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arXiv:1606.08578 · New Journal of Physics

Experimental noiseless linear amplification using weak measurements

Joseph Ho, Allen Boston, Matthew S. Palsson, Geoff J. Pryde

Published Sep 14, 2016• 10 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The viability of quantum communication schemes rely on sending quantum states of light over long distances.However, transmission loss can degrade the signal strength, adding noise.Heralded noiseless amplification of a quantum signal can provide a solution by enabling longer direct transmission distances and by enabling entanglement distillation.The central idea of heralded noiseless amplification-a conditional modification of the probability distribution over photon number of an optical quantum state-is suggestive of a parallel with weak measurement: in a weak measurement, learning partial information about an observable leads to a conditional back-action of a commensurate size.Here we experimentally investigate the application of weak, or variable-strength, measurements to the task of heralded amplification, by using a quantum logic gate to weakly couple a small single-optical-mode quantum state (the signal) to an ancilla photon (the meter).The weak measurement is carried out by choosing the measurement basis of the meter photon and, by conditioning on the meter outcomes, the signal is amplified.We characterise the gain of the amplifier as a function of the measurement strength, and use interferometric methods to show that the operation preserves the coherence of the signal.

DOI
10.1088/1367-2630/18/9/093026

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The viability of quantum communication schemes rely on sending quantum states of light over long distances.However, transmission loss can degrade the signal strength, adding noise.Heralded noiseless amplification of a quantum signal can provide a solution by enabling longer direct transmission distances and by enabling entanglement distillation.The central idea of heralded noiseless amplification-a conditional modification of the probability distribution over photon number of an optical quantum state-is suggestive of a parallel with weak measurement: in a weak measurement, learning partial information about an observable leads to a conditional back-action of a commensurate size.Here we experimentally investigate the application of weak, or variable-strength, measurements to the task of heralded amplification, by using a quantum logic gate to weakly couple a small single-optical-mode quantum state (the signal) to an ancilla photon (the meter).The weak measurement is carried out by choosing the measurement basis of the meter photon and, by conditioning on the meter outcomes, the signal is amplified.We characterise the gain of the amplifier as a function of the measurement strength, and use interferometric methods to show that the operation preserves the coherence of the signal.
Due to the pervasive nature of decoherence, protection of quantum information during transmission is of critical importance for any quantum network. A linear amplifier that can enhance quantum signals stronger than their associated noise while preserving quantum coherence is therefore of great use. This seemingly unphysical amplifier property is achievable for a class of probabilistic amplifiers that does not work deterministically. Here we present a linear amplification scheme that realises this property for coherent states by combining a heralded measurement-based noiseless linear amplifier and a deterministic linear amplifier. The concatenation of two amplifiers introduces the flexibility that allows one to tune between the regimes of high-gain or high noise-reduction, and control the trade-off of these performances against a finite heralding probability. We demonstrate an amplification signal transfer coefficient of Ts>1\mathcal{T}_s > 1Ts​>1 with no statistical distortion of the output state. By partially relaxing the demand of output Gaussianity, we can obtain further improvement to achieve a Ts=2.55±0.08\mathcal{T}_s = 2.55 \pm 0.08Ts​=2.55±0.08. Our amplification scheme only relies on linear optics and post-selection algorithm. We discuss the potential of using this amplifier as a building block in extending the distance of quantum communication.
Heralded noiseless amplification based on single-photon sources and linear optics is ideally suited for long-distance quantum communication tasks based on discrete variables. We experimentally demonstrate such an amplifier, operating at telecommunication wavelengths. Coherent amplification is performed with a gain of $G=1.98\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.20$ for a state with a maximum expected gain G=2G=2G=2. We also demonstrate that there is no need for a stable phase reference between the initial signal state and the local auxiliary photons used by the amplifier. We discuss these results in the context of experimental device-independent quantum key distribution based on heralded qubit amplification, and we highlight several key challenges for its realization.
Abstract Single-photon amplification can be used to overcome the photon loss in long-distance quantum communication. However, the trade-off of success probability and amplification gain should be further improved. We propose a single-photon polarization qubit amplification using weak measurement. The polarization qubit can be amplified by the pre- and post-selection of the single-photon meter state weakly coupling with the input state. The success probability does not decrease asymptotically to 0 with increasing amplification gain in the presented proposal, and is higher than that in entanglement-based schemes, without coincidence detection required. Our proposal is feasible in current technology, and helpful for near-future quantum communication.
We present an experimental enhancement of signal-to-noise ratio for arbitrary coherent states using a noise-reduced linear amplifier that profitably combines a heralded measurement-based noiseless linear amplifier and a deterministic linear amplifier. The concatenation of two amplifiers introduces the flexibility that allows one to reach the amplification with high gain for large input coherent amplitude. We demonstrate a signal transfer coefficient of Ts = 2.55 ± 0.08 from input to output, achieved with an amplification gain of 10.54. When Gaussian statistics is retained, our heralded amplifier obtained a signal transfer coefficient of Ts = 1.10 ± 0.04. Our amplification scheme only relies on linear optics and post-selection algorithm, and therefore would be of great usage in loss-sensitive quantum information protocols.
Large-scale quantum networking systems will inevitably require methods to overcome photon loss. While the no-cloning theorem forbids perfect and deterministic amplification of unknown quantum states, probabilistic heralded amplification schemes offer a viable path forward. Yet, for over a decade, successful multi-photon state amplification has remained out of reach, despite the fundamental importance of such states in achieving quantum advantage in optical applications. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a high-fidelity and post-selection-free amplifier for multi-photon states. We achieve heralded amplification of states with up to two photons in a single optical mode, with over a hundredfold intensity gain, and verify the coherence-preserving operation of our scheme. Our approach is scalable to higher photon numbers and enables noiseless amplification of complex multi-photon quantum states, with applications in large-scale quantum communication systems, distributed quantum metrology, and information processing.
Weak value amplification is a popular method in quantum metrology for enhancing the sensitivity at the expense of the signal intensity. Recently, it was suggested that the trade-off between signal intensity and sensitivity can be improved by using an entangled auxiliary system. Here, we experimentally investigate such entanglement-assisted weak measurement of small conditional phase shifts induced by an interaction between ancilla and meter qubits. We utilize entangled photon pairs and implement the required three-qubit quantum logic circuit with linear optics. The circuit comprises a two-qubit controlled phase gate and a three-qubit controlled-controlled phase gate with fully tunable conditional phase shifts. We fully characterize the output states of our circuit by quantum state tomography and perform a comprehensive analysis of the trade-off between the measurement sensitivity and the success probability of the protocol. The observed experimental results are in good qualitative agreement with theoretical predictions, but the overall performance of our setup is limited by various experimental imperfections. We provide a detailed theoretical analysis of the influence of dephasing of the entangled ancilla state, which is one of the main sources of imperfections in the experiment. We also discuss the ultimate scaling with the dimension of the entangled ancilla system.