Cavity quantum electrodynamics (cavity QED) with single atoms and single photons provides a promising route toward scalable quantum information processing (QIP) and computing. A strongly coupled atom-cavity system should act as a universal quantum interface, allowing the generation and storage of quantum information. This thesis describes the realisation of an atom-cavity system used for the production and manipulation of single photons. These photons are shown to exhibit strong sub-Poissonian statistics and indistinguishability, both prerequisites for their use in realistic quantum systems. Further, the ability to control the temporal shape and internal phase of the photons, as they are generated in the cavity, is demonstrated. This high degree of control presents a novel mechanism enabling the creation of arbitrary photonic quantum bits.
Cavity quantum electrodynamics (cavity QED) with single atoms and single photons provides a promising route toward scalable quantum information processing (QIP) and computing. A strongly coupled atom-cavity system should act as a universal quantum interface, allowing the generation and storage of quantum information. This thesis describes the realisation of an atom-cavity system used for the production and manipulation of single photons. These photons are shown to exhibit strong sub-Poissonian statistics and indistinguishability, both prerequisites for their use in realistic quantum systems. Further, the ability to control the temporal shape and internal phase of the photons, as they are generated in the cavity, is demonstrated. This high degree of control presents a novel mechanism enabling the creation of arbitrary photonic quantum bits.
The possibility of creating a scaleable quantum network by interconverting photonic and atomic qubits shows great promise. The fundamental requirement for such a network is deterministic control over the emission and absorption of photons from single atoms. This thesis reports on the experi-mental construction of a photon source that can emit single-photons with arbitrary spatio-temporal shape, phase, and frequency. The photon source itself is a strongly-coupled atom cavity system based on a single 87 Rb atom within a macroscopic high-finesse Fabry-Perot cavity. It operates intermittently for periods of up to 100µs, with single-photon repetition rates of 1.0 MHz and an efficiency of almost 80%. Atoms are loaded into the cavity using an atomic fountain, with the upper turning point near the centre of the cavity mode. This ensures long interaction times without any disturbances introduced by trapping potentials. The photons’ indistinguishability was tested, with a two-photon Hong-Ou-Mandel visibility of 87%. This ability to both generate, and control, the photons’ properties, for example producing photons with symmetric or multi-peaked spatio-temporal shapes, allows for the production of photons in an n-time-bin superposition state where each time-bin has an arbitrarily defined amplitude and phase. These photons can be used as photonic qubits, qutrits and qquads, and their properties have been tested using a small linear-optics network.
One of today’s challenges to realise computing based on quantum mechanics is to reliably and scalably encode information in quantum systems. Here, we present a photon source to on-demand deliver photonic quantum bits of information based on a strongly coupled atom-cavity system. The source operates intermittently for periods of up to 100 μs, with a single-photon repetition rate of 1 MHz, and an intra-cavity production efficiency of up to 85%. Our ability to arbitrarily control the photons’ wavepackets and phase profiles, together with long coherence times of 500 ns, allows to store time-bin encoded quantum information within a single photon. To do so, the spatio-temporal envelope of a single photon is sub-divided in d time bins which allows for the delivery of arbitrary qu-d-its. This is done with a fidelity of > 95% for qubits, and 94% for qutrits verified using a newly developed time-resolved quantum-homodyne measurement technique. Additionally, we combine two separate fields of quantum physics by using our deterministic single-photon source to seed linear optics quantum computing (LOQC) circuits. As a step towards quantum networking, it is shown that this photon source can be combined with quantum gates, namely a chip-integrated beam splitter, a controlled-NOT (CNOT) gate as well as a CNOT4 gate. We use this CNOT4 gate to entangle photons deterministically emitted from our source and observe non-classical correlations between events separated by periods exceeding the travel time across the chip by three orders of magnitude. Additionally, we use time-bin encoded qubits to systematically study the de- and re-phasing of quantum states as well as the the effects of time-varying internal phases in photonic quantum circuits.
One of today’s challenge to realize computing based on quantum mechanics is to reliably and scalably encode information in quantum systems. Here, we present a photon source to on-demand deliver photonic quantum bits of information based on a strongly coupled atom-cavity system. It operates intermittently for periods of up to 100μs, with a single-photon repetition rate of 1MHz, and an intra-cavity production e!ciency of up to 85%. Due to the photons inherent coherence time of 500ns and our ability to arbitrarily shape their amplitude and phase profile we time-bin encode information within one photon. To do so, the spatio-temporal envelope of a single photon is sub-divided in d time bins which allows for the delivery of arbitrary qu-d-its. The latter is done with a fidelity of > 95% for qubits, and 94% for qutrits verified using a newly developed time-resolved quantum-homodyne technique.
The prospect of a universal quantum computer is alluring, yet formidable. Smaller scale quantum information processing, however, has been demonstrated. Quantum networks, interlinking flying and stationary qubits, and linear optical quantum computing (LOQC) are both good candidates for scaling up such computations. A strongly coupled atom-cavity system is a promising approach for applications in these fields, both as a node in a quantum network, and as a source of photons for LOQC. This thesis demonstrates the versatile capabilities of an atom-cavity system comprising a single 87Rb atom within a macroscopic high-finesse Fabry-Pérot cavity. It operates intermittently for periods of up to 100 μs, with single-photon repetition rates of 1 MHz and an intra-cavity production efficiency of up to 85%. Exploiting the long coherence time of around 500 ns, the photons are subdivided into d time bins, with arbitrary amplitudes and phases, thus encoding arbitrary qudits. High fidelity quantum logic is shown, operating a controlled-NOT gate integrated into a photonic chip with a classical fidelity of 95.9+1.4-1.7 %. Additionally, the generation of entanglement is verified and non-classical correlations between events separated by periods exceeding the travel time across the chip by three orders of magnitude are observed. Photonic quantum simulation is performed, using temporally encoded qudits to mimic the correlation statistics of both fermions and anyons, in addition to bosons. Finally measurement-based quantum feedback is demonstrated and used to actively control the routing of temporal qubits.
Strong coupling between light and matter has been demonstrated both in classical cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) systems and in more recent circuit-QED experiments. This enables the generation of strong nonlinear photon-photon interactions at the single-photon level, which is of great interest for the observation of quantum nonlinear optical phenomena, the control of light quanta in quantum information protocols such as quantum networking, as well as the study of strongly correlated quantum many-body systems using light. Recently, strong coupling has also been realized in a variety of one-dimensional (1D) waveguide- QED experimental systems, which in turn makes them promising candidates for quantum information processing. Compared to cavity-QED systems, there are two new features in waveguide-QED: the existence of a continuum of states and the restricted 1D phase space, which together bring in new physical effects, such as the bound-state effects. This thesis consists of two parts: 1) understanding the fundamental interaction between local quantum objects, such as two-level systems and four-level systems, and photons confined in the waveguide; 2) exploring its implications in quantum information processing, in particular photonic quantum computation and quantum key distribution. First, we demonstrate that by coupling a two-level system (TLS) or three/fourlevel system to a 1D continuum, strongly-correlated photons can be generated inside the waveguide. Photon-photon bound states, which decay exponentially as a function of the relative coordinates of photons, appear in multiphoton scattering processes. As a result, photon bunching and antibunching can be observed in the photon-photon correlation function, and nonclassical light source can be generated on demand. In the case of an N-type four-level system, we show that the effective photon-photon interaction mediated by the four-level system, gives rise to a variety of nonlinear optical phenomena, including photon blockade, photon-induced tunneling, and creation of single-photon states and photon pairs with a high degree of spectral entanglement, all in the absence of a cavity. However, to enable greater quantum networking potential using waveguide- QED, it is important to study systems having more than just one TLS/qubit. We develop a numerical Green function method to study cooperative effects in a system of two qubits coupled to a 1D waveguide. Quantum beats emerge in photon-photon correlations, and persist to much longer time scales because of non-Markovian processes. In addition, this system can be used to generate a high-degree of long-distance entanglement when one of the two qubits is driven by an on-resonance laser, further paving the way toward waveguide-QED-based quantum networks. Furthermore, based on our study of light-matter interactions in waveguide- QED, we investigate its implications in quantum information processing. First, we study quantum key distribution using the sub-Possonian single photon source obtained by scattering a coherent state off a two-level system. The rate for key generation is found to be twice as large as for other sources. Second, we propose a new scheme for scalable quantum computation using flying qubits--propagating photons in a one-dimensional waveguide--interacting with matter qubits. Photonphoton interactions are mediated by the coupling to a three- or four-level system, based on which photon-photon -phase gates (Controlled-NOT) can be implemented for universal quantum computation. We show that high gate fidelity is possible given recent dramatic experimental progress in superconducting circuits and photonic-crystal waveguides. The proposed system can be an important building block for future on-chip quantum networks.
A single atom strongly coupled to a high-finesse optical-cavity is a versatile tool for quantum information processing. Utilized as a single-photon source, it allows one to generate single photons very efficiently in a well defined spatio-temporal mode. In a first experiment, polarization-control over the photons is shown. A time-resolved two-photon interference experiment proves the indistinguishability of these photons - required in various quantum information processing schemes. Moreover, in a second experiment, entanglement between the polarization of the emitted photon and the population of the atomic Zeeman levels is created. Subsequent state mapping of the atomic state onto another photon results in a pair of polarization-entangled photons emitted one after the other from the cavity. Although these schemes are in principle possible in free space, the cavity boosts the efficiency by several orders of magnitude.