Real-Time Quadrature Measurement of a Single-Photon Wave Packet with Continuous Temporal-Mode Matching

Nonlinear feedforward enabling quantum computation

Measurement-based quantum computation with optical time-domain multiplexing is a promising method to realize a quantum computer from the viewpoint of scalability. Fault tolerance and universality are also realizable by preparing appropriate resource quantum states and electro-optical feedforward that is altered based on measurement results. While linear feedforward has been realized and become a common experimental technique, nonlinear feedforward was unrealized until now. In this paper, we demonstrate that a fast and flexible nonlinear feedforward realizes the essential measurement required for fault-tolerant and universal quantum computation. Using non-Gaussian ancillary states, we observed 10% reduction of the measurement excess noise relative to classical vacuum ancilla.

Optomechanical force sensor operating over wide detection range

A detector with both broad operation range and high sensitivity is desirable in the measurement of weak periodic forces. Based on a nonlinear dynamical mechanism of locking the mechanical oscillation amplitude in optomechanical systems, we propose a force sensor that realizes the detection through the cavity field sidebands modified by an unknown external periodic force. Under the mechanical amplitude locking condition, the unknown external force happens to modify the locked oscillation amplitude linearly to its magnitude, thus achieving a linear scaling between the sideband changes read by the sensor and the magnitude of the force to be measured. This linear scaling range is found to be comparable to the applied pump drive amplitude, so the sensor can measure a wide range of force magnitude. Because the locked mechanical oscillation is rather robust against thermal perturbation, the sensor works well at room temperature. In addition to weak periodic forces, the same setup can as well detect static forces, though the detection ranges are much narrower.

Quantum arbitrary waveform generator

Controlling the temporal waveform of light is the key to a versatile light source in classical and quantum electronics. Although pulse shaping of classical light is mature and has been used in various fields, more advanced applications would be realized by a light source that generates arbitrary quantum light with arbitrary temporal waveforms. We call such a device a quantum arbitrary waveform generator (Q-AWG). The Q-AWG must be able to handle various quantum states of light, which are fragile. Thus, the Q-AWG requires a radically different methodology from classical pulse shaping. Here, we invent an architecture of Q-AWGs that can operate semi-deterministically at a repetition rate over gigahertz in principle. We demonstrate its core technology via generating highly nonclassical states with temporal waveforms that have never been realized before. This result would lead to powerful quantum technologies based on Q-AWGs such as practical optical quantum computing.

Nanometer-scale displacement measurement using a simple diffraction grating with a quadrature detection technique

A phase-sensitive transparent grating interferometer is proposed to measure small displacements. A transparent grating is inserted between a light source and a reflective mirror. The diffracted light beams of the forward and backward propagation are superposed to form the interference pattern. When two detectors are placed at two different positions of the interference fringe in such a way that the signals have quadrature phase difference, the phase variation can infer the displacement of the reflected mirror. This simple setup can measure the displacement of the mirror at nanometer scale with 98.2% accuracy, high precision with 10 nm in standard deviation, and lowest bound of 0.4 nm resolution.

Cubic nonlinear squeezing and its decoherence

Squeezed states of the harmonic oscillator are a common resource in applications of quantum technology. If the noise is suppressed in a nonlinear combination of quadrature operators below threshold for all possible up-to-quadratic Hamiltonians, the quantum states are non-Gaussian and we refer to the noise reduction as nonlinear squeezing. Non-Gaussian aspects of quantum states are often more vulnerable to decoherence due to imperfections appearing in realistic experimental implementations. Therefore, a stability of nonlinear squeezing is essential. We analyze the behavior of quantum states with cubic nonlinear squeezing under loss and dephasing. The properties of nonlinear squeezed states depend on their initial parameters which can be optimized and adjusted to achieve the maximal robustness for the potential applications.

Generation of highly pure single-photon state at telecommunication wavelength

Telecommunication wavelength with well-developed optical communication technologies and low losses in the waveguide are advantageous for quantum applications. However, an experimental generation of non-classical states called non-Gaussian states at the telecommunication wavelength is still underdeveloped. Here, we generate highly-pure-single-photon states, one of the most primitive non-Gaussian states, by using a heralding scheme with an optical parametric oscillator and a superconducting nano-strip photon detector. The Wigner negativity, the indicator of non-classicality, of the generated single photon state is -0.228 ± 0.004, corresponded to 85.1 ± 0.7% of single photon and the best record of the minimum value at all wavelengths. The quantum-optics-technology we establish can be easily applied to the generation of various types of quantum states, opening up the possibility of continuous-variable-quantum-information processing at the telecommunication wavelength.

Generation of Schrödinger cat states with Wigner negativity using a continuous-wave low-loss waveguide optical parametric amplifier

Continuous-wave (CW) squeezed light is used in the generation of various optical quantum states, and thus is a fundamental resource of fault-tolerant universal quantum computation using optical continuous variables. To realize a practical quantum computer, a waveguide optical parametric amplifier (OPA) is an attractive CW squeezed light source in terms of its THz-order bandwidth and suitability for modularization. The usages of a waveguide OPA in quantum applications thus far, however, are limited due to the difficulty of the generation of the squeezed light with a high purity. In this paper, we report the first observation of Wigner negativity of the states generated by a heralding method using a waveguide OPA. We generate Schrödinger cat states at the wavelength of 1545 nm with Wigner negativity using a quasi-single-mode ZnO-doped periodically poled LiNbO₃ waveguide module we developed. Wigner negativity is regarded as an important indicator of the usefulness of the quantum states as it is essential in the fault-tolerant universal quantum computation. Our result shows that our waveguide OPA can be used in wide range of quantum applications leading to a THz-clock optical quantum computer.

Direct Parameter Estimations from Machine Learning-Enhanced Quantum State Tomography

With the power to find the best fit to arbitrarily complicated symmetry, machine-learning (ML)-enhanced quantum state tomography (QST) has demonstrated its advantages in extracting complete information about the quantum states. Instead of using the reconstruction model in training a truncated density matrix, we develop a high-performance, lightweight, and easy-to-install supervised characteristic model by generating the target parameters directly. Such a characteristic model-based ML-QST can avoid the problem of dealing with a large Hilbert space, but cab keep feature extractions with high precision, capturing the underlying symmetry in data. With the experimentally measured data generated from the balanced homodyne detectors, we compare the degradation information about quantum noise squeezed states predicted by the reconstruction and characteristic models; both are in agreement with the empirically fitting curves obtained from the covariance method. Such a ML-QST with direct parameter estimations illustrates a crucial diagnostic toolbox for applications with squeezed states, from quantum information process, quantum metrology, advanced gravitational wave detectors, to macroscopic quantum state generation.

Conditional π-Phase Shift of Single-Photon-Level Pulses at Room Temperature

The development of useful photon-photon interactions can trigger numerous breakthroughs in quantum information science, however, this has remained a considerable challenge spanning several decades. Here, we demonstrate the first room-temperature implementation of large phase shifts (≈π) on a single-photon level probe pulse (1.5  μs) triggered by a simultaneously propagating few-photon-level signal field. This process is mediated by Rb^{87} vapor in a double-Λ atomic configuration. We use homodyne tomography to obtain the quadrature statistics of the phase-shifted quantum fields and perform maximum-likelihood estimation to reconstruct their quantum state in the Fock state basis. For the probe field, we have observed input-output fidelities higher than 90% for phase-shifted output states, and high overlap (over 90%) with a theoretically perfect coherent state. Our noise-free, four-wave-mixing-mediated photon-photon interface is a key milestone toward developing quantum logic and nondemolition photon detection using schemes such as coherent photon conversion.

High production rate of single-photon and two-photon Fock states for quantum state engineering

We report the implementation of a high-rate source of single- and two-photon states. By combining the advantages of short pulses and cavities, heralding rates as high as 200 kHz have been obtained for the single photons, as well as 250 Hz for the two-photon states. In this setup, homodyne measurements are conditioned by the heralding of the quantum states thanks to the introduction of a low-loss optical delay line in the heralded states path. This enables the detection of most of the heralded events, and fidelities reaching 68.5% (91% with correction for detection efficiency) and 50.4% (85% with correction) were obtained for the single- and two-photon states, respectively. Such high rates and fidelities in the generation of elementary Fock states may open the path for the production of complex quantum states.

Universal Quantum Computing with Measurement-Induced Continuous-Variable Gate Sequence in a Loop-Based Architecture

We propose a scalable scheme for optical quantum computing using measurement-induced continuous-variable quantum gates in a loop-based architecture. Here, time-bin-encoded quantum information in a single spatial mode is deterministically processed in a nested loop by an electrically programmable gate sequence. This architecture can process any input state and an arbitrary number of modes with almost minimum resources, and offers a universal gate set for both qubits and continuous variables. Furthermore, quantum computing can be performed fault tolerantly by a known scheme for encoding a qubit in an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space of a single light mode.

Pulsed quantum continuous-variable optoelectromechanical transducer

We propose a setup allowing to entangle two directly non-interacting radiation modes applying four sequential pulsed quantum resonant interactions with a noisy vibrational mode of a mechanical oscillator which plays the role of the mediator. We analyze Gaussian entanglement of the radiation modes generated by the transducer and confirm that the noisy mechanical mode can mediate generation of entanglement. The entanglement, however, is limited if the interaction gains are not individually optimized. We prove the robustness of the transducer to optical losses and the influence of the mechanical bath and propose the ways to achieve maximal performance through the individual optimization.