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arXiv:1811.07604 · Physical Review Applied

Quantum Communication with Time-Bin Encoded Microwave Photons

Philipp Kurpiers, Marek Pechal, Baptiste Royer, Paul Magnard, T. Walter, Johannes Heinsoo, Yves Salathé, Abdulkadir Akın, Simon Storz, Jean-Claude Besse, Simone Gasparinetti, Alexandre Blais, Andreas J. Wallraff

Published Oct 29, 2019• 51 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

One of the most promising ways to transfer quantum information between superconducting qubits is with microwave photons. Enhancing direct quantum channels by time-bin encoding techniques, which map qubit states to single-photon states emitted at different times, allows the detection of photon-loss errors, and thus heralded quantum communication is possible. The authors realize and experimentally benchmark an error-detection scheme that allows them to select only experimental runs in which the photon state was transmitted successfully, yielding significantly improved fidelity of the transfer in this post-selected setting.

DOI
10.1103/physrevapplied.12.044067

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One of the most promising ways to transfer quantum information between superconducting qubits is with microwave photons. Enhancing direct quantum channels by time-bin encoding techniques, which map qubit states to single-photon states emitted at different times, allows the detection of photon-loss errors, and thus heralded quantum communication is possible. The authors realize and experimentally benchmark an error-detection scheme that allows them to select only experimental runs in which the photon state was transmitted successfully, yielding significantly improved fidelity of the transfer in this post-selected setting.
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Recent studies have shown long-distance entanglement using NV centers, atoms, and quantum dots with single-photon time-bin encoding. We propose a method to entangle remote superconducting qubits via microwave-optical transduction using multi-time-bin states. By adapting conventional entanglement swapping techniques, fidelity improves from 0.75 to 0.980.980.98 in transduction systems, and 0.66 to 0.89 in noisy channels. The protocol mitigates thermal noise without relying on purification and offers a practical path toward scalable, heterogeneous quantum systems.
Faithful transmission of quantum information is a crucial ingredient in quantum communication networks. To overcome the unavoidable decoherence in a noisy channel, to date, many efforts have been made to transmit one state by consuming large numbers of time-synchronized ancilla states. However, such huge demands of quantum resources are hard to meet with current technology and this restricts practical applications. Here we experimentally demonstrate quantum error detection, an economical approach to reliably protecting a qubit against bit-flip errors. Arbitrary unknown polarization states of single photons and entangled photons are converted into time bins deterministically via a modified Franson interferometer. Noise arising in both 10 m and 0.8 km fiber, which induces associated errors on the reference frame of time bins, is filtered when photons are detected. The demonstrated resource efficiency and state independence make this protocol a promising candidate for implementing a real-world quantum communication network.
Faithful transmission of quantum information over noisy channel is an essential requisite for quantum communication and distributed quantum computing. Here we experimentally demonstrate a noise-rejecting scheme for single-photon qubits transmission, resorting to neither ancillary photons nor globally entangled resources. Employing the unbalanced polarization interferometer, the polarization qubits are transformed to time-bin degrees of freedom. Meanwhile, the deterministic transmission of quantum states with high fidelity can be achieved. We find that the immunity of time-bin encoded qubits against collective noise paves the way to practical quantum error-correction and rejection in long-distance quantum communication.
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The photonic temporal degree of freedom is one of the most promising platforms for quantum communication over fiber networks and free-space channels.In particular, time-bin states of photons are robust to environmental disturbances, support high-rate communication, and can be used in high-dimensional schemes.However, the detection of photonic time-bin states remains a challenging task, particularly for the case of photons that are in a superposition of different time bins.Here, we experimentally demonstrate the feasibility of picosecond time-bin states of light, known as ultrafast time bins, for applications in quantum communications.With the ability to measure time-bin superpositions with excellent phase stability, we enable the use of temporal states in efficient quantum key distribution protocols such as the BB84 protocol.