Resonant dissipation-enabled adiabatic quantum state transfer processes between the polarization degrees of freedom of a single-photon wave packet and quantum emitters are discussed. These investigations generalize previous work [Trautmann and Alber, Phys. Rev. A 93, 053807 (2016)] by taking into account the properties of the spontaneously emitted photon wave packet and of nonadiabatic corrections. It is demonstrated that the photonic degrees of freedoms of these adiabatic one-photon quantum state transfer processes can be used for the passive, heralded, and deterministic preparation of Bell states of two material quantum emitters and for realizing a large family of symmetric and asymmetric quantum cloning processes. Although these theoretical investigations concentrate on waveguide scenarios they are expected to be relevant also for other scenarios as long as the processes involved are adiabatic so that the Fourier-limited bandwidth of the single-photon wave packet involved is small in comparison with the relevant dissipative rates.
Resonant dissipation-enabled adiabatic quantum state transfer processes between the polarization degrees of freedom of a single-photon wave packet and quantum emitters are discussed. These investigations generalize previous work [Trautmann and Alber, Phys. Rev. A 93, 053807 (2016)] by taking into account the properties of the spontaneously emitted photon wave packet and of nonadiabatic corrections. It is demonstrated that the photonic degrees of freedoms of these adiabatic one-photon quantum state transfer processes can be used for the passive, heralded, and deterministic preparation of Bell states of two material quantum emitters and for realizing a large family of symmetric and asymmetric quantum cloning processes. Although these theoretical investigations concentrate on waveguide scenarios they are expected to be relevant also for other scenarios as long as the processes involved are adiabatic so that the Fourier-limited bandwidth of the single-photon wave packet involved is small in comparison with the relevant dissipative rates.
We propose a scheme for triggering a dissipation-dominated highly efficient excitation transfer from a single-photon wave packet to a single quantum emitter. This single-photon-induced optical pumping turns dominant dissipative processes, such as spontaneous photon emission by the emitter or cavity decay, into valuable tools for quantum information processing and quantum communication. It works for an arbitrarily shaped single-photon wave packet with sufficiently small bandwidth provided a matching condition is satisfied which balances the dissipative rates involved. Our scheme does not require additional laser pulses or quantum feedback and does not rely on high finesse optical resonators. In particular, it can be used to enhance significantly the coupling of a single photon to a single quantum emitter implanted in a one-dimensional waveguide or even in a free space scenario. We demonstrate the usefulness of our scheme for building a deterministic quantum memory and a deterministic frequency converter between photonic qubits of different wavelengths.
Effective quantum communication between remote quantum nodes requires high fidelity quantum state transfer and remote entanglement generation. Recent experiments have demonstrated that microwave photons, as well as phonons, can be used to couple superconducting qubits, with a fidelity limited primarily by loss in the communication channel [P. Kurpiers et al., Nature (London) 558, 264 (2018)NATUAS0028-083610.1038/s41586-018-0195-y; C. J. Axline et al., Nat. Phys. 14, 705 (2018)NPAHAX1745-247310.1038/s41567-018-0115-y; P. Campagne-Ibarcq et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 200501 (2018)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.120.200501; N. Leung et al., npj Quantum Inf. 5, 18 (2019)2056-638710.1038/s41534-019-0128-0; Y. P. Zhong et al., Nat. Phys. 15, 741 (2019)NPAHAX1745-247310.1038/s41567-019-0507-7; A. Bienfait et al., Science 364, 368 (2019)SCIEAS0036-807510.1126/science.aaw8415]. Adiabatic protocols can overcome channel loss by transferring quantum states without populating the lossy communication channel. Here, we present a unique superconducting quantum communication system, comprising two superconducting qubits connected by a 0.73 m-long communication channel. Significantly, we can introduce large tunable loss to the channel, allowing exploration of different entanglement protocols in the presence of dissipation. When set for minimum loss in the channel, we demonstrate an adiabatic quantum state transfer protocol that achieves 99% transfer efficiency as well as the deterministic generation of entangled Bell states with a fidelity of 96%, all without populating the intervening communication channel, and competitive with a qubit-resonant mode-qubit relay method. We also explore the performance of the adiabatic protocol in the presence of significant channel loss, and show that the adiabatic protocol protects against loss in the channel, achieving higher state transfer and entanglement fidelities than the relay method.
Abstract Single-photon sources based on semiconductor quantum dots find several applications in quantum information processing due to their high single-photon indistinguishability, on-demand generation, and low multiphoton emission. In this context, the generation of entangled photons represents a challenging task with a possible solution relying on the interference in probabilistic gates of identical photons emitted at different pulses from the same source. In this work, we implement this approach via a simple and compact design that generates entangled photon pairs in the polarization degree of freedom. We operate the proposed platform with single photons produced through two different pumping schemes, the resonant excited one and the longitudinal-acoustic phonon-assisted configuration. We then characterize the produced entangled two-photon states by developing a complete model taking into account relevant experimental parameters, such as the second-order correlation function, Hong–Ou–Mandel visibility, multiphoton emission and pump laser filtering. Our source shows long-term stability and high quality of the generated entangled states, thus constituting a reliable building block for optical quantum technologies.
Readout and retrieval processes are proposed for efficient, high-fidelity quantum state transfer between a matter qubit, encoded in the level structure of a single atom or ion, and a photonic qubit, encoded in a time-reversal-symmetric single-photon wave packet. They are based on controlling spontaneous photon emission and absorption of a matter qubit on demand in free space by stimulated Raman adiabatic passage. As these processes do not involve mode selection by high-finesse cavities or photon transport through optical fibers, they offer interesting perspectives as basic building blocks for free-space quantum-communication protocols.
We investigate the behavior of two quantum emitters (two-level atoms) embedded in a linear waveguide, in a quasi-one-dimensional configuration. Since the atoms can emit, absorb, and reflect radiation, the pair can spontaneously relax towards an entangled bound state, under conditions in which a single atom would instead decay. Exploiting the resolvent formalism, we analyze the properties of these bound states, which occur for resonant values of the interatomic distance, and discuss their relevance with respect to entanglement generation. The stability of such states close to the resonance is studied, as well as the properties of nonresonant bound states, whose energy is below the threshold for photon propagation.
The generation of entangled photons from radiative cascades has enabled milestone experiments in quantum information science with several applications in photonic quantum technologies. Significant efforts are being devoted to pushing the performances of near-deterministic entangled-photon sources based on single quantum emitters often embedded in photonic cavities, so to boost the flux of photon pairs. The general postulate is that the emitter generates photons in a nearly maximally entangled state of polarization, ready for application purposes. Here, we demonstrate that this assumption is unjustified. We show that in radiative cascades there exists an interplay between photon polarization and emission wavevector, which can be further amplified by embedding the emitters in micro-cavities. We discuss how the polarization entanglement of photon pairs from a biexciton-exciton cascade in quantum dots strongly depends on their propagation wavevector and we even observe entanglement vanishing for large emission angles. Our experimental results, backed by theoretical modeling, yield a brand-new understanding of cascaded emission for various quantum emitters. In addition, our model provides quantitative guidelines for designing optical microcavities that retain both a high degree of entanglement and collection efficiency, moving the community one step further towards an ideal source of entangled photons for quantum technologies. The assumption that light sources based on radiative cascades provide maximally polarization-entangled photons is not always correct. Here the authors show experimentally in cavity-embedded quantum dots that photon polarization correlates with its emission mode, impacting the degree of entanglement for emitted photon pairs.