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Light Science & Applications

Quantum discord of thermal two-photon orbital angular momentum state: mimicking teleportation to transmit an image

Lixiang Chen

Published Jul 20, 2021• 22 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We formulate a density matrix to fully describe two-photon state within a thermal light source in the photon orbital angular momentum (OAM) Hilbert space. We prove the separability, i.e., zero entanglement of the thermal two-photon state. Still, we reveal the hidden quantum correlations in terms of geometric measures of discord. By mimicking the original protocol of quantum teleportation, we demonstrate that the non-zero quantum discord can be utilized to transmit a high-dimensional OAM state at the single-photon level. It is found that albeit the low fidelity of teleportation due to the inherent component of maximally mixed state, the information of all parameters that characterize the original state can still be extracted from the teleported one. Besides, we demonstrate that the multiple repetitions of the protocol, enable the transmission of a complex-amplitude light field, e.g., an optical image, regardless of being accompanied with a featureless background. We also distinguish our scheme of optical image transmission from that of ghost imaging.

DOI
10.1038/s41377-021-00585-8

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We formulate a density matrix to fully describe two-photon state within a thermal light source in the photon orbital angular momentum (OAM) Hilbert space. We prove the separability, i.e., zero entanglement of the thermal two-photon state. Still, we reveal the hidden quantum correlations in terms of geometric measures of discord. By mimicking the original protocol of quantum teleportation, we demonstrate that the non-zero quantum discord can be utilized to transmit a high-dimensional OAM state at the single-photon level. It is found that albeit the low fidelity of teleportation due to the inherent component of maximally mixed state, the information of all parameters that characterize the original state can still be extracted from the teleported one. Besides, we demonstrate that the multiple repetitions of the protocol, enable the transmission of a complex-amplitude light field, e.g., an optical image, regardless of being accompanied with a featureless background. We also distinguish our scheme of optical image transmission from that of ghost imaging.
There has been an intense debate on the quantum versus classical origin of ghost imaging with a thermal light source over the last two decades. A lot of distinguished work has contributed to this topic, both theoretically and experimentally, however, to this day this quantum-classical dilemma still persists. Here we formulate for the first time a density matrix in the photon orbital angular momentum (OAM) Hilbert space to fully characterize the two-arm ghost imaging system with the basic definition of thermal light sources. Our formulation offers a mathematically precise method to describe the formation of a ghost image in a nonlocal fashion. More importantly, it provides a more physically intuitive picture to reveal the quantumness hidden in the thermal ghost imaging, and therefore, presenting a sound resolution to the ongoing quantum-classical dilemma, which distinguishes the quantum correlations beyond entanglement in terms of geometric measure of discord. Our work also suggests further studies of using thermal multi-photon OAM states directly to implement some quantum information tasks.
In quantum teleportation, a pair of entangled photons are prerequisite to serve as the quantum channel for quantum state transfer distantly. Here, we report a new strategy of quantum-teleportation-inspired classical optical imaging, which also works non-locally at a distance; however, only a classically correlated light source is used instead of entanglement. In our experiment, we explore the pseudo-thermal light source to offer the teleportation-like channel and employ the sum-frequency generation to perform the Bell-like state measurement. We successfully demonstrate the teleportation-inspired optical imaging of simple characters, Taiji diagram, and the superposition of orbital angular momentum modes. Moreover, we experimentally observe that a better coherence of pseudo-thermal light will result in a lower contrast of the formed images, and thus revealing that non-zero quantum discord offered by pseudo-thermal light, regardless of zero entanglement, plays the pivotal role in sustaining the teleportation-like channel for imaging at a distance.
Abstract Quantum teleportation lies at the heart of a variety of quantum technologies, most of which, however, focused on 2-dimensional qubit states only. A fundamental open challenge remains as to whether we can teleport multilevel qudit states with bipartite entanglement. Here, we demonstrate such a high-dimensional teleportation using photonic orbital angular momentum (OAM). We exploit “perfect vortices” for preparing high-dimensional yet maximal OAM entanglement and for performing faithful high-dimensional Bell sate measurements (HDBSM) based on sum-frequency generation. We experimentally achieve the average teleportation fidelity 0.8788±0.048 for a complete set of 3-dimensional mutually unbiased bases. More importantly, we succeed in realizing the first quantum teleportation of optical images, with the effective channel capacity κ > 100. Our scheme holds promise for future high-volume quantum image transmission.
Entanglement swapping is a core ingredient of a quantum repeater and requires that quantum correlations be established between independent photons. Entanglement swapping also implies that a quantum state has been teleported between two parties. Here we outline recent work in entanglement swapping with spatial modes of light. We show quantum correlations between photons that have never interacted, and demonstrate this in both a two-dimensional and high-dimensional subspace using orbital angular momentum. Finally, we outline a ghost imaging experiment across a virtual link, where object and image are linked through photons with no initial position correlations.
Quantum teleportation is one of the most essential protocol in quantum information. In addition to increasing the scale of teleportation distance, improving its information transmission capacity is also vital importance for its practical applications. Recently, the orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light has attracted wide attention as an important degree of freedom for realizing multiplexing to increase information transmission capacity. Here we show that by utilizing the OAM multiplexed continuous variable entanglement, 9 OAM multiplexed channels of parallel all-optical quantum teleportation can be deterministically established in experiment. More importantly, our parallel all-optical quantum teleportation scheme can teleport OAM-superposition-mode coded coherent state, which demonstrates the teleportation of more than one optical mode with fidelity beating the classical limit and thus ensures the increase of information transmission capacity. Our results open the avenue for deterministically implementing parallel quantum communication protocols and provide a promising paradigm for constructing high-capacity all-optical quantum communication networks.
Quantum teleportation, lying at the heart of a variety of quantum technologies, has inspired a widespread of research activities, most of which focused on 2-dimensional qubit states. Multilevel systems, qudits, promise to upgrade and inspire new technical developments in high-dimensional Hilbert space. Whereas, for high-dimensional teleportation, it routinely necessitates several ancillary photons in linear optical schemes. A fundamental open challenge remains as to whether we can teleport qudit states with bipartite entanglement only. Here we demonstrate such a high-dimensional teleportation using photonic orbital angular momentum (OAM). The so-called "perfect vortices" are exploited both for conducting the prerequisite entanglement concentration to prepare high-dimensional yet maximal OAM entanglement, and for performing faithful high-dimensional Bell sate measurements (HDBSM) based on sum-frequency generation. We experimentally achieve the average teleportation fidelity 0.8788$\pm$0.048 for a complete set of 3-dimensional mutually unbiased bases, for instance, conditional on three specific HDBSM results. More importantly, we succeed in realizing the first quantum teleportation of optical images by exploring full transverse spatial entanglement. From the multi-pixel field of view in the teleported images recorded by the ICCD camera, we estimate the effective channel capacity up to \k{appa} > 100. Our scheme holds promise for future high-volume quantum image transmission.