This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 9377 including the Title Page, Copyright information, Table of Contents, Introduction, and Conference Committee listing.

We experimentally realize a solid-state spin-photon transistor using a quantum dot strongly coupled to a photonic crystal cavity. We are able to control the light polarization through manipulation of the quantum dot spin states. The spinphoton transistor is crucial for realizing a quantum logic gate or generating hybrid entanglement between a quantum dot spin and a photon. Our results represent an important step towards semiconductor based quantum logic devices and onchip quantum networks.

With an assortment of narrow line-width transitions spanning the visible and IR spectrum and long spin coherence times, rare-earth doped crystals are the leading material system for solid-state quantum memories. Integrating these materials in an on-chip optical platform would create opportunities for highly integrated light-matter interfaces for quantum communication and quantum computing. Nano-photonic resonators with high quality factors and small mode volumes are required for efficient on-chip coupling to the small dipole moment of rare-earth ion transitions. However, direct fabrication of optical cavities in these crystals with current nanofabrication techniques is difficult and unparallelized, as either exotic etch chemistries or physical milling processes are required. We fabricated hybrid devices by mechanically transferring a nanoscale membrane of gallium arsenide (GaAs) onto a neodymium-doped yttrium silicon oxide (Y₂SiO₅) crystal and then using electron beam lithography and standard III-V dry etching to pattern nanobeam photonic crystal cavities and ring resonator cavities, a technique that is easily adapted to other frequency ranges for arbitrary dopants in any rare earth host system. Single crystalline GaAs was chosen for its low loss and high refractive index at the transition wavelength. We demonstrated the potential to evanescently couple between the cavity field and the 883 nm ⁴I_9/2- ⁴F_3/2 transition of nearby neodymium impurities in the host crystal by examining transmission spectra through a waveguide coupled to the resonator with a custom-built confocal microscope. The prospects and requirements for using this system for scalable quantum networks are discussed.

One of today’s challenge to realize computing based on quantum mechanics is to reliably and scalably encode information in quantum systems. Here, we present a photon source to on-demand deliver photonic quantum bits of information based on a strongly coupled atom-cavity system. It operates intermittently for periods of up to 100μs, with a single-photon repetition rate of 1MHz, and an intra-cavity production e!ciency of up to 85%. Due to the photons inherent coherence time of 500ns and our ability to arbitrarily shape their amplitude and phase profile we time-bin encode information within one photon. To do so, the spatio-temporal envelope of a single photon is sub-divided in d time bins which allows for the delivery of arbitrary qu-d-its. The latter is done with a fidelity of > 95% for qubits, and 94% for qutrits verified using a newly developed time-resolved quantum-homodyne technique.

Vacuum Rabi oscillation is a damped oscillation in which energy can transfer between an atomic excitation and a photon when an atom is strongly coupled to a photonic cavity. This process is challenging to be coherently controlled due to the fact that interaction between the atom and the electromagnetic resonator needs to be modulated in a quick manner compared to vacuum Rabi frequency. This control has been achieved at microwave frequencies, but has remained challenging to be implemented in the optical domain. Here we demonstrated coherent control of energy transfer in a semiconductor quantum dot strongly coupled to a photonic crystal molecule by manipulating the vacuum Rabi oscillation of the system. Instead of using a single photonic crystal cavity, we utilized a photonic crystal molecule consisting two coupled photonic crystal defect cavities to obtain both strong quantum dot-cavity coupling and cavityenhanced AC stark shift. In our system the AC stark shift modulates the coupling interaction between the quantum dot and the cavity by shifting the quantum dot resonance, on timescales (picosecond) shorter than the vacuum Rabi period. We demonstrated the ability to transfer excitation between a quantum dot and cavity, and performed coherent control of light-matter states. Our results provides an ultra-fast approach for probing and controlling light-matter interactions in an integrated nanophotonic device, and could pave the way for gigahertz rate synthesis of arbitrary quantum states of light at optical frequencies.

The Franson interferometer consists of two spatially separated unbalanced Mach-Zehnder interferometers through which the signal and the idler photons from spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) are made to transmit. It is often used to prepare time-bin entanglement of two photons in the two SPDC pumping regimes: the narrowband regime and the double-pulse regime. In the narrowband regime, the SPDC process is pumped by a narrowband cw laser with the coherence length much longer than the path length difference of the Franson interferometer. In the double-pulse regime, the longitudinal separation between the pulse pair is made equal to the path length difference of the Franson interferometer. In this paper, we propose another regime by which the generation of time-bin entanglement is possible and demonstrate the scheme experimentally.

The implementation of polarization-based quantum communication is limited by signal loss and decoherence caused by the birefringence of a single-mode fiber. We investigate the Knill dynamical decoupling scheme, implemented using half-wave plates, to minimize decoherence and show that a fidelity greater than 99% can be achieved in absence of rotation error and fidelity greater than 96% can be achieved in presence of rotation error. Such a scheme can be used to preserve any quantum state with high fidelity and has potential application for constructing all optical quantum delay line, quantum memory, and quantum repeater.

In this paper, we propose several entanglement assisted QKD protocols based on time-energy encoding with the number of mutually unbiased bases (MUBs) larger than two. We describe how to implement these protocols based on: (i) optical FFT device implemented in integrated optics with the help of Franson interferometers and (ii) Weyl gate. We also describe the corresponding weak-coherent state-based protocol. By employing the N-dimensional pulse position modulation (ND-PPM) approach, the secret key rate of single photon pulse per signaling interval protocols can be improved by N/log₂N times. However, the corresponding entanglement assisted protocols require the use of cavity quantum electrodynamics (CQED) principles to further entangle single photon pulse per frame state. We then analyze the security of the proposed protocols and provide the finite secret key rates in the presence of various imperfections including background errors and timing jitter, for which we propose the K-neighbor model. Finally, we provide the improvements in secret key rates of proposed protocol over conventional two-base time-energy QKD protocol.

We perform a rigorous characterisation of multiport waveguide circuits. These devices were fabricated using an ultrafast laser inscription process which permits uniquely three-dimensional circuit fabrication not possible using standard lithographic means. To infer device manipulation of an arbitrary input state of light (i.e. intensity and phase transformations), we perform device interrogation with coherent input states. We demonstrate that the inscription process, and output from coherent state interrogation combined with a maximum likelihood estimation algorithm, provide a rapid prototyping system for waveguide circuits acting on quantum states of light. This opens the way for more advanced multiport structures exploiting additional paths, input states and arbitrary phase relationships.

We present work toward remote entanglement of barium ions in traps separated by a few meters. A new version of an ion trap specialized for remote entanglement is introduced. The new trap allows for highly efficient collection of ion fluorescence while simultaneously minimizing ion micromotion and aligning the trap position precisely to the focus of an in-vacuum parabolic mirror by using a set of bias electrodes and a piezoelectric micro-positioning system. The success rate of the remote entanglement procedure depends strongly on the efficiency with which ion fluorescence can be coupled into an optical fiber. Characterization of our system in terms of ion fluorescence collection and fiber coupling efficiency is presented. Results demonstrating entanglement between a single barium ion and single spontaneously emitted photons are shown. The entanglement fidelity of the ion-photon state is measured to be 0.84(1) and a CHSH Bell signal of 2.303(36) finds violation of the CHSH version of the Bell inequality by over eight standard deviations. Barium’s relatively long wavelength transitions make it an ideal candidate for our longer term goal of remote entanglement of ions separated by a kilometer or more. Such long distance remote entanglement should allow for a loophole-free verification of the violation of the Bell inequality.

We develop a singular layer transmission model for continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CVQKD). In CVQKD, the transmit information is carried by continuous-variable (CV) quantum states, particularly by Gaussian random distributed position and momentum quadratures. The reliable transmission of the quadrature components over a noisy link is a cornerstone of CVQKD protocols. The proposed singular layer uses the singular value decomposition of the Gaussian quantum channel, which yields an additional degree of freedom for the phase space transmission. This additional degree of freedom can further be exploited in a multiple-access scenario. The singular layer defines the eigenchannels of the Gaussian physical link, which can be used for the simultaneous reliable transmission of multiple user data streams. We demonstrate the results through the adaptive multicarrier quadrature division–multiuser quadrature allocation (AMQD-MQA) CVQKD multiple-access scheme. We define the singular model of AMQD-MQA and characterize the properties of the eigenchannel interference. The singular layer transmission provides improved simultaneous transmission rates for the users with unconditional security in a multiple-access scenario, particularly in crucial low signal-to-noise ratio regimes.

In this work, we study the error sources standing behind the non-perfect linear optical quantum components composing a non-deterministic quantum CNOT gate model, which performs the CNOT function with a success probability of 4/27 and uses a double encoding technique to represent photonic qubits at the control and the target. We generalize this model to an abstract probabilistic CNOT version and determine the realizability limits depending on a realistic range of the errors. Finally, we discuss physical constraints allowing the implementation of the Asymmetric Partially Polarizing Beam Splitter (APPBS), which is at the heart of correctly realizing the CNOT function.

This paper proposes a quantum secure communication protocol using multiple photons to represent each bit of a message to be shared. The multi-photon tolerant approach to quantum cryptography provides a quantum level security while using more than a single photon per transmission. The protocol proposed is a multi-stage protocol; an explanation of its operation and implementation are provided. The multi-stage protocol is based on the use of unitary transformations known only to Alice and Bob. This paper studies the security aspects of the multi-stage protocol by assessing its vulnerability to different attacks. It is well known that as the number of photons increases, the level of vulnerability of the multi-stage protocol increases. This paper sets a limit on the number of photons that can be used while keeping the multi-stage protocol a multi-photon tolerant quantum secure method for communication. The analysis of the number of photons to be used is based on the probability of success of a Helstrom discrimination done by an eavesdropper on the channel. Limiting the number of photons up to certain threshold per stage makes it impossible for an eavesdropper to decipher the message sent over the channel. The proposed protocol obviates the disadvantages associated with single photon implementations, such as limited data rates and distances along with the need to have no more than a single photon per time slot. The multi-stage protocol is a step toward direct quantum communication rather than quantum key distribution associated with single photon approaches.