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arXiv:2410.03606 · Optics Express

Programmable time-frequency mode-sorting of single photons with a multi-output quantum pulse gate

Laura Serino, Christof Eigner, Benjamin Brecht, Christine Silberhorn

Published Dec 19, 2024• 7 citations
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Abstract

We demonstrate a high-dimensional mode-sorter for single photons based on a multi-output quantum pulse gate, which we can program to switch between different temporal-mode encodings including pulse modes, frequency bins, time bins, and their superpositions. This device can facilitate practical realizations of quantum information applications such as high-dimensional quantum key distribution and thus enables secure communication with enhanced information capacity. We characterize the mode-sorter through a detector tomography in 3 and 5 dimensions and find a fidelity up to 0.958 ± 0.030 at the single-photon level.

DOI
10.1364/oe.544206

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We demonstrate a high-dimensional mode-sorter for single photons based on a multi-output quantum pulse gate, which we can program to switch between different temporal-mode encodings including pulse modes, frequency bins, time bins, and their superpositions. This device can facilitate practical realizations of quantum information applications such as high-dimensional quantum key distribution and thus enables secure communication with enhanced information capacity. We characterize the mode-sorter through a detector tomography in 3 and 5 dimensions and find a fidelity up to 0.958 ± 0.030 at the single-photon level.
Temporal modes (TMs) of photons provide an appealing high-dimensional encoding basis for quantum information.While techniques to generate TM states have been established, high-dimensional decoding of single-photon TMs remains an open challenge.In this work, we experimentally demonstrate demultiplexing of five-dimensional TMs of single photons with an average fidelity of 0.96 ± 0.01, characterized via measurement tomography.This is achieved with use of a newly developed device, the multi-output quantum pulse gate (MQPG).We demonstrate a proof-of-principle complete decoder based on the MQPG that operates on any basis from a set of six five-dimensional mutually unbiased bases and is therefore suitable as a receiver for high-dimensional quantum key distribution.Furthermore, we confirm the highquality operation of the MQPG by performing resource-efficient state tomography with an average fidelity of 0.98 ± 0.02.
Encoding quantum information in the photon temporal mode (TM) offers a robust platform for high-dimensional quantum protocols. The main practical challenge, however, is to design a device that operates on single photons in specific TMs and all coherent superpositions. The quantum pulse gate (QPG) is a mode-selective sum-frequency generation designed for this task. Here, we perform a full modal characterization of a QPG using weak coherent states in well-defined TMs. We reconstruct a full set of measurement operators, which show an average fidelity of 0.85 to a theoretically ideal device when operating on a seven-dimensional space. Then we use these characterized measurement operators of the QPG to calibrate the device. Using the calibrated device and a tomographically complete set of measurements, we show that the QPG can perform high-dimensional TM state tomography with 0.99 fidelity.
High-dimensional photonic entanglement holds significant promise for advancing quantum communication, computation, and metrology. For example, large-alphabet quantum communication protocols are known to benefit from enhanced noise resilience and information capacity via multi-bit time-bin encoding. Yet, characterizing high-dimensional entangled states is challenging, as full state tomography becomes prohibitively costly and often requires unrealizable measurements. Here, we demonstrate a scan-free method to characterize high-dimensional entanglement in the time-frequency domain. Our reconstruction achieves a record 5.70±0.075.70\pm0.075.70±0.07 ebits and a fidelity of 65.4±0.4%65.4\pm0.4\%65.4±0.4% with the maximally entangled state of local dimension 102110211021, certifying the presence of 668668668-dimensional entanglement. We further prove the attainability of a secure key rate of 15.615.615.6 kB/s in a composable finite-size, entanglement-based protocol, and show that in continuous operation, the setup can quickly approach asymptotic key rates. Using commercial telecom components and state-of-the-art low-jitter single-photon detectors, our scalable architecture offers a practical path towards high-rate, noise-resilient quantum communication testbeds.