We describe about useful linear and nonlinear optical devices that can be used for photon-based quantum information processing. Some principles and classifications are given together with our recent work of experimental demonstration.
Quantum computers are expected to increase the efficiency of solving problems such as factoring large integers. However an experimental implementation of even relatively simple quantum information processing with a few to a dozen qubits presents an enormous technological challenge. One of the earliest proposals for quantum computation is based on implementing a quantum bit with two optical modes containing one photon[1]. The proposal is appealing due to the ease with which photon interference can be observed. However these early proposals required huge single photon optical nonlinearities. Unfortunately currently available optical nonlinearities are too weak and too noisy to be useful.
Linear optical multiports are widely used in photonic quantum information processing. Naturally, these devices are directionally-biased since photons always propagate from the input ports toward the output ports. Recently, the concept of directionally-unbiased linear optical multiports was proposed. These directionally-unbiased multiports allow photons to propagate along a reverse direction, which can greatly reduce the number of required linear optical elements for complicated linear optical quantum networks. Here, we report an experimental demonstration of a 3 × 3 directionally-unbiased linear optical fiber multiport using an optical tritter and mirrors. Compared to the previous demonstration using bulk optical elements which works only with light sources with a long coherence length, our experimental directionally-unbiased 3 × 3 optical multiport does not require a long coherence length since it provides negligible optical path length differences among all possible optical trajectories. It can be a useful building block for implementing large-scale quantum walks on complex graph networks.
Nonlinear photonics studies situations in which light passing through a material can be used to create, reshape, or convert other light in ways that are not possible in ordinary optical systems. In recent years, this has become especially important for quantum photonics, where carefully prepared states of light are used as resources for emerging technologies such as secure communication, ultra-precise measurement, and new forms of information processing. A major challenge, however, is that these effects are delicate, difficult to control, and highly sensitive to the imperfections that arise when trying to build practical devices on a chip. This thesis examines how such nonlinear quantum-optical processes can be both engineered more deliberately and modelled more realistically, with the broader goal of helping move quantum photonic technology from proof-of-principle laboratory demonstrations toward robust and scalable implementation. To do this, the thesis first places nonlinear quantum photonics in a broader technological context and explains the main physical ideas needed to understand how quantum states of light are generated, transformed, and measured. It then develops this picture through a set of concrete examples. These include a method for generating quantum light on a chip while avoiding one of the field’s standard fabrication steps, a proposed chip-scale device that could help connect otherwise incompatible quantum systems by changing the colour and spectral width of light, and a modelling framework that links quantum theory directly to realistic fabricated waveguides, including common imperfections such as loss, non-uniformity, and writing errors. The thesis also reviews a wider class of design methods in which the nonlinear properties of a material are deliberately patterned in order to tailor the light produced. Taken together, the central message is that progress in quantum photonics will depend not only on discovering new effects, but on learning how to design, fabricate, and model these devices in ways that make them practical outside idealized laboratory conditions.