skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Title: Experimental storage of photonic polarization entanglement in a broadband loop-based quantum memory
We experimentally study the ability of a broadband “loop-and-switch” type quantum memory device to store entanglement. We find that one active loop-based memory and one passive fiber delay line can be used to faithfully store two polarization-entangled photons and demonstrate a rudimentary entanglement distribution protocol. The entangled photons are produced by a conventional spontaneous parametric down-conversion source with center wavelengths at 780 nm and bandwidths of ∼10 THz, while the memory has an even wider operational bandwidth that is enabled by the weakly dispersive nature of the Pockels effect used for polarization-insensitive active switching. These results help demonstrate the utility of loop-based quantum memories for quantum networking applications.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2013464
PAR ID:
10555929
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
American Physical Society
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Physical Review A
Volume:
108
Issue:
5
ISSN:
2469-9926
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. We compare reconstructed quantum state images of a birefringent sample using direct quantum state tomography and inverse numerical optimization technique. Qubits are used to characterize birefringence in a flat transparent plastic sample by means of polarization sensitive measurement using density matrices of two-level quantum entangled photons. Pairs of entangled photons are generated in a type-II nonlinear crystal. About half of the generated photons interact with a birefringent sample, and coincidence counts are recorded. Coincidence rates of entangled photons are measured for a set of sixteen polarization states. Tomographic and inverse numerical techniques are used to reconstruct the density matrix, the degree of entanglement, and concurrence for each pixel of the investigated sample. An inverse numerical optimization technique is used to obtain a density matrix from measured coincidence counts with the maximum probability. Presented results highlight the experimental noise reduction, greater density matrix estimation, and overall image enhancement. The outcome of the entanglement distillation through projective measurements is a superposition of Bell states with different amplitudes. These changes are used to characterize the birefringence of a 3M tape. Well-defined concurrence and entanglement images of the birefringence are presented. Our results show that inverse numerical techniques improve overall image quality and detail resolution. The technique described in this work has many potential applications. 
    more » « less
  2. Motivated by recent advances in the development of single photon emitters for quantum information sciences, here we design and formulate a quantum cascade model that describes cascade emission by a quantum dot (QD) in a cavity structure while preserving entanglement that stores information needed for single photon emission. The theoretical approach is based on a photonic structure that consists of two orthogonal cavities in which resonance with either the first or second of the two emitted photons is possible, leading to amplification and rerouting of the entangled light. The cavity–QD scheme uses a four-level cascade emitter that involves three levels for each polarization, leading to two spatially entangled photons for each polarization. By solving the Schrodinger equation, we identify the characteristic properties of the system, which can be used in conjunction with optimization techniques to achieve the “best” design relative to a set of prioritized criteria or constraints in our optical system. The theoretical investigations include an analysis of emission spectra in addition to the joint spectral density profile, and the results demonstrate the ability of the cavities to act as frequency filters for the photons that make up the entanglements and to modify entanglement properties. The results provide new opportunities for the experimental design and engineering of on-demand single photon sources. 
    more » « less
  3. The generation, manipulation and quantification of non-classical light, such as quantum-entangled photon pairs, differs significantly from methods with classical light. Thus, quantum measures could be harnessed to give new information about the interaction of light with matter. In this study we investigate if quantum entanglement can be used to diagnose disease. In particular, we test whether brain tissue from subjects suffering from Alzheimer’s disease can be distinguished from healthy tissue. We find that this is indeed the case. Polarization-entangled photons traveling through brain tissue lose their entanglement via a decohering scattering interaction that gradually renders the light in a maximally mixed state. We found that in thin tissue samples (between 120 and 600 micrometers) photons decohere to a distinguishable lesser degree in samples with Alzheimer’s disease than in healthy-control ones. Thus, it seems feasible that quantum measures of entangled photons could be used as a means to identify brain samples with the neurodegenerative disease. 
    more » « less
  4. Quantum repeaters are nodes in a quantum communication network that allow reliable transmission of entanglement over large distances. It was recently shown that highly entangled photons in so-called graph states can be used for all-photonic quantum repeaters, which require substantially fewer resources compared to atomic-memory-based repeaters. However, standard approaches to building multiphoton entangled states through pairwise probabilistic entanglement generation severely limit the size of the state that can be created. Here, we present a protocol for the deterministic generation of large photonic repeater states using quantum emitters such as semiconductor quantum dots and defect centers in solids. We show that arbitrarily large repeater states can be generated using only one emitter coupled to a single qubit, potentially reducing the necessary number of photon sources by many orders of magnitude. Our protocol includes a built-in redundancy, which makes it resilient to photon loss. 
    more » « less
  5. Andrews, D.; Galvez, EJ; Rubinsztein-Dunlop, H. (Ed.)
    There is interest in using photon entanglement in biomedical applications. In one application, polarization-entangled photons pass through brain tissue. The effect of the brain tissue on the photon entanglement is measured via the decoherence that is imparted on the entangled state. Our current method to obtain a measure of the decoherence involves quantum state tomography, where a minimum of 16 measurements are used in conjunction with tomographic optimization to obtain the density matrix representing the state of the photons. In this work we report on a method to avoid tomographic optimization on behalf of a direct measurement of the elements of the density matrix. We make preliminary comparisons between the two methods. 
    more » « less