More Like this

1. Belief propagation with quantum messages for quantum-enhanced classical communications

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41534-021-00422-1  

   Rengaswamy, Narayanan; Seshadreesan, Kaushik P.; Guha, Saikat; Pfister, Henry D. (June 2021, npj Quantum Information)

   Abstract For space-based laser communications, when the mean photon number per received optical pulse is much smaller than one, there is a large gap between communications capacity achievable with a receiver that performs individual pulse-by-pulse detection, and the quantum-optimal “joint-detection receiver” that acts collectively on long codeword-blocks of modulated pulses; an effect often termed “superadditive capacity”. In this paper, we consider the simplest scenario where a large superadditive capacity is known: a pure-loss channel with a coherent-state binary phase-shift keyed (BPSK) modulation. The two BPSK states can be mapped conceptually to two non-orthogonal states of a qubit, described by an inner product that is a function of the mean photon number per pulse. Using this map, we derive an explicit construction of the quantum circuit of a joint-detection receiver based on a recent idea of “belief-propagation with quantum messages” (BPQM). We quantify its performance improvement over the Dolinar receiver that performs optimal pulse-by-pulse detection, which represents the best “classical” approach. We analyze the scheme rigorously and show that it achieves the quantum limit of minimum average error probability in discriminating 8 (BPSK) codewords of a length-5 binary linear code with a tree factor graph. Our result suggests that a BPQM receiver might attain the Holevo capacity of this BPSK-modulated pure-loss channel. Moreover, our receiver circuit provides an alternative proposal for a quantum supremacy experiment, targeted at a specific application that can potentially be implemented on a small, special-purpose, photonic quantum computer capable of performing cat-basis universal qubit logic. 

   more » « less
2. Single-Shot Non-Gaussian Measurements for Optical Phase Estimation 125 (12), 120505 (2020).

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.120505  

   DiMario, M T; Becerra, F E (September 2020, Physical review letters)

   null (Ed.)

   Estimation of the properties of a physical system with minimal uncertainty is a central task in quantum metrology. Optical phase estimation is at the center of many metrological tasks where the value of a physical parameter is mapped to the phase of an electromagnetic field and single-shot measurements of this phase are necessary. While there are measurements able to estimate the phase of light in a single shot with small uncertainties, demonstrations of near-optimal single-shot measurements for an unknown phase of a coherent state remain elusive. Here, we propose and demonstrate strategies for single-shot measurements for ab initio phase estimation of coherent states that surpass the sensitivity limit of heterodyne measurement and approach the Cramer-Rao lower bound for coherent states. These single-shot estimation strategies are based on real-time optimization of coherent displacement operations, single photon counting with photon number resolution, and fast feedback. We show that our demonstration of these optimized estimation strategies surpasses the heterodyne limit for a wide range of optical powers without correcting for detection efficiency with a moderate number of adaptive measurement steps. This is, to our knowledge, the most sensitive single-shot measurement of an unknown phase encoded in optical coherent states. 

   more » « less
3. Optimized communication strategies with binary coherent states over phase noise channels

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41534-019-0177-4  

   DiMario, M. T.; Kunz, L.; Banaszek, K.; Becerra, F. E. (July 2019, npj Quantum Information)

   Abstract The achievable rate of information transfer in optical communications is determined by the physical properties of the communication channel, such as the intrinsic channel noise. Bosonic phase noise channels, a class of non-Gaussian channels, have emerged as a relevant noise model in quantum information and optical communication. However, while the fundamental limits for communication over Gaussian channels have been extensively studied, the properties of communication over Bosonic phase noise channels are not well understood. Here we propose and demonstrate experimentally the concept of optimized communication strategies for communication over phase noise channels to enhance information transfer beyond what is possible with conventional methods of modulation and detection. Two key ingredients are generalized constellations of coherent states that interpolate between standard on-off keying and binary phase-shift keying formats, and non-Gaussian measurements based on photon number resolving detection of the coherently displaced signal. For a given power constraint and channel noise strength, these novel strategies rely on joint optimization of the input alphabet and the measurement to provide enhanced communication capability over a non-Gaussian channel characterized in terms of the error rate as well as mutual information. 

   more » « less
4. Repetitive readout and real-time control of nuclear spin qubits in 171Yb atoms

   William Huie, Lintao Li (May 2023, arXivorg)

   We demonstrate high fidelity repetitive projective measurements of nuclear spin qubits in an array of neutral ytterbium-171 (171Yb) atoms. We show that the qubit state can be measured with a fidelity of 0.995(4) under a condition that leaves it in the state corresponding to the measurement outcome with a probability of 0.993(6) for a single tweezer and 0.981(4) averaged over the array. This is accomplished by near-perfect cyclicity of one of the nuclear spin qubit states with an optically excited state under a magnetic field of B=58 G, resulting in a bright/dark contrast of ≈105 during fluorescence readout. The performance improves further as ∼1/B2. The state-averaged readout survival of 0.98(1) is limited by off-resonant scattering to dark states and can be addressed via post-selection by measuring the atom number at the end of the circuit, or during the circuit by performing a measurement of both qubit states. We combine projective measurements with high-fidelity rotations of the nuclear spin qubit via an AC magnetic field to explore several paradigmatic scenarios, including the non-commutivity of measurements in orthogonal bases, and the quantum Zeno mechanism in which measurements "freeze" coherent evolution. Finally, we employ real-time feedforward to repetitively deterministically prepare the qubit in the +z or −z direction after initializing it in an orthogonal basis and performing a projective measurement in the z-basis. These capabilities constitute an important step towards adaptive quantum circuits with atom arrays, such as in measurement-based quantum computation, fast many-body state preparation, holographic dynamics simulations, and quantum error correction. 

   more » « less
5. Practical quantum-enhanced receivers for classical communication

   https://doi.org/10.1116/5.0036959  

   Burenkov, I_A; Jabir, M_V; Polyakov, S_V (April 2021, AVS Quantum Science)

   Communication is an integral part of human life. Today, optical pulses are the preferred information carriers for long-distance communication. The exponential growth in data leads to a “capacity crunch” in the underlying physical systems. One of the possible methods to deter the exponential growth of physical resources for communication is to use quantum, rather than classical measurement at the receiver. Quantum measurement improves the energy efficiency of optical communication protocols by enabling discrimination of optical coherent states with the discrimination error rate below the shot-noise limit. In this review article, the authors focus on quantum receivers that can be practically implemented at the current state of technology, first and foremost displacement-based receivers. The authors present the experimentalist view on the progress in quantum-enhanced receivers and discuss their potential. 

   more » « less