta level to the mesoscopic level.

Gaussian steering in continuousvariable (CV) systems, as a quantum correlation between nonlocality and entanglement, is an important quantum resource. Rapid detection of Gaussian steering is a significant challenge in quantum information process. In this paper, we employ a combination of machine learning methods, including Support Vector Machine (SVM), Backpropagation Neural Network (BPNN) and Meta-Weight-Net Neural Network (MWN) to speed up the detection. An ensemble learning approach that integrates these methods is also utilized to increase the accuracy of detection. A computable Gaussian steering quantification introduced recently in [Phys. Rev. A 110, 052427] serves as a pivotal tool for labeling the samples. A key observation is that steerable Gaussian states are vastly outnumbered by unsteerable ones, particularly in configurations where the untrusted party possesses significantly more modes than the trusted party. This leads to a highly skewed distribution of sample states in the dataset. In response to this phenomenon and to make comparison, we propose the imbalance factor and prepare three types of datasets to be trained: balanced datasets, naturally generated datasets and augmented datasets with via a data augmentation strategy. Numerical experiments for seven low modes scenarios reveal that the classifiers obtained by utilizing the ensemble learning method training on augmented dataset have the best overall performance, significantly improving generalization capabilities with low cost and high test accuracy, achieving detection times as fast as seconds, at least 100 times faster than calculating . The speed advantage of machine learning detection will be more obvious in the case of higher modes. Thus the approach is both efficient and reliable, offering valuable insights into the broader potential of machine learning applications in quantum information science and providing a robust framework for machine learning utilized to classification tasks, especially in data-imbalanced scenarios.

Decoherence suppression from disturbance of the environment is an essential task in quantum information processing. We investigate decoherence suppression of a qubit system interacting with a heat bath with phase decoherence by employing the weak measurement (WM) and quantum measurement reversal (QMR) operation. We show explicitly that the qubit decoherence can be efficiently completely suppressed by means of the combination WM and QMR, which is independent of the form of the spectral density of the reservoir and the form of initial input state.