Deterministic delivery of remote entanglement on a quantum network.

Large-scale quantum networks promise to enable secure communication, distributed quantum computing, enhanced sensing and fundamental tests of quantum mechanics through the distribution of entanglement across nodes1-7. Moving beyond current two-node networks8-13 requires the rate of entanglement generation between nodes to exceed the decoherence (loss) rate of the entanglement. If this criterion is met, intrinsically probabilistic entangling protocols can be used to provide deterministic remote entanglement at pre-specified times. Here we demonstrate this using diamond spin qubit nodes separated by two metres. We realize a fully heralded single-photon entanglement protocol that achieves entangling rates of up to 39 hertz, three orders of magnitude higher than previously demonstrated two-photon protocols on this platform 14 . At the same time, we suppress the decoherence rate of remote-entangled states to five hertz through dynamical decoupling. By combining these results with efficient charge-state control and mitigation of spectral diffusion, we deterministically deliver a fresh remote state with an average entanglement fidelity of more than 0.5 at every clock cycle of about 100 milliseconds without any pre- or post-selection. These results demonstrate a key building block for extended quantum networks and open the door to entanglement distribution across multiple remote nodes.

Publisher Correction: Deterministic delivery of remote entanglement on a quantum network.

Change history: In this Letter, the received date should be 20 December 2017, instead of 27 April 2018. This has been corrected online.

Entanglement between a Diamond Spin Qubit and a Photonic Time-Bin Qubit at Telecom Wavelength.

We report on the realization and verification of quantum entanglement between a nitrogen-vacancy electron spin qubit and a telecom-band photonic qubit. First we generate entanglement between the spin qubit and a 637 nm photonic time-bin qubit, followed by photonic quantum frequency conversion that transfers the entanglement to a 1588 nm photon. We characterize the resulting state by correlation measurements in different bases and find a lower bound to the Bell state fidelity of ≥0.77±0.03. This result presents an important step towards extending quantum networks via optical fiber infrastructure.

Optimal Measurements for Simultaneous Quantum Estimation of Multiple Phases.

A quantum theory of multiphase estimation is crucial for quantum-enhanced sensing and imaging and may link quantum metrology to more complex quantum computation and communication protocols. In this Letter, we tackle one of the key difficulties of multiphase estimation: obtaining a measurement which saturates the fundamental sensitivity bounds. We derive necessary and sufficient conditions for projective measurements acting on pure states to saturate the ultimate theoretical bound on precision given by the quantum Fisher information matrix. We apply our theory to the specific example of interferometric phase estimation using photon number measurements, a convenient choice in the laboratory. Our results thus introduce concepts and methods relevant to the future theoretical and experimental development of multiparameter estimation.

Strain-optic active control for quantum integrated photonics.

We present a practical method for active phase control on a photonic chip that has immediate applications in quantum photonics. Our approach uses strain-optic modification of the refractive index of individual waveguides, effected by a millimeter-scale mechanical actuator. The resulting phase change of propagating optical fields is rapid and polarization-dependent, enabling quantum applications that require active control and polarization encoding. We demonstrate strain-optic control of non-classical states of light in silica, showing the generation of 2-photon polarisation N00N states by manipulating Hong-Ou-Mandel interference. We also demonstrate switching times of a few microseconds, which are sufficient for silica-based feed-forward control of photonic quantum states.

Continuous-variable quantum computing in optical time-frequency modes using quantum memories.

We develop a scheme for time-frequency encoded continuous-variable cluster-state quantum computing using quantum memories. In particular, we propose a method to produce, manipulate, and measure two-dimensional cluster states in a single spatial mode by exploiting the intrinsic time-frequency selectivity of Raman quantum memories. Time-frequency encoding enables the scheme to be extremely compact, requiring a number of memories that are a linear function of only the number of different frequencies in which the computational state is encoded, independent of its temporal duration. We therefore show that quantum memories can be a powerful component for scalable photonic quantum information processing architectures.

On-chip low loss heralded source of pure single photons.

A key obstacle to the experimental realization of many photonic quantum-enhanced technologies is the lack of low-loss sources of single photons in pure quantum states. We demonstrate a promising solution: generation of heralded single photons in a silica photonic chip by spontaneous four-wave mixing. A heralding efficiency of 40%, corresponding to a preparation efficiency of 80% accounting for detector performance, is achieved due to efficient coupling of the low-loss source to optical fibers. A single photon purity of 0.86 is measured from the source number statistics without narrow spectral filtering, and confirmed by direct measurement of the joint spectral intensity. We calculate that similar high-heralded-purity output can be obtained from visible to telecom spectral regions using this approach. On-chip silica sources can have immediate application in a wide range of single-photon quantum optics applications which employ silica photonics.

High quantum-efficiency photon-number-resolving detector for photonic on-chip information processing.

The integrated optical circuit is a promising architecture for the realization of complex quantum optical states and information networks. One element that is required for many of these applications is a high-efficiency photon detector capable of photon-number discrimination. We present an integrated photonic system in the telecom band at 1550 nm based on UV-written silica-on-silicon waveguides and modified transition-edge sensors capable of number resolution and over 40 % efficiency. Exploiting the mode transmission failure of these devices, we multiplex three detectors in series to demonstrate a combined 79 % ± 2 % detection efficiency with a single pass, and 88 % ± 3 % at the operating wavelength of an on-chip terminal reflection grating. Furthermore, our optical measurements clearly demonstrate no significant unexplained loss in this system due to scattering or reflections. This waveguide and detector design therefore allows the placement of number-resolving single-photon detectors of predictable efficiency at arbitrary locations within a photonic circuit - a capability that offers great potential for many quantum optical applications.

Quantum enhanced multiple phase estimation.

We study the simultaneous estimation of multiple phases as a discretized model for the imaging of a phase object. We identify quantum probe states that provide an enhancement compared to the best quantum scheme for the estimation of each individual phase separately as well as improvements over classical strategies. Our strategy provides an advantage in the variance of the estimation over individual quantum estimation schemes that scales as O(d), where d is the number of phases. Finally, we study the attainability of this limit using realistic probes and photon-number-resolving detectors. This is a problem in which an intrinsic advantage is derived from the estimation of multiple parameters simultaneously.

Linear optical quantum computing in a single spatial mode.

We present a scheme for linear optical quantum computing using time-bin-encoded qubits in a single spatial mode. We show methods for single-qubit operations and heralded controlled-phase (cphase) gates, providing a sufficient set of operations for universal quantum computing with the Knill-Laflamme-Milburn [Nature (London) 409, 46 (2001)] scheme. Our protocol is suited to currently available photonic devices and ideally allows arbitrary numbers of qubits to be encoded in the same spatial mode, demonstrating the potential for time-frequency modes to dramatically increase the quantum information capacity of fixed spatial resources. As a test of our scheme, we demonstrate the first entirely single spatial mode implementation of a two-qubit quantum gate and show its operation with an average fidelity of 0.84±0.07.

Quantum memories: emerging applications and recent advances.

Quantum light-matter interfaces are at the heart of photonic quantum technologies. Quantum memories for photons, where non-classical states of photons are mapped onto stationary matter states and preserved for subsequent retrieval, are technical realizations enabled by exquisite control over interactions between light and matter. The ability of quantum memories to synchronize probabilistic events makes them a key component in quantum repeaters and quantum computation based on linear optics. This critical feature has motivated many groups to dedicate theoretical and experimental research to develop quantum memory devices. In recent years, exciting new applications, and more advanced developments of quantum memories, have proliferated. In this review, we outline some of the emerging applications of quantum memories in optical signal processing, quantum computation and non-linear optics. We review recent experimental and theoretical developments, and their impacts on more advanced photonic quantum technologies based on quantum memories.

Boson sampling on a photonic chip.

Although universal quantum computers ideally solve problems such as factoring integers exponentially more efficiently than classical machines, the formidable challenges in building such devices motivate the demonstration of simpler, problem-specific algorithms that still promise a quantum speedup. We constructed a quantum boson-sampling machine (QBSM) to sample the output distribution resulting from the nonclassical interference of photons in an integrated photonic circuit, a problem thought to be exponentially hard to solve classically. Unlike universal quantum computation, boson sampling merely requires indistinguishable photons, linear state evolution, and detectors. We benchmarked our QBSM with three and four photons and analyzed sources of sampling inaccuracy. Scaling up to larger devices could offer the first definitive quantum-enhanced computation.

Multiphoton quantum interference in a multiport integrated photonic device.

Increasing the complexity of quantum photonic devices is essential for many optical information processing applications to reach a regime beyond what can be classically simulated, and integrated photonics has emerged as a leading platform for achieving this. Here we demonstrate three-photon quantum operation of an integrated device containing three coupled interferometers, eight spatial modes and many classical and nonclassical interferences. This represents a critical advance over previous complexities and the first on-chip nonclassical interference with more than two photonic inputs. We introduce a new scheme to verify quantum behaviour, using classically characterised device elements and hierarchies of photon correlation functions. We accurately predict the device's quantum behaviour and show operation inconsistent with both classical and bi-separable quantum models. Such methods for verifying multiphoton quantum behaviour are vital for achieving increased circuit complexity. Our experiment paves the way for the next generation of integrated photonic quantum simulation and computing devices.