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arXiv:1310.1768 · Physical Review A

Efficient amplification of photonic qubits by optimal quantum cloning

Karol Bartkiewicz, Antonín Černoch, Karel Lemr, Jan Soubusta, Magdalena Stobińska

Published Jun 18, 2014• 13 citations
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Abstract

We demonstrate that a phase-independent quantum amplifier of a polarization qubit is a complementary amplifier of the heralded qubit amplifier [N. Gisin, S. Pironio, and N. Sangouard, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 070501 (2010)]. It employs the multifunctional cloner in the $1\ensuremath{\rightarrow}2$ copying regime, capable of providing approximate copies of qubits given by various probability distributions, and is optimized for distributions with axial symmetry. Direct applications of the proposed solution are possible in quantum technologies, doubling the range where quantum information is coherently broadcast. It also outperforms natural nonlinear amplifiers that use stimulated emission in bulk nonlinear materials. We consider the amplifier to be an important tool for amplifying quantum information sent via quantum channels with phase-independent damping.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.89.062322

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We demonstrate that a phase-independent quantum amplifier of a polarization qubit is a complementary amplifier of the heralded qubit amplifier [N. Gisin, S. Pironio, and N. Sangouard, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 070501 (2010)]. It employs the multifunctional cloner in the 1\ensuremath→21\ensuremath{\rightarrow}21\ensuremath→2 copying regime, capable of providing approximate copies of qubits given by various probability distributions, and is optimized for distributions with axial symmetry. Direct applications of the proposed solution are possible in quantum technologies, doubling the range where quantum information is coherently broadcast. It also outperforms natural nonlinear amplifiers that use stimulated emission in bulk nonlinear materials. We consider the amplifier to be an important tool for amplifying quantum information sent via quantum channels with phase-independent damping.
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 ZZZ 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 show that optimal universal cloning of the polarization state of photons can be achieved via stimulated emission in three-level systems, both of the \ensuremath{\Lambda} and the VVV type. We establish the equivalence of our systems with coupled harmonic oscillators, which permits us to analyze the structure of the cloning transformations realized. These transformations are shown to be equivalent to the optimal cloning transformations for qubits discovered by Bu\ifmmode \check{z}\else \v{z}\fi{}ek and Hillery and Gisin and Massar. The down-conversion cloner discovered previously by some of the authors is obtained as a limiting case. We demonstrate an interesting equivalence between systems of \ensuremath{\Lambda} atoms and systems of pairwise entangled V atoms. Finally we discuss the physical differences between our photon cloners and the qubit cloners considered previously and prove that the bounds on the fidelity of the clones derived for qubits also apply in our situation.
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.
We propose a linear-optical scheme for an efficient amplification of a photonic qubit based on interaction of the signal mode with a pair of entangled ancillae. In contrast to a previous proposal for qubit amplifier by Gisin et al. [Phys Rev. Lett. 105, 070501 (2010)], the success probability of our device does not decrease asymptotically to zero with increasing gain. Moreover, we show how the device can be used to restore entanglement deteriorated by transmission over a lossy channel and calculate the secure key rate for device-independent quantum key distribution.
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→21\rightarrow 21→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.
In several quantum information (QI) phenomena of large technological importance the information is carried by the phase of the quantum superposition states, or qubits. The phase-covariant cloning machine (PQCM) addresses precisely the problem of optimally copying these qubits with the largest attainable ``fidelity.'' We present a general scheme which realizes the $1\ensuremath{\rightarrow}3$ phase covariant cloning process by a combination of three different QI processes: the universal cloning, the NOT gate, and the projection over the symmetric subspace of the output qubits. The experimental implementation of a PQCM for polarization encoded qubits, the first ever realized with photons, is reported.