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arXiv:1807.10452 · Science Advances

Beating the channel capacity limit for superdense coding with entangled ququarts

Xiao‐Min Hu, Yu Guo, Bi‐Heng Liu, Yun‐Feng Huang, Chuan‐Feng Li, Guang‐Can Guo

Published Jul 6, 2018• 210 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Quantum superdense coding protocols enhance channel capacity by using shared quantum entanglement between two users. The channel capacity can be as high as 2 when one uses entangled qubits. However, this limit can be surpassed by using high-dimensional entanglement. We report an experiment that exceeds the limit using high-quality entangled ququarts with fidelities up to 0.98, demonstrating a channel capacity of 2.09 ± 0.01. The measured channel capacity is also higher than that obtained when transmitting only one ququart. We use the setup to transmit a five-color image with a fidelity of 0.952. Our experiment shows the great advantage of high-dimensional entanglement and will stimulate research on high-dimensional quantum information processes.

DOI
10.1126/sciadv.aat9304

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Quantum superdense coding protocols enhance channel capacity by using shared quantum entanglement between two users. The channel capacity can be as high as 2 when one uses entangled qubits. However, this limit can be surpassed by using high-dimensional entanglement. We report an experiment that exceeds the limit using high-quality entangled ququarts with fidelities up to 0.98, demonstrating a channel capacity of 2.09 ± 0.01. The measured channel capacity is also higher than that obtained when transmitting only one ququart. We use the setup to transmit a five-color image with a fidelity of 0.952. Our experiment shows the great advantage of high-dimensional entanglement and will stimulate research on high-dimensional quantum information processes.
Quantum superdense coding provides a compelling solution to enhance the channel capacity compared with classical coding, which plays a vital role in quantum networks. However, the realization of a degenerate high-dimensional entangled state with high fidelity has remained an elusive challenge, limiting improvement in channel capacity. Here, we have demonstrated a 16-mode quantum process photonic chip and experimentally validated a degenerate eight-dimensional quDit entangled state with a fidelity of 0.973±0.002{{0.973}}\pm {{0.002}}0.973±0.002 . Moreover, we propose an efficient Bell state measurement method to distinguish eleven orthogonal Bell states in eight-dimensional quantum superdense coding. Leveraging the high-quality features of our quantum photonic chip, we have achieved an unprecedented channel capacity of 3.021±0.003{{3.021}}\pm {{0.003}}3.021±0.003 bits, highlighting the largest channel capacity to date. Furthermore, our method presents a remarkable quantum advantage over classical schemes, the latter of which can only transmit a maximum of 3 bits in the environment without any noise. Our findings not only open up a new avenue for integrated quantum information processing, but also contribute significantly to the advancement of multidimensional technologies, facilitating the establishment of practical, high-capacity quantum networks.
Abstract Shared entanglement can significantly amplify classical correlations between systems interacting over a limited quantum channel. A natural avenue is to use entanglement of the same dimension as the channel because this allows for unitary encodings, which preserve global coherence until a measurement is performed. Contrasting this, a distributed task based on a qubit channel is demonstrated, for which irreversible encoding operations can outperform any possible coherence‐preserving protocol. This corresponds to using high‐dimensional entanglement and encoding information by compressing one of the subsystems into a qubit. Demonstrating this phenomenon requires the preparation of a 4D maximally entangled state, the compression of two qubits into one and joint qubit‐ququart entangled measurements, with all modules executed at near‐optimal fidelity. A proof‐of‐principle experiment is reported that achieves the advantage by realizing separate systems in distinct and independently controlled paths of a single photon. This result demonstrates the relevance of high‐dimensional entanglement and non‐unitary operations for enhancing the communication capabilities of standard qubit transmissions.
Quantum networks provide a versatile infrastructure for communication, computing, and sensing with quantum information. Novel sources and detectors for transmitting and receiving quantum states are critical elements in the development and eventual deployment of robust quantum networks. Alongside performance, the compatibility of quantum network devices with modern networking infrastructure is an important requirement for deployment. We present results on the integration of quantum communication using superdense coding transmitted over optical fiber links into network environments. Our approach takes advantage of a novel complete Bell-state measurement setup that relies on hyper-entanglement in the temporal and polarization degrees of freedom for a two-photon state emitted from a quantum light source. Using linear optics and common single-photon detectors, we record a single-qubit channel capacity of 1.665±0.018. We then demonstrate a full experimental implementation of hybrid, quantum-classical communication protocol for image transfer applications. Our devices integrate with existing fiber optical network and software-defined transmitters and receivers as part of a modular design to provide an extensible quantum communication system that can adapt to future quantum technology goals.
Quantum networks provide a versatile infrastructure for communication, computing, and sensing with quantum information. Novel sources and detectors for transmitting and receiving quantum states are critical elements in the development and eventual deployment of robust quantum networks. Alongside performance, the compatibility of quantum network devices with modern networking infrastructure is an important requirement for deployment. We present results on the integration of quantum communication using superdense coding transmitted over optical fiber links into network environments. Our approach takes advantage of a novel complete Bell-state measurement setup that relies on hyper-entanglement in the temporal and polarization degrees of freedom for a two-photon state emitted from a quantum light source. Using linear optics and common single-photon detectors, we record a single-qubit channel capacity of 1.665±0.018. We then demonstrate a full experimental implementation of hybrid, quantum-classical communication protocol for image transfer applications. Our devices integrate with existing fiber optical network and software-defined transmitters and receivers as part of a modular design to provide an extensible quantum communication system that can adapt to future quantum technology goals.
High-dimensional quantum entanglement can enrich the functionality of quantum information processing. For example, it can enhance the channel capacity for linear optic superdense coding and decrease the error rate threshold of quantum key distribution. Long-distance distribution of a high-dimensional entanglement is essential for such advanced quantum communications over a communications network. Here, we show a long-distance distribution of a four-dimensional entanglement. We employ time-bin entanglement, which is suitable for a fibre transmission, and implement scalable measurements for the high-dimensional entanglement using cascaded Mach-Zehnder interferometers. We observe that a pair of time-bin entangled photons has more than 1 bit of secure information capacity over 100 km. Our work constitutes an important step towards secure and dense quantum communications in a large Hilbert space.