Universal Scaling Bounds on a Quantum Heat Current.

In this Letter, we derive new bounds on a heat current flowing into a quantum L-particle system coupled with a Markovian environment. By assuming that a system Hamiltonian and a system-environment interaction Hamiltonian are extensive in L, we prove that the absolute value of the heat current scales at most as Θ(L^{3}) in a limit of large L. Furthermore, we present an example of noninteracting particles globally coupled with a thermal bath, for which this bound is saturated in terms of scaling. However, the construction of such a system requires many-body interactions induced by the environment, which may be difficult to realize with the existing technology. To consider more feasible cases, we consider a class of the system where any nondiagonal elements of the noise operator (derived from the system-environment interaction Hamiltonian) become zero in the system energy basis, if the energy difference exceeds a certain value ΔE. Then, for ΔE=Θ(L^{0}), we derive another scaling bound Θ(L^{2}) on the absolute value of the heat current, and the so-called superradiance belongs to a class for which this bound is saturated. Our results are useful for evaluating the best achievable performance of quantum-enhanced thermodynamic devices, including far-reaching applications such as quantum heat engines, quantum refrigerators, and quantum batteries.

Quantum-Enhanced Heat Engine Based on Superabsorption.

We propose a quantum-enhanced heat engine with entanglement. The key feature of our scheme is superabsorption, which facilitates enhanced energy absorption by entangled qubits. Whereas a conventional engine with N separable qubits provides power with a scaling of P=Θ(N), our engine uses superabsorption to provide power with a quantum scaling of P=Θ(N^{2}). This quantum heat engine also exhibits a scaling advantage over classical ones composed of N-particle Langevin systems. Our work elucidates the quantum properties allowing for the enhancement of performance.

Real-Time Observation of Charge-Spin Cooperative Dynamics Driven by a Nonequilibrium Phonon Environment.

We report on experimental observations of charge-spin cooperative dynamics of two-electron states in a GaAs double quantum dot located in a nonequilibrium phonon environment. When the phonon energy exceeds the lowest excitation energy in the quantum dot, the spin-flip rate of a single electron strongly enhances. In addition, originated from the spatial gradient of phonon density between the dots, the parallel spin states become more probable than the antiparallel ones. These results indicate that spin is essential for further demonstrations of single-electron thermodynamic systems driven by phonons, which will greatly contribute to understanding of the fundamental physics of thermoelectric devices.

Coherent coupling of a superconducting flux qubit to an electron spin ensemble in diamond.

During the past decade, research into superconducting quantum bits (qubits) based on Josephson junctions has made rapid progress. Many foundational experiments have been performed, and superconducting qubits are now considered one of the most promising systems for quantum information processing. However, the experimentally reported coherence times are likely to be insufficient for future large-scale quantum computation. A natural solution to this problem is a dedicated engineered quantum memory based on atomic and molecular systems. The question of whether coherent quantum coupling is possible between such natural systems and a single macroscopic artificial atom has attracted considerable attention since the first demonstration of macroscopic quantum coherence in Josephson junction circuits. Here we report evidence of coherent strong coupling between a single macroscopic superconducting artificial atom (a flux qubit) and an ensemble of electron spins in the form of nitrogen-vacancy colour centres in diamond. Furthermore, we have observed coherent exchange of a single quantum of energy between a flux qubit and a macroscopic ensemble consisting of about 3 × 10(7) such colour centres. This provides a foundation for future quantum memories and hybrid devices coupling microwave and optical systems.

Ultimate low system dark-count rate for superconducting nanowire single-photon detector.

The dark-count rate (DCR) is a key parameter of single-photon detectors. By introducing a bulk optical band-pass filter mounted on a fiber-to-fiber optical bench cooled at 3 K and blocking down to 5 µm, we suppressed the DCR of a superconducting nanowire single-photon detector by more than three orders of magnitude. The DCR is limited by the blackbody radiation through a signal passband of 20-nm bandwidth. The figure of merit, system detection efficiency, and DCR were 2.7×10(11), 2.3%, and 10(-3) Hz, respectively. Narrowing the bandwidth to 100 GHz suppresses the DCR to 10(-4) Hz, and the figure of merit increases to 1.8×10(12).

Slow light enhanced correlated photon pair generation in photonic-crystal coupled-resonator optical waveguides.

We demonstrate the generation of quantum-correlated photon pairs from a Si photonic-crystal coupled-resonator optical waveguide. A slow-light supermode realized by the collective resonance of high-Q and small-mode-volume photonic-crystal cavities successfully enhanced the efficiency of the spontaneous four-wave mixing process. The generation rate of photon pairs was improved by two orders of magnitude compared with that of a photonic-crystal line defect waveguide without a slow-light effect.

Single-spin readout in a double quantum dot including a micromagnet.

We use photon-assisted tunneling (PAT) and an inhomogeneous Zeeman field to demonstrate spin-selective PAT readout with a double quantum dot. The inhomogeneous Zeeman field is generated by a proximal micromagnet, which provides different stray fields between the two dots, resulting in an energy difference between the interdot PAT of the up-spin state and that of the down-spin state. We apply various external magnetic fields to modify the relative filling weight between the up-spin and down-spin states and detect it by using a charge detection technique to probe the PAT induced charge delocalization in the double dot.

Entanglement generation using silicon photonic wire waveguide.

This paper reviews recent progress on telecom-band entangled photon-pair sources based on spontaneous four-wave mixing (SFWM) in a silicon photonic wire waveguide. Thanks to the large third order nonlinearity of nano-scale silicon waveguides, we can generate photon pairs efficiently. Moreover, the use of silicon waveguides enable us to avoid the noise photons caused by spontaneous Raman scattering, which has been a serious problem with entanglement sources based on SFWM in dispersion shifted fiber. We successfully demonstrated high-purity time-bin and polarization entanglement generation using 1-cm long silicon waveguides.

Differential-phase-shift quantum key distribution experiment using fast physical random bit generator with chaotic semiconductor lasers.

A high speed physical random bit generator is applied for the first time to a gigahertz clocked quantum key distribution system. Random phase-modulation in a differential-phase-shift quantum key distribution (DPS-QKD) system is performed using a 1-Gbps random bit signal which is generated by a physical random bit generator with chaotic semiconductor lasers. Stable operation is demonstrated for over one hour, and sifted keys are successfully generated at a rate of 9.0 kbps with a quantum bit error rate of 3.2% after 25-km fiber transmission.

Generation of high-purity entangled photon pairs using silicon wire waveguide.

We observed high-purity correlated and entangled photon pairs generated through spontaneous four-wave mixing (SFWM) in a silicon wire waveguide (SWW). Employing a nano-scale silicon waveguide with a low loss mode size converter, we obtained a high coincidence to accidental coincidence ratio (CAR) of around 200 that was larger than that of cooled dispersion shifted fiber (DSF) by a factor 3.2, and observed the two-photon interference fringe of time-bin entangled photons with > 95% visibility without subtracting the accidental coincidences.

Generation of polarization entangled photon pairs using silicon wire waveguide.

We report the experimental generation of polarization entangled photon pairs based on spontaneous four-wave mixing in a silicon waveguide. Using a nano-scale silicon wire waveguide placed in a fiber loop, we obtained 1.5-microm band polarization entanglement with two-photon interference visibilities of >83%.

Microwave band on-chip coil technique for single electron spin resonance in a quantum dot.

Microwave band on-chip microcoils are developed for the application to single electron spin resonance measurement with a single quantum dot. Basic properties such as characteristic impedance and electromagnetic field distribution are examined for various coil designs by means of experiment and simulation. The combined setup operates relevantly in the experiment at dilution temperature. The frequency responses of the return loss and Coulomb blockade current are examined. Capacitive coupling between a coil and a quantum dot causes photon assisted tunneling, whose signal can greatly overlap the electron spin resonance signal. To suppress the photon assisted tunneling effect, a technique for compensating for the microwave electric field is developed. Good performance of this technique is confirmed from measurement of Coulomb blockade oscillations.

Identifying a correlated spin fluctuation in an entangled spin chain subject to a quantum phase transition.

This paper presents a theoretical framework for analyzing the quantum fluctuation properties of a quantum spin chain subject to a quantum phase transition. We can quantify the fluctuation properties by examining the correlation between the fluctuations of two neighboring spins subject to the quantum uncertainty. To do this, we first compute the reduced density matrix ρ of the spin pair from the ground state |Ψ⟩ of a spin chain, and then identify the quantum correlation part ρ(q) embedded in ρ. If the spin chain is translationally symmetric and characterized by a nearest-neighbor two-body spin interaction, we can determine uniquely the form of ρ(q) as W|Φ〉〈Φ| with the weight W ≤1, and quantify the fluctuation properties using the two-spin entangled state |Φ〉. We demonstrate the framework for a transverse-field quantum Ising spin chain and indicate its validity for more general spin chain models.

A monolithically integrated polarization entangled photon pair source on a silicon chip.

Integrated photonic circuits are one of the most promising platforms for large-scale photonic quantum information systems due to their small physical size and stable interferometers with near-perfect lateral-mode overlaps. Since many quantum information protocols are based on qubits defined by the polarization of photons, we must develop integrated building blocks to generate, manipulate, and measure the polarization-encoded quantum state on a chip. The generation unit is particularly important. Here we show the first integrated polarization-entangled photon pair source on a chip. We have implemented the source as a simple and stable silicon-on-insulator photonic circuit that generates an entangled state with 91 ± 2% fidelity. The source is equipped with versatile interfaces for silica-on-silicon or other types of waveguide platforms that accommodate the polarization manipulation and projection devices as well as pump light sources. Therefore, we are ready for the full-scale implementation of photonic quantum information systems on a chip.

Spin-orbit induced electronic spin separation in semiconductor nanostructures.

The demonstration of quantized spin splitting by Stern and Gerlach is one of the most important experiments in modern physics. Their discovery was the precursor of recent developments in spin-based technologies. Although electrical spin separation of charged particles is fundamental in spintronics, in non-uniform magnetic fields it has been difficult to separate the spin states of charged particles due to the Lorentz force, as well as to the insufficient and uncontrollable field gradients. Here we demonstrate electronic spin separation in a semiconductor nanostructure. To avoid the Lorentz force, which is inevitably induced when an external magnetic field is applied, we utilized the effective non-uniform magnetic field which originates from the Rashba spin-orbit interaction in an InGaAs-based heterostructure. Using a Stern-Gerlach-inspired mechanism, together with a quantum point contact, we obtained field gradients of 10(8) T m(-1) resulting in a highly polarized spin current.

Coherent single electron spin control in a slanting Zeeman field.

We consider a single electron in a 1D quantum dot with a static slanting Zeeman field. By combining the spin and orbital degrees of freedom of the electron, an effective quantum two-level (qubit) system is defined. This pseudospin can be coherently manipulated by the voltage applied to the gate electrodes, without the need for an external time-dependent magnetic field or spin-orbit coupling. Single-qubit rotations and the controlled-NOT operation can be realized. We estimated the relaxation (T1) and coherence (T2) times and the (tunable) quality factor. This scheme implies important experimental advantages for single electron spin control.

Allowed and forbidden transitions in artificial hydrogen and helium atoms.

The strength of radiative transitions in atoms is governed by selection rules that depend on the occupation of atomic orbitals with electrons. Experiments have shown similar electron occupation of the quantized energy levels in semiconductor quantum dots--often described as artificial atoms. But unlike real atoms, the confinement potential of quantum dots is anisotropic, and the electrons can easily couple with phonons of the material. Here we report electrical pump-and-probe experiments that probe the allowed and 'forbidden' transitions between energy levels under phonon emission in quantum dots with one or two electrons (artificial hydrogen and helium atoms). The forbidden transitions are in fact allowed by higher-order processes where electrons flip their spin. We find that the relaxation time is about 200 micro s for forbidden transitions, 4 to 5 orders of magnitude longer than for allowed transitions. This indicates that the spin degree of freedom is well separated from the orbital degree of freedom, and that the total spin in the quantum dots is an excellent quantum number. This is an encouraging result for potential applications of quantum dots as basic entities for spin-based quantum information storage.