Abstract Optical downconversion is a key resource for generating nonclassical states. Very recently, direct nondegenerate triple-photon spontaneous downconversion (NTPSD) with bright photon triplets and strong third-order correlations has been demonstrated in a superconducting device (2020 Phys. Rev. X 10 011011). Besides, linear and nonlinear tripartite entanglement in this process have also been predicted (2018 Phys. Rev. Lett . 120 043601; 2020 Phys. Rev. Lett. 125 020502). In this paper, we consider the generation of nonclassical optical quantum superpositions and investigate nonlinear quantum steering effects in NTPSD. We find that large-size Schrödinger cat states of one downconverted mode can be achieved when the other two modes are subjected to homodyne detection. Also, a two-photon Bell entangled state can be generated when only one mode is homodyned. We further reveal that such ability of remote state steering originates from nonlinear quantum steerable correlations among the triplets. This is specifically embodied by the seeming violation of the Heisenberg uncertainty relation for the inferred variances of two noncommutating higher-order quadratures of downconverted modes, based on the outcomes of homodyne detection on the other mode, i.e., nonlinear quantum steering, compared to original Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen steering. Our results demonstrate non-Gaussian nonclassical features in NTPSD and would be useful for the fundamental tests of quantum physics and implementations of optical quantum technologies.
Abstract Optical downconversion is a key resource for generating nonclassical states. Very recently, direct nondegenerate triple-photon spontaneous downconversion (NTPSD) with bright photon triplets and strong third-order correlations has been demonstrated in a superconducting device (2020 Phys. Rev. X 10 011011). Besides, linear and nonlinear tripartite entanglement in this process have also been predicted (2018 Phys. Rev. Lett . 120 043601; 2020 Phys. Rev. Lett. 125 020502). In this paper, we consider the generation of nonclassical optical quantum superpositions and investigate nonlinear quantum steering effects in NTPSD. We find that large-size Schrödinger cat states of one downconverted mode can be achieved when the other two modes are subjected to homodyne detection. Also, a two-photon Bell entangled state can be generated when only one mode is homodyned. We further reveal that such ability of remote state steering originates from nonlinear quantum steerable correlations among the triplets. This is specifically embodied by the seeming violation of the Heisenberg uncertainty relation for the inferred variances of two noncommutating higher-order quadratures of downconverted modes, based on the outcomes of homodyne detection on the other mode, i.e., nonlinear quantum steering, compared to original Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen steering. Our results demonstrate non-Gaussian nonclassical features in NTPSD and would be useful for the fundamental tests of quantum physics and implementations of optical quantum technologies.
Nondegenerate triple-photon parametric down-conversion (NTPD) is a potential source for unconditional tripartite non-Gaussian entangled states of continuous variables. Recent experiment has demonstrated strong third-order correlations among bright photon triplets via microwave NTPD in a superconducting cavity [C. W. Sandbo Cheng et al., Phys. Rev. X 10, 011011 (2020)]. Previous theoretic works have revealed that only short-time genuine tripartite non-Gaussian entanglement can be generated in NTPD even in the absence of dissipation. In this paper, we investigate the properties of tripartite non-Gaussian entanglement and steering in the cavity output field by taking into account the cavity dissipation. We first derive experimentally detectable criteria for fully inseparable and genuine tripartite non-Gaussian entanglement and steering. With the criteria, we then find that steady-state tripartite non-Gaussian entanglement and steering can be generated in the output field, although they merely exist in the short-time regime inside the cavity. We also find that the initial cavity-field coherent states can obviously enhance the steady-state and transient tripartite entanglement and steering, in comparison to the case of initial vacuum states. We finally show that the output tripartite non-Gaussian steerable correlations can be applied to the remote generation of negative Wigner-function quantum states by homodyne detection.
In this paper, we present a scheme for remotely generating large-size motional Schr\"odinger cat states in cavity optomechanical (OM) systems with non-Gaussian quantum steering of continuous variables. We consider that the output field from the OM cavity undergoes three typical kinds of multiphoton operations: multiphoton subtraction, multiphoton addition, or multiphoton catalysis, followed by homodyne detection. We first demonstrate that these multiphoton operations can lead to non-Gaussian OM quantum steerable correlations, which are unveiled by the subsequent homodyne detection with a Fisher-information-based steering criterion. It is found that the non-Gaussian steering is obviously enhanced with an increasing number n of photons in the multiphoton operations, which, as we show, fails to be revealed with the well-known Reid's steering criterion. It therefore suggests that the Fisher-information-based criterion is more effective for witnessing non-Gaussian quantum steering. We next show that the strong OM steering enables the remote preparation of large-size Schr\"odinger odd or even cat states of the mechanical oscillator by the homodyne detection. Accordingly, the amplitudes of the cat states also increase significantly with the photon number n, particularly in the cases of multiphoton subtraction and addition. Our results reveal the properties of non-Gaussian steering generated by multiphoton operations, and the large cat states of macroscopic mechanical resonators hold promise for fundamental tests in quantum mechanics and practical applications in quantum science.
In this paper, we propose a driven-dissipative scheme for generating non-Gaussian mechanical entangled states and remotely preparing mechanical Schrödinger cat states via the entanglement. The system under study consists of a cavity optomechanical setup with two frequency-mismatched mechanical oscillators coupled to a cavity field driven by a bichromatic pump. We show that under proper conditions, an effective Hamiltonian for nondegenerate parametric downconversion involving the two mechanical oscillators and the cavity field can be engineered. We demonstrate analytically and numerically that the cavity dissipation drives the mechanical oscillators into a steady-state pair-coherent state. The no-Gaussianity and nonclassical properties, including Winger negativity, entanglement and quantum steering, of the achieved non-Gaussian mechanical state are investigated in detail. We further show that homodyne detection on one mechanical oscillator enables the remote generation of Schrödinger cat states in the other oscillator through the non-Gaussian mechanical entanglement. As we show, this detection can be implemented by transferring the mechanical state to the output field of an auxiliary probe cavity coupled to the target oscillator, followed by homodyne detection on the output field. We also discuss the robustness of the mechanical entangled states and cat states against thermal fluctuations. Our findings establish a feasible approach for the dissipative and remote preparation of mechanical nonclassical states.
The flexible engineering of superconducting circuits, together with the nonlinearity available from Josephson junctions, have made microwave quantum optics a blooming research field in the past decade. Key experiments originally performed in the optical domain have become very accessible on this microwave-frequency, such that strong atom-field interactions and optical parametric interactions in microwave. From the latter, one example is the implementation of spontaneous parametric downconversion (SPDC). This process is particularly interesting as it can act as a nonclassical radiation source which give a number of potential applications in quantum information processing. We will focus on studying SPDC in microwave throughout this thesis. \n \nIn the first half of this thesis, from designs to measurements, we will explore the well-known two-photon parametric processes, SPDC and coherent coupling, which are generated by quadratic Hamiltonians. Using three resonant modes of a SQUID-terminated parametric cavity, we proceeded to combine different two-photon processes in an effort to demonstrate a multipartite nonclassical radiation source. With detailed system gain and noise calibration of our cryogenic microwave network, we confirmed our implementation by experimentally verifying that the generated states contain genuine tripartite entanglement. This multimode entangled radiation source can be an important resource for future experiments on quantum networking. \n \nWhile two-photon parametric processes have found numerous important applications, they have also been the limit of experiments for over three decades, with higher-order parametric processes seemingly out of reach. In the second half of this thesis, we explore the potential of parametric resonators for achieving such higher-order processes. To do this, we first studied the necessary conditions for accessing cubic Hamiltonians through our SQUID-based interactions. We then fabricated a device dedicated to performing three-photon processes through these cubic Hamiltonians. For the first time, we observed a direct generation of photon triplets by a single SPDC process in microwave . The generation rate can exceed a photon flux density of 60 photon per second per Hertz at the device output, far surpassing any record to date for photon triplets. We studied various pump configurations corresponding to different three-photon SPDC processes starting from a cold vacuum state. Pumping at triple the frequency of a single mode, we observed a phase-space distribution with a non-Gaussian profile which shows strong skewness (third moment) in the quadrature amplitude distribution. We reconstruct the Wigner function of the propagating states from the directly measured moment matrix, demonstrating Wigner negativity. Pumping at the sum frequency of three modes, we observed non-zero coskewness between the quadrature amplitudes of the modes. By analysing the output signals and comparing their characteristics to the predicted theoretical signatures, we confirm our implementation of three-photon SPDC processes generated by specific cubic Hamiltonians. These types of non-Gaussian states have been suggested as a resource enabling universal quantum computation with continuous variables. Our results thus open up the realm of three-photon quantum optics, enabling a wealth of novel experimental and theoretical studies.
Nonlinear optical devices are very useful for generating entanglement. One proposal for the generation of genuine tripartite entanglement [ Phys. Rev. Lett. 120 , 043601 ( 2018 ) PRLTAO 0031-9007 10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.043601 ] is to use a third-order nonlinear optical interaction. Here, we investigate a generalization of this, where we consider the quantum nature of all modes; moreover, we also investigate quantum steering, which is a stronger and asymmetric non-local correlation. We show that the final state presents not only tripartite continuous variable entanglement but also tripartite steering.
We present a theoretical study of nonclassical light generation in Nondegenerate Triple-Photon Down-Conversion (NTPDC), using a first-order interaction Hamiltonian within the short-time approximation. The analysis reveals quadrature squeezing and both bipartite and tripartite entanglement, indicating strong multimode quantum correlations. We show that increasing the coherent input amplitude and the nonlinear coupling enhances the degree of two-mode squeezing, while the squeezing depth is strongly controlled by the relative phase, enabling suppression of quantum noise. Bipartite entanglement is stronger and persists over a wider parameter range than tripartite entanglement, which occurs only under symmetric excitation and precise phase matching. The presence of bipartite entanglement is quantitatively verified using the Hillery-Zubairy (HZ) criteria (HZ-1 and HZ-2), with HZ-1 exhibiting higher sensitivity in high-coherence regimes. The results demonstrate that NTPDC is a promising scheme for generating scalable quantum resources for applications in quantum information and integrated photonics.