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arXiv:1201.6234 · Physical Review A

Experimental linear-optical implementation of a multifunctional optimal qubit cloner

Karel Lemr, Karol Bartkiewicz, Antonín Černoch, Jan Soubusta, Adam Miranowicz

Published May 25, 2012• 31 citations

Abstract

We present the first experimental implementation of a multifunctional device for the optimal cloning of one to two qubits. Previous implementations have always been designed to optimize the cloning procedure with respect to one single type of a priori information about the cloned state. In contrast, our ``all-in-one'' implementation is optimal for several prominent regimes such as universal cloning, phase-covariant cloning, and also the first ever realized mirror phase-covariant cloning, when the square of the expected value of Pauli's $Z$ operator is known in advance. In all these regimes the experimental device yields clones with almost maximum achievable average fidelity (97.5$%$ of theoretical limit). Our device has a wide range of possible applications in quantum information processing, especially in quantum communication. For instance, one can use it for incoherent and coherent attacks against a variety of cryptographic protocols, including the Bennett-Brassard 1984 protocol of quantum key distribution through the Pauli damping channels. It can be also applied as a state-dependent photon multiplier in practical quantum networks.

DOI: 10.1103/physreva.85.050307

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arXiv:1103.5324•Physica Scripta•Feb 1, 2012•4 citations

We present the first experimental implementation of a multifunctional device for the optimal cloning of one to two qubits. Previous implementations have always been designed to optimize the cloning procedure with respect to one single type of a priori information about the cloned state. In contrast, our ``all-in-one'' implementation is optimal for several prominent regimes such as universal cloning, phase-covariant cloning, and also the first ever realized mirror phase-covariant cloning, when the square of the expected value of Pauli's

Z

operator is known in advance. In all these regimes the experimental device yields clones with almost maximum achievable average fidelity (97.5

%

of theoretical limit). Our device has a wide range of possible applications in quantum information processing, especially in quantum communication. For instance, one can use it for incoherent and coherent attacks against a variety of cryptographic protocols, including the Bennett-Brassard 1984 protocol of quantum key distribution through the Pauli damping channels. It can be also applied as a state-dependent photon multiplier in practical quantum networks.

We present the experimental realization of optimal symmetric and asymmetric phase-covariant 1-->2 cloning of qubit states using fiber optics. The state of each qubit is encoded into a single photon which can propagate through two optical fibers. The operation of our device is based on one- and two-photon interference. We have demonstrated the creation of two copies for a wide range of qubit states from the equator of the Bloch sphere. The measured fidelities of both copies are close to the theoretical values and they surpass the theoretical maximum obtainable with the universal cloner.

We present the results of a linear optics photonic implementation of a quantum circuit that simulates a phase covariant cloner. Input polarization qubit states are cloned into path qubit states of the same photon, which is identified as a potential eavesdropper in a quantum key distribution protocol. The device has the flexibility to simulate optimal and non-optimal cloning machines, as well as mirrored versions that optimally clone states on either the northern or southern hemispheres of the Bloch sphere. We experimentally simulate the effect of a single

1\rightarrow 2

cloner, as well as the action of a random sequence of the original cloner and its mirrored version. This procedure allows the eavesdropper to mitigate the amount of noise added to the original copy and therefore to mask its presence.

We propose a quantum cloning machine, which clones a qubit into two clones assuming known modulus of expectation value of Pauli ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{z}$ matrix. The process is referred to as the mirror phase-covariant cloning for which the input state is a priori less known than that for the standard phase-covariant cloning. Analytical expressions describing the cloning transformation and fidelity of the clones are found. Extremal equations for the optimal cloning are derived and analytically solved by generalizing a method of Fiur\'a\ifmmode \check{s}\else \v{s}\fi{}ek [Phys. Rev. A 64, 062310 (2001)]. Quantum circuits implementing the optimal cloning transformation and their physical realization in a quantum-dot system are described.

While exact cloning of an unknown quantum state is prohibited by the linearity of quantum mechanics, approximate cloning is possible and has been used, e.g., to derive limits on the security of quantum communication protocols. In the case of asymmetric cloning, the information from the input state is distributed asymmetrically between the different output states. Here, we consider asymmetric phase-covariant cloning, where the goal is to optimally transfer the phase information from a single input qubit to different output qubits. We construct an optimal quantum cloning machine for two qubits that does not require ancilla qubits and implement it on an NMR quantum information processor.

We present a quantum circuit architecture for the one-to-two cloning of

N

-qubit registers. It implements the broad class of Pauli cloners by extending the Niu--Griffiths architecture to multi-qubit systems. In the single-qubit case, we provide explicit constructions for asymmetric universal, phase covariant and biased cloners. We explore the fundamental relationship between Pauli errors, mutually unbiased bases and Pauli cloning. Furthermore, we demonstrate how Pauli cloners can be tailored to specific noise models in the context of quantum communication, especially quantum key distribution.

We study state-dependent quantum cloning that can outperform universal cloning (UC).This is possible by using some a priori information on a given quantum state to be cloned.Specifically, we propose a generalization and optical implementation of quantum optimal mirror phase-covariant cloning, which refers to optimal cloning of sets of qubits of known modulus of the expectation value of Pauli's Z operator.Our results can be applied to cloning of an arbitrary mirror-symmetric distribution of qubits on the Bloch sphere including in special cases UC and phase-covariant cloning.We show that the cloning is optimal by adapting our former optimality proof for axisymmetric cloning (Bartkiewicz and Miranowicz 2010 Phys.Rev. A 82 042330).Moreover, we propose an optical realization of the optimal mirror phase-covariant 1 → 2 cloning of a qubit, for which the mean probability of successful cloning varies from 1/6 to 1/3 depending on prior information on the set of qubits to be cloned.The qubits are represented by polarization states of photons generated by the type-I spontaneous parametric down-conversion.The scheme is based on the interference of two photons on an unbalanced polarization-dependent beam splitter with different splitting ratios for vertical and horizontal polarization components and the additional application of feedforward by means of Pockels cells.The experimental feasibility of the proposed setup is carefully studied including various kinds of imperfections and losses.Moreover, we briefly describe two possible cryptographic applications of the optimal mirror phase-covariant cloning corresponding to state discrimination (or estimation) and secure quantum teleportation.