This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 9615, including the Title Page, Copyright information, Table of Contents, Introduction (if any), and Conference Committee listing.

We present two recent results achieved in INRIM laboratories paving the way for next future commercial use of quantum imaging techniques. The first exploits non-classical photon statistics of single nitrogen-vacancy color centers in diamond for realising super-resolution. A little more in detail we demonstrate that the measurement of high order correlation functions allows overcoming Abbe limit. The second exploits ghost imaging in a specific case of practical interest, i.e. in measuring magnetic structures in garnets.

We started to research quantum illumination radar and quantum imaging by utilizing high quality continuous-wave two-mode squeezed light source as a quantum entanglement resource. Two-mode squeezed light is a macroscopic quantum entangled state of the electro-magnetic field and shows strong correlation between quadrature phase amplitudes of each optical field. One of the most effective methods to generate two-mode squeezed light is combining two independent single-mode squeezed lights by using a beam splitter with relative phase of 90 degrees between each optical field. As a first stage of our work we are developing two-mode squeezed light source for exploring the possibility of quantum illumination radar and quantum imaging. In this article we introduce current development of experimental investigation of single-mode squeezed light. We utilize a sub-threshold optical parametric oscillator with bow-tie configuration which includes a periodically-polled potassium titanyl phosphate crystal as a nonlinear optical medium. We observed the noise level of squeezed quadrature −3.08±0.13 dB and anti-squeezed quadrature at 9.29±0.13 dB, respectively. We also demonstrated the remote tuning of squeezing level of the light source which leads to the technology for tuning the quantum entanglement in order to adapt to the actual environmental condition.

Trapped ions are a promising platform for local quantum information processing. In order to distribute this quantum information over long distances, we can take advantage of optical cavities, which ofier a coherent interface between matter and light, enabling the transfer of quantum information from stationary qubits such as ions onto photons. We demonstrate such an interface by coupling trapped ions to a cavity and have recently shown that a quantum state can be faithfully transferred from a single ion onto a single photon. In particular, this transfer can be improved by taking advantage of a collective effect between multiple ions, namely, superradiant emission into the cavity. In this proof-of-principle experiment, we tune the phase of a two-ion entangled state between sub- and superradiance. The superradiant coupling is then used to enhance the transfer of quantum information onto a photon from a logical qubit encoded in the two ions. Finally, prospects for linking together distant ions in cavities via a quantum network are discussed. Toward this goal, we outline a fiber-based ion-cavity experiment which allows access to the single-ion strong-coupling regime.

Spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) is a common method to generate entangled photon pairs for use in quantum communications. The generated single photon linewidth is a critical issue for photon-atom interactions in quantum memory applications. We compare the linewidths of greatly non-degenerate single photon pairs from SPDC generated in the single-pass case and the singly-resonant cavity case. For a 6 mm periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) crystal, the linewidth of the generated signal photons is reduced from 1 THz in the single pass case to tens of MHz in the singly-resonant cavity case, while the brightness within the modal lineiwdth is increased by a factor of the cavity finesse, though the overall SPDC generation rate remains unchanged.

This paper proposes and analyzes the potential of a multi-photon tolerant quantum communication protocol to secure satellite communication. For securing satellite communication, quantum cryptography is the only known unconditionally secure method. A number of recent experiments have shown feasibility of satellite-aided global quantum key distribution (QKD) using different methods such as: Use of entangled photon pairs, decoy state methods, and entanglement swapping. The use of single photon in these methods restricts the distance and speed over which quantum cryptography can be applied.

Contemporary quantum cryptography protocols like the BB84 and its variants suffer from the limitation of reaching the distances of only Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at the data rates of few kilobits per second. This makes it impossible to develop a general satellite-based secure global communication network using the existing protocols. The method proposed in this paper allows secure communication at the heights of the Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) and Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites. The benefits of the proposed method are two-fold: First it enables the realization of a secure global communication network based on satellites and second it provides unconditional security for satellite networks at GEO heights. The multi-photon approach discussed in this paper ameliorates the distance and speed issues associated with quantum cryptography through the use of contemporary laser communication (lasercom) devices. This approach can be seen as a step ahead towards global quantum communication.

One of the key issues in QKD is the rather limited data rate at which the secret key can be generated. This paper explores the use of quantum correlation associated with twin beams in Parametric Down Conversion (PDC) to in effect create a number of parallel channels for generation of secret keys, thus significantly boosting the achievable key rate. Such quantum correlations have been effectively used as a tool for many applications, including calibration of single photon detectors and QKD applications.¹ Within QKD applications, the natural setup of quantization of Charge Coupled Device (CCD) detection areas and subsequent measurement of the correlation statistic needed to detect the presence of the eavesdropper Eve, leads to a set of QKD parallel channel models that are either binary or multilevel Discrete Memoryless Channels (DMC). This work explores the derivation of proper channel models for this application starting from measured data and the optimization of the secret key rate. Analytical results based on measurements performed on a 30 pixel image suggest that nearly an 8-fold increase in secret key rate may be achievable using this technique.

We propose a method to study and characterize the spatial and temporal properties of degenerate photon pairs emitted in SPDC, using a filtering system combined with temperature variation of the nonlinear crystal. The photons can be distinguished. We relate these to the measured Hong-Ou-Mandel interference dip of the photons, measured in a parallel experiment. The theoretical plots match very well with the experimental results.

Quantum memory is a key device in the implementation of quantum repeaters for quantum communications and quantum networks. We demonstrated a quantum memory based on electromagnetically-induced transparency (EIT) in a warm cesium atomic cell. The quantum memory system can avoid the need for helium temperature apparatus and it is low cost for bulk scalability.

We investigate the spontaneous emission of light from the quantum vacuum in a dispersive dielectric at a moving Refractive Index Front (RIF). Our aim is to develop further an existing analytical model to fully characterize the emission and calculate its spectrum in different configurations. We show in which conditions the RIF acts as a point of non-return, an artificial black hole event horizon, for modes of the field. We calculate the spectrum of this emission and the number of photons emitted from the vacuum in the unique escaping mode as a function of the RIF height and velocity in the medium.

The so-called quasi-Bell entangled coherent states in a thermal environment are studied. In the analysis, we assume thermal noise affects only one of the two modes of each state. First the matrix representation of the density operators of the quasi-Bell entangled coherent states in a thermal environment is derived. Secondly we investigate the entanglement property of one of the quasi-Bell entangled coherent states with thermal noise. At that time a lower bound of the entanglement of formation for the state is computed. Thirdly the minimax discrimination problem for two cases of the binary set of the quasi-Bell entangled coherent states with thermal noise is considered, and the error probabilities of the minimax discrimination for the two cases are computed with the help of Helstrom's algorithm for finding the Bayes optimal error probability of binary states.

Hong-Ou-Mandel interference between independent sources is a fundamental primitive of many quantum communication and computation protocols. We present a study of the Hong-Ou-Mandel interference of single photons generated via two different physical processes by two independent atomic systems: scattering by a single atom, and parametric generation via four-wave mixing in a cloud of cold atoms. By controlling the coherence time and central frequency of the heralded single photons generated by four-wave mixing we observe quantum beat and a varying degree of interference.

Quantum teleportation relies on entanglement as the quantum resource to be able to communicate with fidelities beyond the classical limit. Nevertheless, the entangled resource may be afflicted by local noise, affecting its ability to serve as the entangled resource for quantum teleportation. We obtain experimental data on the influence of different local environments on the ability of an initially entangled pair of qubits to act as a teleportation resource, after it has been disturbed by noise. We generate selected conditions on the noise parameter space, both theoretically and experimentally, and we find that an already noisy protocol can be made practically insensitive to a further addition of noise. The experimental results are based on a photonic implementation of the quantum teleportation algorithm, with a polarization-entangled pair acting as the quantum resource. The state to be teleported is an additional qubit encoded in the path internal degree of freedom of Alice's photon. Interactions with different local environments on both sides of the system are either implemented with an extra qubit as the environment, or simulated as a weighed average of pure states. We compare our experimental results with the theoretical predictions, and by performing quantum process tomography we can calculate the fidelity of the quantum teleportation scheme and evaluate the effect of local environments.

The Small Photon Entangling Quantum System is an integrated instrument where the pump, photon pair source and detectors are combined within a single optical tray and electronics package that is no larger than 10cm×10cm×3cm. This footprint enables the instrument to be placed onboard nanosatellites or the CubeLab facility within the International Space Station. The first mission is to understand the different environmental conditions that may affect the operation of an entangled photon source in low Earth orbit. This understanding is crucial for the construction of cost-effective entanglement based experiments that utilize nanosatellite architecture. We will discuss the challenges and lessons we have learned over three years of development and testing of the integrated optical platform and review the perspectives for future advanced experiments.