Experiments with twisted light

The generic – that is, stable under perturbations – nodes of the field in a monochromatic light beam are optical vortices. We describe here their connection to Chladni's nodal lines in the oscillations of metal plates, as well as a few experiments that have been performed with optical vortices. We will describe how optical vortices can be generated experimentally; how it can be shown that they possess orbital angular momentum; how individual photons can be sorted according to their vortex state; and how optical vortices can be used to demonstrate higher-dimensional quantum entanglement.     

Nonlocal hyperconcentration on entangled photons using photonic module system

Entanglement distribution will inevitably be affected by the channel and environment noise. Thus distillation of maximal entanglement nonlocally becomes a crucial goal in quantum information. Here we illustrate that maximal hyperentanglement on nonlocal photons could be distilled using the photonic module and cavity quantum electrodynamics, where the photons are simultaneously entangled in polarization and spatial-mode degrees of freedom. The construction of the photonic module in a photonic band-gap structure is presented, and the operation of the module is utilized to implement the photonic nondestructive parity checks on the two degrees of freedom. We first propose a hyperconcentration protocol using two identical partially hyperentangled initial states with unknown coefficients to distill a maximally hyperentangled state probabilistically, and further propose a protocol by the assistance of an ancillary single photon prepared according to the known coefficients of the initial state. In the two protocols, the total success probability can be improved greatly by introducing the iteration mechanism, and only one of the remote parties is required to perform the parity checks in each round of iteration. Estimates on the system requirements and recent experimental results indicate that our proposal is realizable with existing or near-further technologies.     

光学体系宏观-微观纠缠及其在量子密钥分配中的应用

宏观-微观纠缠最早起源于“薛定谔的猫”思想实验, 是指在宏观体系与微观体系之间建立量子纠缠. 实现宏观-微观纠缠可以利用多种物理体系来完成, 本文重点介绍了在光学体系中制备和检验宏观-微观纠缠的发展过程. 从最初的受激辐射单光子量子克隆到光学参量放大, 再到相空间的位移操作, 实验上制备宏观-微观纠缠的方法取得了长足的进步. 利用非线性光学参量放大过程制备的宏观-微观纠缠的光子数可以达到10⁴量级, 人眼已经可以观察到, 因此使用人眼作为探测器来检验宏观-微观纠缠的实验开始出现. 但随后人们意识到, 粗精度的光子数探测器, 例如人眼, 无法严格判定宏观-微观纠缠的存在. 为了解决这个难题, 提出了一种巧妙的方法, 即在制备宏-微观纠缠后, 利用局域操作过程将宏观态再变为微观态, 通过判定微观纠缠存在的方法来判定宏微观纠缠的存在. 之后相空间的位移操作方法将宏观态的粒子数提高到10⁸, 并且实现了纠缠的严格检验. 利用光机械实现宏观-微观纠缠的方案也被提出. 由于量子密钥分配中纠缠是必要条件, 而宏观-微观纠缠态光子数较多这一优势可能会对量子密钥分配的传输距离有所提高. 本文介绍了利用相位纠缠的相干态来进行量子秘钥分配的方案, 探讨了利用宏观-微观纠缠实现量子密钥分配的可能性.     

基于N个有序纠缠光子对的量子机密共享方案

提出了一种基于N个有序纠缠光子对量子机密共享方案.用纠缠光子作为信息的载体,密钥管理者Alice将纠缠光子对分成两个序列,其中一个序列直接发送给合作者之一Bob,在确保第一个序列发送安全后,再对第二个序列进行编码,发送给另一个合作者Charlie.Bob和Charlie分别对他们所接收到的光子序列进行Bell基联合测量,从而得到Alice所发布的密钥,完整密钥的获得需要管理者和所有合作者共同实现.本方案采用两体纠缠态,相对三体纠缠态来说,在实验上更容易实现,仅需要线性光学元件和简单的纠缠源.     

Quantum entanglement of a large number of photons

A bipartite multiphoton entangled state is created through stimulated parametric down-conversion of strong laser pulses in a nonlinear crystal. It is shown how detectors that do not resolve the photon number can be used to analyze such multiphoton states. Entanglement of up to 12 photons is detected using both the positivity of the partially-transposed density matrix and a newly derived criteria. Furthermore, evidence is provided for entanglement of up to 100 photons. The multiparticle quantum state is such that even in the case of an overall photon collection and detection efficiency as low as a few percent, entanglement remains and can be detected.     

High Intensity Generation of Entangled Photons in a Two‐Mode Electromagnetic Field

At present, the sources of entangled photons have a low rate of photon generation. This limitation is a key component of quantum informatics for the realization of such functions as linear quantum computation and quantum teleportation. In this paper, we propose a method for high intensity generation of entangled photons in a two‐mode electromagnetic field. On the basis of exact solutions of the Schrödinger equation, when electrons interact in an atom with a strong two‐mode electromagnetic field, it is shown that there may be large quantum entanglement between photons. The quantum entanglement is analyzed on the basis of the Schmidt parameter. It is shown that the Schmidt parameter can reach very high values depending on the choice of characteristics of the two‐mode fields. We find the Wigner function for the considered case. Violation of Bell's inequalities for continuous variables is demonstrated.     

Economical quantum secure direct communication network with single photons

In this paper a scheme for quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) network is proposed with a sequence of polarized single photons. The single photons are prepared originally in the same state $\vert 0\rangle$ by the servers on the network, which will reduce the difficulty for the legitimate users to check eavesdropping largely. The users code the information on the single photons with two unitary operations which do not change their measuring bases. Some decoy photons, which are produced by operating the sample photons with a Hadamard, are used for preventing a potentially dishonest server from eavesdropping the quantum lines freely. This scheme is an economical one as it is the easiest way for QSDC network communication securely.     

利用多光子相互作用实现量子信息传递

利用全量子理论,研究了多原子-腔场系统中多光子相互作用的过程,给出了不同情况下系统的一般演化式,发现利用此过程可实现量子纠缠信息的传递:只要控制腔场与原子相互作用的时间即原子以特定速度通过腔场时,处于基态的原子与存储纠缠信息的腔场相互作用的结果使原子获得量子纠缠信息;相反,纠缠原子中的量子纠缠信息也可传递给处于真空态的腔场;基态原子作为"飞行的量子比特"还可将量子纠缠信息从一个腔场传递到另一个腔场。该结论适应于讨论任意多个原子-腔场系统中任意多个光子相互作用的普遍情形。     

Secure authentication of classical messages with single photons

This paper proposes a scheme for secure authentication of classical messages with single photons and a hashed function. The security analysis of this scheme is also given, which shows that anyone cannot forge valid message authentication codes (MACs). In addition, the lengths of the authentication key and the MACs are invariable and shorter, in comparison with those presented authentication schemes. Moreover, quantum data storage and entanglement are not required in this scheme. Therefore, this scheme is more efficient and economical.     

量子信令交换机模型设计及性能分析

本文提出了量子信令交换机的模型, 该交换机由经典信息控制模块、交换控制模块和量子交换模块三部分组成. 经典控制模块负责将纠缠初态信息传送给纠缠测量及交换单元并更新路由信息. 交换控制模块实现通路选择, 为纠缠对的分发提供通路. 量子交换模块制备纠缠对, 进行Bell态的测量, 完成纠缠交换. 量子信令交换机可以实现多用户间的信令传输及局域网通信. 通过对交换机的性能分析与仿真, 结果表明该交换机结构简单、安全保密、便于扩展、时延小, 对于构建量子通信网有很好的支撑作用. 关键词： 量子通信 量子信令网 量子信令交换机 纠缠交换     

Entanglement and Phase-Sensitivity of a Mach-Zehnder Interferometer for the Coherent Spin State Input

We study quantum entanglement and phase-sensitivity of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer for the coherent spin state input. It’s shown that entanglement and the Heisenberg limit of phase-sensitivity can be obtained adjusting the phase shift and increasing the total photons’ number.     

一种生成质量最优路径纠缠微波信号的压缩参量选择方法

介绍了路径纠缠微波及其生成原理,将生成信号以量子力学算符的形式表示,并在光子数态表象下展开,定性地给出了生成信号与压缩参量之间的关系.提出了一种路径纠缠微波信号质量评价方法,即通过信号中纠缠微波光子总数的期望值表征信号的纠缠度,间接实现对信号质量的评价.基于这种信号质量评价方法,提出了一种生成质量最优路径纠缠微波信号的压缩参量选取方法:在近似确定有效纠缠微波光子数的前提下,找出生成不同微波光子数纠缠概率最大时的一组压缩参量值,进而得出各个压缩参量值所对应的一组纠缠微波光子总数的期望值,其中的最大值对应的压缩参量值即为生成质量最优信号所要选择的压缩参量值.通过理论分析,发现路径纠缠微波信号质量由压缩参量决定,且只与压缩幅有关,而与压缩角无关.仿真实验结果表明,在纠缠微波光子数的最大有效值取为"26"时,纠缠微波光子总数期望值的最大值对应的压缩幅值为1.77,即压缩幅取此值时所得到的路径纠缠微波信号质量最佳,仿真结果表明该方法是有效的.本文的研究为路径纠缠微波在实验研究和实际应用中如何生成高质量信号的问题提供了思路.     

Entangling single photons on a beamsplitter

We report on a scheme for the creation of time-bin entangled states out of two subsequent single photons. Both photons arrive on the same input port of a beamsplitter and the situation in which the photons leave the beamsplitter on different output ports is post-selected. We derive a full quantum mechanical analysis of such time-bin entanglement for emitters subject to uncorrelated dephasing processes and apply this model to sequential single photons emerging from a single semiconductor quantum dot. Our results indicate that the visibility of entanglement is degraded by decoherence effects in the quantum dot, but can be restored by use of CQED effects, namely the Purcell effect.     

单光子调制频谱用于量子点荧光寿命动力学的研究

本文开展了基于单光子调制频谱测量量子点荧光寿命动力学特性的研究.在脉冲激光激发下,对探测到的量子点单光子荧光信号进行频谱分析以获得荧光调制频谱,研究发现特征频谱信号幅值与荧光寿命之间存在确定的非线性对应关系.这种单光子调制频谱方法能有效消除背景噪声和单光子探测器暗计数的影响,用于分析量子点荧光寿命动力学特性时在准确度以及时间分辨率方面都较目前普遍采用的荧光衰减曲线寿命拟合方法呈现出明显优势:当涨落误差为5%时,寿命测量准确度提高了一个数量级;当涨落误差和偏离误差均为5%时,对动力学测量效率以及时间分辨率提高了四倍以上.因此单光子调制频谱可以作为获取量子点在短时间尺度内激发态动力学信息的一种有效技术手段.     

多光子Tavis-Cummings模型中两纠缠原子的纠缠演化特性

研究了两个纠缠的二能级原子通过多光子跃迁与单模相干光场进行耦合相互作用系统中两原子纠缠的演化特性.计算分析表明,两个原子之间的纠缠呈现出周期性的演化特性,初始两原子的状态、原子间的偶极相互作用、相干光场的参数以及跃迁光子数对两个原子的纠缠有着显著的影响;并发现两原子初始处于某最大纠缠态时,两原子会永远处于该最大纠缠态,因此这一类最大纠缠态可以作为一种量子信息存储器. 关键词： 量子纠缠 部分转置矩阵负本征值 纠缠原子 相干态     

Analysis and interpretation of high transverse entanglement in optical parametric down conversion

Quantum entanglement associated with transverse wave vectors of down conversion photons is investigated based on the Schmidt decomposition method. We show that transverse entanglement involves two variables: orbital angular momentum and transverse frequency. We show that in the monochromatic limit high values of entanglement are closely controlled by a single parameter resulting from the competition between (transverse) momentum conservation and longitudinal phase matching. We examine the features of the Schmidt eigenmodes, and indicate how entanglement can be enhanced by suitable mode selection methods.     

电子自旋辅助实现光子偏振态的量子纠缠浓缩

量子纠缠浓缩可以将非最大的纠缠态转变为最大纠缠态,提高量子通信的安全性.本文基于圆偏振光和量子点-腔系统的相互作用,用一个单光子作为连接远距离纠缠光子对的桥梁,在理想条件下实现了光子偏振纠缠态的浓缩.计算结果显示,这个纠缠浓缩方案在考虑耦合强度和腔泄漏的情况下也可以保持较高的保真度,而且不需要知道部分纠缠态的初始信息,也不必重复执行纠缠浓缩过程.这不仅提高了量子纠缠浓缩的安全性,也有助于通过消耗最少的量子资源来实现高效的量子信息处理.     

Efficient Polarization Entanglement Distribution for W State Assisted by Frequency Degree of Freedom

We present an efficient faithful polarization entanglement distribution protocol for W state over an arbitrary noise channel,which use the frequency degree of freedom to carry the entanglement during the transmission.We describe the transmission of three-photon W state as an example,and then generalize this scheme to n-qubit W state situation.The remote parties can obtain maximally entangled W states on the polarization of photons,and the success probability is 100% in principle.As there was few entanglement purification for W state,our scheme is an efficient and practical method to share W state entanglement between distant parties,which will be useful in quantum communication.We also show that our scheme can be used to distribute arbitrary multi-particle entangled state.     

Quantum-Error-Rejection for Hyperentanglement Transmission without Calibrated Reference Frames

In quantum communication, the channel noise and the misalignment of the reference frames between the communication parties will lead to the failure of quantum state transmission. Here an alignment-free spatial-polarization hyperentanglement transmission scheme is provided for hyperentangled photons. In this scheme, before the spatial-polarization hyperentanglement is transmitted through the fiber channel, it is first encoded as a time-bin entanglement with the same polarization. After the photons pass through the noise channel, the polarization errors caused by reference frames misalignment and channel noise can be corrected by time-bin entanglement. In principle, by implementing this scheme, the communication parties can share the original hyperentangled state, and the success probability can approach unity. The scheme is robust to random channel noise and reference frames misalignment, and the decoherence effect caused by the misalignment of the reference frames between the communication parties can be completely suppressed by implementing this scheme.     

Superluminal propagation of evanescent modes as a quantum effect

Contrary to mechanical waves, the two‐slit interference experiment of single photons shows that the behavior of classical electromagnetic waves corresponds to the quantum mechanical one of single photons, which is also different from the quantum‐field‐theory behavior such as the creations and annihilations of photons, the vacuum fluctuations, etc. Owing to a purely quantum effect, quantum tunneling particles including tunneling photons (evanescent modes) can propagate over a spacelike interval. With this picture we conclude that the superluminality of evanescent modes is a quantum mechanical rather than a classical phenomenon.