This work is divided into two parts. In the first one, the use of the Sagnac interferometer in quantum information is analyzed applying it in three problems: interaction-free measurement, quantum key distribution, and secret sharing. For the interaction-free measurement two systems using Sagnac interferometer were proposed. Considering ideal detectors and loss less devices, one of them has a success probability of 25% for each photon used while the other presents the probability of getting success to detect the presence of the object close to 100% for each photon used. For quantum key distribution, it was proposed a different setup, where the main difference is that the pulse sent by the transmitter does not come back to him/her as happen with the systems based on Sagnac proposed before. This avoids the Trojan horse attack. Finally, it was proposed an optical configuration where it is possible to share a secret among five users, locally distant, that could be used only when all five persons agreed. The second part of this dissertation presents an analytical and numerical study of the entanglement variation of bipartite states of qubits during propagation in a quantum noisy channel. Particularly, it was found an exactly formula which relates the entanglement of states in the input and output of the channel, when the input state is pure and the channel is modeled by a canonical unitary operation.
This work is divided into two parts. In the first one, the use of the Sagnac interferometer in quantum information is analyzed applying it in three problems: interaction-free measurement, quantum key distribution, and secret sharing. For the interaction-free measurement two systems using Sagnac interferometer were proposed. Considering ideal detectors and loss less devices, one of them has a success probability of 25% for each photon used while the other presents the probability of getting success to detect the presence of the object close to 100% for each photon used. For quantum key distribution, it was proposed a different setup, where the main difference is that the pulse sent by the transmitter does not come back to him/her as happen with the systems based on Sagnac proposed before. This avoids the Trojan horse attack. Finally, it was proposed an optical configuration where it is possible to share a secret among five users, locally distant, that could be used only when all five persons agreed. The second part of this dissertation presents an analytical and numerical study of the entanglement variation of bipartite states of qubits during propagation in a quantum noisy channel. Particularly, it was found an exactly formula which relates the entanglement of states in the input and output of the channel, when the input state is pure and the channel is modeled by a canonical unitary operation.
The interferometry of single-photon pulses has been used to implement quantum technology systems, like quantum key distribution, interaction-free measurement and some other quantum communication protocols. In most of these implementations, Mach–Zehnder, Michelson and Fabry–Pérot interferometers are the most used. In this work we present optical setups for interaction-free measurement, quantum key distribution, quantum secret sharing and secure classical prisoners' dilemma game using the Sagnac interferometer. The proposed setups are described and as well the quantum protocols using them are explained.
In this work, we analyze the entanglement variation of pure bipartite states during quantum noisy channel propagation. The quantum noisy channel is modeled by the interaction between the bipartite state and the environment through a canonical unitary form of a two-qubit gate. We have found an analytical expression for the entanglement of the bipartite state at the channel output as function of the channel parameters. At last, we used numerical simulation to show that a canonical unitary form of a three qubit gate is not a good model for a quantum noisy channel.
This thesis is focused on the development of advanced techniques for quantum communications in free-space channels. At present there are several demonstrations of quantum communication protocols at long distances, many of these exploit optical fiber as transmission channel. The optical fiber is very advantageous in that it is scarcely influenced by external conditions and allows to connect remote localities that are not in direct line of sight. On the other hand, it presents strong limitations in transmission distance because of dispersion and attenuation. It is therefore necessary to explore new transmission channels in order to allow a global spread of quantum communication. The free-space channels are good candidates, both the vertical ones (between earth and space) and the horizontal ones. The study of these is of fundamental importance for the extension of quantum communication over a global scale. Since the eighties to present day have been defined several quantum communication protocols such as Bennet-Brassard 84 (BB84), Bennet 92 (B92), Ekert 91, Decoy State, Dense Coding, etc.. These protocols present different characteristic such as reliability, security and key rate. These three parameters are very important for the characterization of a communication protocol and are directly related to each other. The development of new quantum communication protocols that maximize these parameters is very important for future progress of quantum communications. This thesis is divided into three parts. In the first part we consider the characteristics and the behaviour of a free-space horizontal quantum channel. We study the impact of atmospheric turbulence in the case of single beam propagation and twin-beam propagation. We then measure the losses of the channel and analyse the effect of turbulence on photon statistics. Finally, we propose a method that exploits the turbulence to improve the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the channel. In the second part we take into consideration the security and efficiency of Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) protocols . We propose the experimental demonstration of the B92 protocol with non-maximally entangled states . Using this kind of states allow us to improve the security and the key rate of this protocol. Finally, in the last part, we presented a possible way to improve the quantum channel capacity exploiting hyperentangled photon pairs. We designed and experimentally tested a system that can be used to transmit hyperentangled states at long distances.
We are currently experiencing a rapid development of quantum information, a new branch of science, being an interdisciplinary of quantum physics, information theory, telecommunications, computer science, and many others. This new science branch was born in the middle of the eighties, developed rapidly during the nineties, and in the current decade has brought a technological breakthrough in creating secure quantum key distribution (QKD), quantum secret sharing, and exciting promises in diverse technological fields. Recent QKD experiments have achieved high rate QKD at 200 km distance in optical fiber. Significant QKD results have also been achieved in free-space. Due to the rapid broadband access deployment in many industrialized countries and the standing increasing transmission security treats, the natural development awaiting quantum communications, being a part of quantum information, is its migration into commercial switched telecom networks. Such a migration concerns both multiuser quantum key distribution and multiparty quantum secret sharing that have been the main goal of my PhD studies. They are also the main concern of the thesis. Our research efforts in multiuser QKD has led to a development of the five-user setup for transmissions over switched fiber networks in a star and in a tree configuration. We have achieved longer secure quantum information distances and implemented more nodes than other multi-user QKD experiments. The measurements have shown feasibility of multiuser QKD over switched fiber networks, using standard fiber telecom components. Since circular architecture networks are important parts of both intranets and the Internet, Sagnac QKD has also been a subject of our research efforts. The published experiments in this area have been very few and results were not encouraging, mainly due to the single mode fiber (SMF) birefringence. Our research has led to a development of a computer controlled birefringence compensation in Sagnac that open the door to both classical and quantum Sagnac applications. On the quantum secret sharing side, we have achieved the first quantum secret sharing experiment over telecom fiber in a five-party implementation using the "plug & play" setup and in a four-party implementation using Sagnac configuration. The setup measurements have shown feasibility and scalability of multiparty quantum communication over commercial telecom fiber networks.
Quantum information and quantum optics offer powerful innovative tools for secure communication and cryptography, with Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) becoming a standard technology in the cryptographic world. By exploiting fundamental principles such as quantum superposition, entanglement, and the no-cloning theorem, QKD enables two users to establish a shared secret key with information-theoretic security. Quantum communication is a fundamental element for the realization of the quantum internet, a network of distant nodes connected by quantum channel. The realization of such networks requires methods to distribute states and correlations with high fidelity and low losses. This thesis explores the use of innovative photonic technologies for the realization of experiment aiming at improving quantum communication and quantum channels. Single photons based on QD are generated on-demand and show high purity, near-optimal indistinguishability and low multi-photons emission. By exploiting the features of these photons, a method to realize entangled states is implemented. Using the polarization degree of freedom, these entangled states are ideal candidates for free-space QKD protocols based on the Bell’s inequality. To address the problem of the reference frame alignment using the polarization, hybrid states are studied and implemented. The specific combination of polarization and orbital angular momentum (OAM) can produce photons that are not modified by rotation of the reference frame. We implemented an experiment to realize a QKD that is independent on the relative rotation of the two user. The final goal of my thesis was devoted to the in-field demonstration of quantum teleportation as a fundamental building block of distributed quantum networks, enabling the reliable transmission of quantum information between remote nodes. Exploiting the free-space infrastructure in the "Sapienza" University of Rome, a link of around ∼ 300 m, we implemented the quantum teleportation between two different QDs showing the possibility of using this technology into real-case scenario. The results obtained show not only that QDs are ideal sources for quantum communication, but also the possibility of using new states to improve current technologies, advancing the development of efficient and reliable quantum networks.
Noise present in an environment has significant impacts on a quantum system affecting properties like coherence, entanglement and other metrological features of a quantum state. In this dissertation, we address the effects of different types of noise that are present in a communication channel (or medium) and an interferometric setup, and analyze their effects in the contexts of preserving coherence and entanglement, phase sensitivity, and limits on rate of communication through noisy channels. We first consider quantum optical phase estimation in quantum metrology when phase fluctuations are introduced in the system by its interaction with a noisy environment. By considering path-entangled dual-mode photon Fock states in a Mach-Zehnder optical interferometric configuration, we show that such phase fluctuations affect phase sensitivity and visibility by adding noise to the phase to be estimated. We also demonstrate that the optimal detection strategy for estimating a phase in the presence of such phase noise is provided by the parity detection scheme. We then investigate the random birefringent noise present in an optical fiber affecting the coherence properties of a single photon polarization qubit propagating through it. We show that a simple but effective control technique, called dynamical decoupling, can be used to suppress the effects of the dephasing noise, thereby preserving its ability to carry the encoded quantum information in a long-distance optical fiber communication system. Optical amplifiers and attenuators can also add noise to an entangled quantum system, deteriorating the non-classical properties of the state. We show this by considering a two-mode squeezed vacuum state, which is a Gaussian entangled state, propagating through a noisy medium, and characterizing the loss of entanglement in the covariance matrix and the symplectic formalism for this state. Finally, we discuss limits on the rate of communication in the context of sending messages through noisy optical quantum communication channels. In particular, we prove that a strong converse theorem holds under a maximum photon number constraint for these channels, guaranteeing that the success probability in decoding the message vanishes in the asymptotic limit for the rate exceeding the capacity of the channels.