Generation and Detection of Infrared Single Photons and their Applications

Unbreakable secret communication has been a dream from ancient time. It is quantum physics that gives us hope to turn this wizardly dream into reality. The rapid development of quantum cryptography may put an end to the history of eavesdropping. This will be largely due to the advanced techniques related to single quanta, especially infrared single photons. In this paper, we report on our research works on single-photon control for quantum cryptography, ranging from single-photon generation to single-photon detection and their applications.     

量子点操控的光子探测和圆偏振光子发射

半导体量子点是研究光子与电子态相互作用的优选固态体系,并在光子探测和发射两个方向上展现出独特的技术机遇.其中基于量子点的共振隧穿结构被认为在单光子探测方面综合性能最佳,但受到光子数识别、工作温度两个关键性能的制约.利用腔模激子态外场耦合效应,有望获得圆偏振态可控的高频单光子发射.本文介绍作者提出的量子点耦合共振隧穿（QD-cRTD）的光子探测机理,利用量子点量子阱复合电子态的隧穿放大,将QD-cRTD光子探测的工作温度由液氦提高至液氮条件,光电响应的增益达到10⁷以上,并具备双光子识别能力;同时,由量子点能级的直接吸收,原型器件获得了近红外的光子响应.在量子点光子发射机理的研究方面,作者实现了量子点激子跃迁和微腔腔模共振耦合的磁场调控,在Purcell效应的作用下增强激子自旋态的自发辐射速率,从而增强量子点中左旋或右旋圆偏振光的发射强度,圆偏度达到90%以上,形成一种光子自旋可控发射的新途径.     

Evaluation of polarization entanglement generated by pulsed spontaneous parametric down-conversion with multi-pairs using four single-photon detectors for quantum state tomography

Quantum state tomography (QST) is widely used to evaluate entanglement generated by spontaneous parametric down-conversion. Two-fold coincidence counts for 16 different configurations have been measured using single-photon detectors to estimate the fidelity (i.e., the probability overlap between ideal and real states) from the reconstructed density matrix. However, multi-pair emission events degrade the fidelity. Here, we numerically analyze pulse-pumped polarization-entangled photon pairs for single-photon detectors that can or cannot count the number of incident photons to estimate the fidelity given by QST. Threshold single-photon detectors are desirable for QST from a practical point of view. Our analysis suggests that using four threshold single-photon detectors for two-fold coincidence measurements offers almost the same fidelity as that given by four photon-number-resolving single-photon detectors. The fidelity estimated by QST becomes poor and loss independent when two threshold single-photon detectors are used.     

NbN superconducting nanowire single photon detector with efficiency over 90% at 1550 nm wavelength operational at compact cryocooler temperature

The rapid development of superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors over the past decade has led to numerous advances in quantum information technology. The record for the best system detection efficiency at an incident photon wavelength of 1550 nm is 93%. This performance was attained from a superconducting nanowire single-photon detector made of amorphous WSi; such detectors are usually operated at sub-Kelvin temperatures. In this study, we first demonstrate superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors made of polycrystalline NbN with system detection efficiency of 90.2% for 1550-nm-wavelength photons at 2.1 K, accessible with a compact cryocooler. The system detection efficiency saturated at 92.1% when the temperature was lowered to 1.8 K. We expect the results lighten the practical and high performance superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors to quantum information and other high-end applications.     

Complete Distributed Hyper-Entangled-Bell-State Analysis and Quantum Super Dense Coding

We propose a protocol to implement the distributed hyper-entangled-Bell-state analysis (HBSA) for photonic qubits with weak cross-Kerr nonlinearities, QND photon-number-resolving detection, and some linear optical elements. The distinct feature of our scheme is that the BSA for two different degrees of freedom can be implemented deterministically and nondestructively. Based on the present HBSA, we achieve quantum super dense coding with double information capacity, which makes our scheme more significant for long-distance quantum communication.     

High-Speed Quantum Transducer with a Single-Photon Emitter in a 2D Resonator

Quantum transducers can transfer quantum information between different systems. Microwave–optical photon conversion is important for future quantum networks to interconnect remote superconducting quantum computers with optical fibers. Here, a high-speed quantum transducer based on a single-photon emitter in an atomically thin membrane resonator, that can couple single microwave photons to single optical photons, is proposed. The 2D resonator is a freestanding van der Waals heterostructure (which may consist of hexagonal boron nitride, graphene, or other 2D materials) that hosts a quantum emitter. The mechanical vibration (phonon) of the 2D resonator interacts with optical photons by shifting the optical transition frequency of the single-photon emitter with strain or the Stark effect. The mechanical vibration couples to microwave photons by shifting the resonant frequency of an LC circuit that includes the membrane. Thanks to the small mass of the 2D resonator, both the single-photon optomechanical coupling strength and the electromechanical coupling strength can reach the strong coupling regime. This provides a way for high-speed quantum state transfer between a microwave photon, a phonon, and an optical photon.     

光极限探测技术在空间通信中的应用

光是人类最早的科学研究对象之一,光子是光的最小能量单元,具备量子的基本特征.随着科学技术发展,人类已经能够实现对单个光子的极限探测.光的常规探测已经普遍应用于地面光纤通信中,而光的极限探测则在空间量子通信及深空超远距离光通信中具备重要的应用价值.文章介绍了光极限探测技术在空间量子科学实验、空间光子通信中的典型应用及涉及...     

单光子探测技术

近年来,以量子密钥分配为代表的各种量子信息技术应用获得了飞速发展,这些应用对单光子探测器的性能提出了非常苛刻的要求,以光电倍增管和雪崩光电二极管为代表的传统单光子探测器件已经无法满足需求。在此背景下,出现了以超导单光子探测器为代表的新型低温单光子探测器件,其性能比现有商用单光子探测器有了本质性的提升。本文综述了迄今为止各种类型的单光子探测器,并指出各自在量子信息技术应用中的优势和不足之处以及发展方向。     

Deterministic Secure Quantum Communication with Collective Detection Using Single Photons

Two novel single-photon deterministic secure quantum communication (DSQC) schemes with collective detection are proposed. One is a two-party DSQC, the other is a DSQC network. In these two schemes, only single-photon source and single-photon measurements are required, which makes the schemes more feasible with present techniques. Apart from this, a detection strategy called collective detection is utilized in our schemes, in which the detection is taken only once after the whole process of particle transmission. Such detection strategy improves the efficiencies of our protocols and also reduces the cost of realization as the message sender only need to perform unitary operations in the whole communication. What’s more, the efficiencies of qubits and source capacity are both high since almost all the states can be used to transmit message except the ones used for eavesdropping check and each single photon can carry one bit of information. Finally, we prove the security of the our protocols by using the theorems on quantum operation discrimination.     

混沌光场光子统计分布及二阶相干度的分析与测量

利用通信波段双通道单光子探测器,采用Hanbury Brown-Twiss关联测量方案,理论分析并实验测量了光反馈半导体激光器产生的混沌光场的光子统计分布及不同混沌状态光场的二阶相干度.通过对混沌光场二阶相干度g~((2))(τ)的理论分析,得出随着延迟时间和相干时间的变化,其与相干光、热光及单光子态的二阶相干度可明显区分并呈现出不同分布.同时实验上产生了频谱宽度6.7 GHz的混沌光场,测量了不同光子数分布的结果,并用高斯随机分布、泊松分布、玻色-爱因斯坦分布对光子数分布进行理论拟合,发现随着入射平均光子数的增加,光子数分布从玻色-爱因斯坦分布过渡到泊松分布,但整个过程都与高斯随机分布符合较好,且光场的二阶相干度g~((2))(0)由2降至1.通过改变偏置电流(I=1.0Ith-2.0Ith)和反馈强度(0—10%),实验上研究了混沌光场由低频起伏到相干塌陷的过程中不同状态宏观动力学特性与二阶相干度的对应关系.结果表明:混沌光场在此过程中始终呈现出明显的聚束效应,并在频谱宽度最大时达到最强;同时给出了光子计数测量中聚束效应减弱的物理原因.实验表明该系统及方法能很好地揭示不同状态混沌光场的光子统计特性.     

超导单光子探测技术

单光子探测是弱光测量技术的核心,在量子信息、物理、生物、化学和天文学领域具有关键性的作用。传统以光电倍增管或雪崩二极管为基础的单光子探测器的低灵敏度和高暗计数限制了信噪比的提高,低计数率限制了测量速度和动态范围。本文综述了以超导材料作为光敏感器件的单光子探测技术,其量子效率、暗计数率和计数率远高于传统的单光子探测器,它们的出现势必给单光子测量相关学科带来巨大影响。     

Detecting quantum states with a positive Wigner function beyond mixtures of Gaussian states

We propose a criterion giving a sufficient condition for quantum states of a harmonic oscillator not to be expressible as a convex mixture of Gaussian states. This nontrivial property is inherent to, e.g., a single-photon state and the criterion thus allows one to reveal a signature of the state even in quantum states with a positive Wigner function. The criterion relies on directly measurable photon number probabilities and enables detection of this manifestation of a single-photon state in quantum states produced by solid-state single-photon sources in a weak coupling regime.     

Single-photon emitters in van der Waals materials

Solid-state sources of single-photon emitters are highly desired for scalable quantum photonic applications, such as quantum communication, optical quantum information processing, and metrology. In the past year, great strides have been made in the characterization of single defects in wide-bandgap materials, such as silicon carbide and diamond, as well as single molecules, quantum dots, and carbon nanotubes. More recently, single-photon emitters in layered van der Waals materials attracted tremendous attention, because the two-dimensional(2 D)lattice allows for high photon extraction efficiency and easy integration into photonic circuits. In this review, we discuss recent advances in mastering single-photon emitters in 2 D materials, electrical generation pathways,detuning, and resonator coupling towards use as quantum light sources. Finally, we discuss the remaining challenges and the outlooks for layered material-based quantum photonic sources.     

A Bright Single-Photon Source from Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers in Diamond Nanowires

Single-photon flux is one of the crucial properties of nitrogen vacancy(NV) centers in diamond for its application in quantum information techniques. Here we fabricate diamond conical nanowires to enhance the single-photon count rate. Through the interaction between tightly confined optical mode in nanowires and NV centers, the single-photon lifetime is much shortened and the collection efficiency is enhanced. As a result, the detected single-photon rate can be at 564 kcps,and the total detection coefficient can be 0.8%,wich is much higher than that in bulk diamond. Such a nanowire single-photon device with high photon flux can be applied to improve the fidelity of quantum computation and the precision of quantum sensors.     

Degree of polarization for single-photon beam in a turbulent atmosphere

The polarization fluctuations of single-photon beam propagation through the slant path turbulent atmosphere are studied. The Stokes operators and the degree of polarization of single-photon beam in a turbulent atmosphere are obtained. It is shown by analytical calculations, that the quantum degree of polarization of linearly polarization light is a decrease function of the atmospheric turbulence strength and the propagation distance for lower detection photon number.     

基于单光子脉冲时间随机性的光量子随机源

提出了一种基于单光子脉冲时间随机性的光量子随机源。利用衰减成单光子态的光强恒定光源和一个单光子探测器产生单光子随机脉冲,通过连续比较单光子随机脉冲序列中相邻两个脉冲的时间间隔来提取随机位。通过设计高速响应的微通道板单光子探测器和基于现场可编程门阵列(FPGA)的随机位提取电路,获得了超过10Mbit/s的随机位产生速率。通过采用恒比定时和对计数时钟倍频的方法提高时间间隔的测量精度,从而减小随机位序列的相关系数。当光量子随机源的随机位产生速率在10kbit/s以下时,所获得的二进制随机位序列的相关系数小于0.001。运用随机性测试程序ENT和DIEHARD对所获的随机位序列进行测试,测试结果表明序列的随机性非常好且不需要后续处理,完全满足真随机数的标准。     

Ab initio Calculation of Impurity–Vacancy Complexes in Diamond at High Pressure

Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics - Optical centers in diamond are possible candidates for single-photon emitters for applications in quantum communication, biology, and medicine. The...     

Entangling many atomic ensembles through laser manipulation

We propose an experimentally feasible scheme to generate the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger-type of maximal entanglement between many atomic ensembles based on laser manipulation and single-photon detection. The scheme, with inherent fault tolerance to the dominant noise and efficient scaling of the efficiency with the number of ensembles, allows one to maximally entangle many atomic ensembles within the reach of current technology. Such a maximum entanglement of many ensembles has wide applications in the demonstration of quantum nonlocality, high-precision spectroscopy, and quantum information processing.     

Cavity optomechanics: Manipulating photons and phonons towards the single-photon strong coupling

Cavity optomechanical systems provide powerful platforms to manipulate photons and phonons, open potential applications for modern optical communications and precise measurements. With the refrigeration and ground-state cooling technologies, studies of cavity optomechanics are making significant progress towards the quantum regime including nonclassical state preparation, quantum state tomography, quantum information processing, and future quantum internet. With further research, it is found that abundant physical phenomena and important applications in both classical and quantum regimes appeal as they have a strong optomechanical nonlinearity, which essentially depends on the single-photon optomechanical coupling strength. Thus, engineering the optomechanical interactions and improving the single-photon optomechanical coupling strength become very important subjects. In this article, we first review several mechanisms,theoretically proposed for enhancing optomechanical coupling. Then, we review the experimental progresses on enhancing optomechanical coupling by optimizing its structure and fabrication process. Finally, we review how to use novel structures and materials to enhance the optomechanical coupling strength. The manipulations of the photons and phonons at the level of strong optomechanical coupling are also summarized.