We demonstrate, for the first time, postselection loophole-free high-dimensional time-bin entanglement ( d = 4), enabled by fast optical switches in cascaded unbalanced interferometers. A two-photon interference visibility of 91.8% is obtained, cer-tifying entanglement.
Entanglement is an invaluable resource for fundamental tests of physics and the implementation of quantum information protocols such as device-independent secure communications. In particular, time-bin entanglement is widely exploited to reach these purposes both in free space and optical fiber propagation, due to the robustness and simplicity of its implementation. However, all existing realizations of time-bin entanglement suffer from an intrinsic postselection loophole, which undermines their usefulness. Here, we report the first experimental violation of Bell's inequality with "genuine" time-bin entanglement, free of the postselection loophole. We introduced a novel function of the interferometers at the two measurement stations, that operate as fast synchronized optical switches. This scheme allowed us to obtain a postselection-loophole-free Bell violation of more than 9 standard deviations. Since our scheme is fully implementable using standard fiber-based components and is compatible with modern integrated photonics, our results pave the way for the distribution of genuine time-bin entanglement over long distances.
Entanglement gives rise to correlations between distant quantum systems that cannot be explained by local realistic theories. Bell inequality violations provide a direct way to reveal these correlations and certify nonlocality, especially when the relevant experimental loopholes are closed. Time-bin encoding, in which quantum information is encoded into well-defined temporal modes, is a commonly used platform for distributing photonic entanglement in optical fibers. Yet loophole-free Bell tests with time-bin entanglement have received comparatively little attention, owing in part to the postselection loophole introduced by conventional interferometric measurements. Here, we demonstrate a fiber-based platform for Bell tests with time-bin entanglement that simultaneously closes the locality, freedom-of-choice, and postselection loopholes. We observe a CHSH violation of S=2.583±0.002, exceeding the local-realistic bound by over 265 standard deviations. Notably, this rigorous certification of nonlocality is achieved at a separation distance of 49.0±0.7 m, substantially shorter than previous photonic Bell tests addressing comparable space-time constraints. Beyond its foundational significance, our results demonstrate time-bin entanglement as a viable route towards practical device-independent quantum communication and a future quantum internet.
Time-bin entanglement is a commonly used form of entanglement for quantum communication protocols over fiber networks, due to the natural resilience of this encoding scheme to thermal phase fluctuations and to birefringence in optical fibers. Projective measurements on some bases in the time-bin encoding need, however, postselection in the time domain of the measured events, introducing a loophole in Bell tests and requiring high temporal resolution. In this work, we demonstrate chip-integrated receivers for time-bin entanglement certification, including a high-speed optical switch to remove the temporal postselection loophole. The receivers are realized using thin-film lithium niobate and operate at a switching frequency of 5 GHz. We demonstrate a Bell inequality violation by more than 24 standard deviations without the need for time resolution at the time-bin separation level.