Quantum photonics & communication

Moritz Kleinert, Jakob Reck, P. S. Ott +14 more

Compact, high-performance hybrid photonic integrated circuits (PICs) are crucial for advancing Quantum Communications. This paper presents recent examples from the PolyBoard platform, including a time-bin interferometer, a DV-QKD transmitter, and a heralded single photon source. Keywords: Quantum communication and quantum cryptography, Photonic integration, Photonic integrated circuits, Planar lightwave circuits (PLCs), Photonic quantum communication, Single-photon and quantum entangled photon-pair sources

Christophe Couteau

Thomas P. Pearsall

Kaoru Shimizu, Nobuyuki Imoto

We propose a single-photon interferometer which provides cryptographic quantum communication equivalent to that obtained using a pair of polarization entangled photon twins as a carrier [Phys. Rev. A 60, 157 (1999)]. Instead of manipulating and measuring the internal states of entangled photon twins, cryptographic quantum communication is possible by manipulating a single photon in an extended interferometer. The use of the single-photon interferometer offers significant experimental advantages compared to our previous approach.

Thomas P. Pearsall

I. S. Osborne

Quantum Communication Future communication networks will be based on quantum mechanics and will rely on the ability to store quantum information in quantum nodes and transfer that information between them. Photons offer the ability to transfer information over long distances, but that requires that single photons be emitted and detected reliably at each end of the communication channel—a feat that requires the photons to be symmetric. Using a superconducting-based quantum circuit, Pechal et al. demonstrate how to generate the symmetric microwave photons that will be necessary to carry quantum information successfully. Phys. Rev. X 4 , 041010 (2014).