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arXiv:2502.00982 · Reports on Progress in Physics

Heralded generation of entanglement with photons

Imogen Forbes, Farzad Ghafari, Edward C. R. Deacon, Sukhjit Paul Paul Singh, Emilien Lavie, Patrick Yard, Reece D. Shaw, Anthony Laing, Nora Tischler

Published Aug 1, 2025• 15 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Entangled states of photons form the backbone of many quantum technologies. Due to the lack of effective photon-photon interactions, the generation of these states is typically probabilistic. In the prevailing but fundamentally limited generation technique, known as postselection, the target photons are measured destructively in the generation process. By contrast, in the alternative approach-heralded state generation-the successful creation of a desired state is verified by the detection of ancillary photons. Heralded state generation is superior to postselection in several critical ways: it enables free usage of the prepared states, allows for the success probability to be arbitrarily increased via multiplexing, and provides a scalable route to quantum information processing using photons. Here, we review theoretical proposals and experimental realisations of heralded entangled photonic state generation, as well as the impact of realistic experimental errors. We then discuss the wide-ranging applications of these states for quantum technologies, including resource states in linear optical quantum computing, entanglement swapping for repeater networks, fundamental physics, and quantum metrology.

DOI
10.1088/1361-6633/adf85e

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Entangled states of photons form the backbone of many quantum technologies. Due to the lack of effective photon-photon interactions, the generation of these states is typically probabilistic. In the prevailing but fundamentally limited generation technique, known as postselection, the target photons are measured destructively in the generation process. By contrast, in the alternative approach-heralded state generation-the successful creation of a desired state is verified by the detection of ancillary photons. Heralded state generation is superior to postselection in several critical ways: it enables free usage of the prepared states, allows for the success probability to be arbitrarily increased via multiplexing, and provides a scalable route to quantum information processing using photons. Here, we review theoretical proposals and experimental realisations of heralded entangled photonic state generation, as well as the impact of realistic experimental errors. We then discuss the wide-ranging applications of these states for quantum technologies, including resource states in linear optical quantum computing, entanglement swapping for repeater networks, fundamental physics, and quantum metrology.
Entangled states of photons form the foundation of quantum communication, computation, and metrology. Yet their generation remains fundamentally constrained: in the absence of intrinsic photon-photon interactions, the generation of such states is inherently probabilistic rather than deterministic. The prevalent technique of post-selection verifies the creation of an entangled state by detecting and thus destroying it. Heralding offers a solution in which measuring ancillary photons in auxiliary modes signals the state generation without the need to measure it. Here, we introduce and experimentally demonstrate a scheme to generate a three-mode two-photon NOON state, where the detection of a single photon in one heralding mode signifies the presence of the state in three target modes. We validate the generated state by estimating a fidelity of 0.823 +/- 0.018 with respect to an ideal three-mode NOON state and certifying genuine multipartite entanglement. By virtue of the high success probability and small resource overhead of our scheme, our work provides a theoretical and experimental stepping stone for entangled multi-mode state generation, which is realizable with current technology. These multi-mode entangled states represent a key direction for linear optical quantum information that is complementary to multi-qubit state encoding.
Multipartite entanglement is an essential quantum resource for various distributed quantum applications. One promising method for preparing multipartite entanglement is to interfere independent photons at linear optical interference setups. While heralding the successful interference and thereby the state generation is often costly, postselecting entangled states provides an achievable alternative in this framework. We introduce a family of interference schemes for postselecting symmetric qudit Dicke states, useful resources in quantum communication and variational quantum computing. We present schemes with and without ancillary photons and show that using ancillary photons can exceed the upper bound on the success probability of schemes without ancillary photons. Our results accommodate a wide range of linear optical schemes, providing multiple viable approaches for postselecting Dicke states.
We present the first experimental realisation of a heralded three-mode, two-photon NOON state—an essential ingredient for quantum metrology, quantum communication, and distributed quantum information protocols. Our approach is based on a linear-optical architecture that uses only three single-photon inputs interfaced with a four-mode interferometer, yet can theoretically reach a success probability of 25%. A heralding photon unambiguously signals the preparation of the desired state, thereby bypassing the major scalability bottlenecks inherent to conventional post-selection methods. The produced state exhibits a fidelity exceeding 80%, confirming genuine tripartite entanglement. Both the protocol and its experimental implementation constitute a substantial step forward for the fields of quantum optics and quantum information science.
We propose a heralded entanglement generation scheme based on Gaussian sources enhanced by photon addition and subtraction operations. By combining single-mode squeezing, linear interferometers, and conditional photon-number measurements on ancillary modes, our model can probabilistically generate dual-rail encoded Bell, GHZ, and W states. We systematically optimize the squeezing parameters and interferometer settings to maximize both the heralding success probability and the fidelity with the target states. Our results show that photon addition and subtraction significantly enhance the non-classicality of the output states and improve generation performance, while maintaining computational efficiency comparable to single-photon source models. We further analyze the robustness of the scheme under parameter perturbations and find that its performance remains stable under realistic experimental imperfections. This work provides a versatile and experimentally feasible framework for scalable heralded entanglement generation using Gaussian resources with non-Gaussian operations.
Entanglement is a fundamental feature of quantum mechanics and a key resource for quantum information processing. Among multipartite entangled states, Dicke states ∣Dnk⟩|D_n^k\rangle∣Dnk​⟩ are distinguished by their permutation symmetry, which provides robustness against particle loss and enables applications for quantum communication and computation. Although Dicke states have been realized in various platforms, most optical implementations rely on postselection, which destroys the state upon detection and prevents its further use. A heralded optical scheme is therefore highly desirable. Here, we present a linear-optical heralded scheme for generating arbitrary Dicke states ∣Dnk⟩|D_n^k\rangle∣Dnk​⟩ with 3n+k3n+k3n+k photons through the framework of the linear quantum graph (LQG) picture. By mapping the scheme design into the graph-finding problem, and exploiting the permutation symmetry of Dicke states, we overcome the structural complexity that has hindered previous approaches. Our results provide a resource-efficient pathway toward practical heralded preparation of Dicke states for quantum technologies.
Entangled states of light lie at the heart of photonic quantum technologies, from distributed quantum communication to quantum-enhanced measurement and information processing. Their practical generation, however, remains constrained by the weak interactions between photons, which make the deterministic assembly of large multiphoton entangled states a central challenge in quantum optics. In this work, we use AI techniques to discover heralded linear-optical schemes for path-entangled states and show that the resulting solutions can be elevated from individual circuits to a new scalable family. This family contains previously known constructions as special cases while generally providing exponential and super-exponential improvements over those, and its extension to broader classes of target states shows how automated discovery can reveal transferable physical understanding. By presenting compact experimental proposals for large path-entangled states, our results provide both a theoretical advance in photonic heralding and a route towards a substantial leap in experimentally accessible multiphoton entanglement.