Abstract Employing high‐dimensional photonic encodings (qudits) instead of the traditional 2D encodings (qubits) can significantly enhance loss tolerance and reduce computational resources in photon‐based quantum information technology (QIT). To tap into this potential, effective schemes for the high‐dimensional generation of entangled states are essential. In this study, two arbitrary 4D entanglement generation protocols based on cross‐Kerr effect are developed, including two‐qudit entangled states with two photon pairs and three‐qudit entangled states with three photon pairs. These 4D entangled states require neither auxiliary photons (or entangled states) nor complicated quantum circuits. The success probabilities of high‐dimensional entangled states are close to 1 and their fidelities are robust against the photon loss with the current technology. The 4D entangled states depend on only simple linear‐optics elements, available four‐dimensional single‐qudit operations, and mature measurement methods, making our proposed protocols feasible and efficient in practical QIT.
Abstract Employing high‐dimensional photonic encodings (qudits) instead of the traditional 2D encodings (qubits) can significantly enhance loss tolerance and reduce computational resources in photon‐based quantum information technology (QIT). To tap into this potential, effective schemes for the high‐dimensional generation of entangled states are essential. In this study, two arbitrary 4D entanglement generation protocols based on cross‐Kerr effect are developed, including two‐qudit entangled states with two photon pairs and three‐qudit entangled states with three photon pairs. These 4D entangled states require neither auxiliary photons (or entangled states) nor complicated quantum circuits. The success probabilities of high‐dimensional entangled states are close to 1 and their fidelities are robust against the photon loss with the current technology. The 4D entangled states depend on only simple linear‐optics elements, available four‐dimensional single‐qudit operations, and mature measurement methods, making our proposed protocols feasible and efficient in practical QIT.
The generation of a high-dimensional quantum entangled state provides a crucial resource for achieving more complex and diverse quantum information processing tasks. In this paper, we present two deterministic protocols designed for the generation of a four-dimensional two-qudit Bell state and three-qudit Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state assisted by cross-Kerr nonlinearity, where the four-dimensional qudit is encoded in the hybrid polarization-spatial state of the single photon to conserve quantum resources and alleviate environmental noise. The proposed protocols for generating a four-dimensional two-qudit Bell state and three-qudit GHZ state are circuit concise, high success, robust fidelity, noise resistant, and resource saving. Moreover, the four-dimensional N-qudit (N>3) GHZ states can be generated with the help of the $N\ensuremath{-}1$ generating devices of the four-dimensional Bell state. Consequently, its efficiency and fidelity decay exponentially by a factor of $N\ensuremath{-}1$. Further, the arbitrary high-dimensional qudit-encoded entangled states can be achieved with linear-optics four-dimensional single-qudit X gates and Z gates. These protocols offer a reference for further advancements in high-dimensional state generation technology and providing insights for the practical implementations of metrological enhancement, quantum simulation, high-dimensional quantum computation, and quantum error correction.
Compared with traditional two-dimensional qubits, higher-dimensional qubits offer a larger state space for storing and processing information, which can manifest stronger non-classical correlations, simplify circuit complexity, reduce computational resources, and enhance loss tolerance in photon-based quantum information processing. To harness the potential, essential research on preparing qudit-based high-dimensional entangled states is necessary. In the paper, we propose the preparation procedure of arbitrary four-dimensional two-qudit entanglement and three-qudit entanglement for photon systems implemented with error-heralded quantum devices and controlled-not gates. Moreover, as the practical errors that grow out of defective photon scattering, i.e., coupling strength restriction of the quantum-dot-cavity system and cavity leakage imperfection, can be turned into the response of the single-photon detectors, the generation of arbitrary high-dimensional entanglement appears in an error-heralded way, and their fidelities are robust, enhancing experimental accessibility.
The use of higher-dimensional photonic encodings (qudits) instead of two-dimensional encodings (qubits) can improve the loss tolerance and reduce the computational resources of photonic-based quantum information processing. To harness this potential, efficient schemes for entangling operations such as the high-dimensional generalization of a linear optics Bell measurement will be required. We show how an efficient high-dimensional entangled state analyzer can be implemented with a linear optics interferometer and auxiliary photonic states. The degree of entanglement of the auxiliary state is much less than in previous protocols as quantified by an exponentially smaller Schmidt rank. In addition, the auxiliary state only occupies a single spatial mode, allowing it to be generated deterministically from a single quantum emitter coupled to a small qubit register. The reduced complexity of the auxiliary states results in a high robustness to imperfections and we show that auxiliary states with fidelities above 0.9 for qudit dimensions 4 can be generated in the presence of qubit error rates on the order of 10%. This paves the way for experimental demonstrations with current hardware.
Abstract High-dimensional quantum key distribution (QKD) based on entangled qudits has emerged as a promising route for advancing the performance and practicality of quantum communication. By extending beyond the qubit framework, qudit entanglement enables the encoding of multiple bits per particle and offers greater robustness against noise, loss, and eavesdropping. In this review, we present qudit-based entanglement QKD protocols and their experimental demonstrations. We first introduce the basic concepts of qudits and provide an overview of foundational qubit-based entanglement QKD schemes, such as Ekert '91 (E91) and Bennett–Brassard–Mermin '92 (BBM92), which establish the core principles of entanglement-based secure key generation. Subsequently, we examine the generalization of these protocols to entangled qudits, highlighting how higher dimensionality enhances secure key rates and noise tolerance. Finally, we survey experimental demonstrations of qudit-based entanglement QKD across photonic platforms and outline prospects, showing that high-dimensional entanglement can be reliably generated, distributed, and measured for QKD with high stability and scalability. Remarkably, these achievements not only verify the feasibility of practical high-dimensional QKD, but also demonstrate clear advantages over qubit-based systems. Overall, theoretical frameworks and experimental realizations reviewed here position photonic qudit-based entanglement QKD as a promising resource for scalable, high-speed, and secure quantum communication networks, unveiling its potential as a central component in the future of quantum information technologies.
Quantum entanglement systems based on qudits dilate high-dimensional (HD) state spaces and enhance resistance to loss in quantum information processing (QIP). To fully exploit this potential, effective schemes for generating HD entanglement are crucial. In this paper, we propose a flexible heralded scheme generating random four-dimensional (4D) two-qudit maximal entanglement for a hybrid photon-emitter system by entering different input ports. This approach can be further extended to prepare 4D n-qudit $(n\ensuremath{\ge}3)$ maximal entanglement utilizing the 4D single-qudit Zm(m=1,2,3) gate for the first qudit and Xm gate for the other qudits (except the second qudit). For the hybrid system, the first 4D qudit is encoded on the hybrid polarization-path states of a flying photon, while the second and subsequent 4D qudits are represented by two stationary emitters coupled to the respective 1D waveguide. The qudit-encoded hybrid HD entanglement offers advantages over economizing quantum resource without any auxiliary qudits and obtaining robust fidelities of various HD entanglement by the error-detected mechanism of the emitter-waveguide systems. Moreover, the proposed protocol can be spread to generate dDn-qudit $(d\ensuremath{\ge}{2}^{p+1},$ $n,p=2,3,\ensuremath{\cdots})$ entangled states, further broadening its applicability in HD QIP.
Abstract Qudit‐based quantum gates offer several advantages over qubit‐based counterparts, such as higher information density, the ability to address more complex problems, and richer quantum operations. In this study, three realistic protocols are presented for implementing a 44‐dimensional (16D) two‐qudit controlled‐SUM (CSUM) gate, where the 4D control qudit and 4D target qudit are encoded in the polarization degree of freedom (DoF) and spatial DoF of two photons, respectively. The first protocol is implemented exclusively using linear optical elements without auxiliary resources, making it feasible with current optical technologies and achieving an efficiency of 1/9. The second protocol utilizes photon scattering by a microcavity‐quantum‐dot system, enabling the 16D CSUM gate to operate deterministically without postselection. The third protocol introduces an error‐heralded mechanism based on the second protocol, theoretically achieving unity fidelity. Moreover, all protocols operate without ancillary photons, offering the advantages of compact circuits and low cost while further promoting the development of high‐dimensional quantum computation.