In order to construct quantum [[n,0,d]] codes for (n,d)=(56,15), (57,15), (58,16), (63,16), (67,17), (70,18), (71,18), (79,19), (83,20), (87,20), (89,21), (95,20), we construct self-dual additive F4-codes of length n and minimum weight d from circulant graphs. The quantum codes with these parameters are constructed for the first time.
Autonomous absolute calibration of an ICCD camera in single-photon
detection regime
Luo Qi,
Felix Just,
Gerd Leuchs,
Maria V. Chekhova
Optics Express
24
26444-26453
(2016)
| Journal
| PDF
Intensified charge coupled device (ICCD) cameras are widely used in vari-ous applications such as microscopy, astronomy, spectroscopy. Often they are used as single-photon detectors, with thresholding being an essential part of the readout. In this paper, we measure the quantum efficiency of an ICCD camera in the single-photon de-tection mode using the Klyshko absolute calibration technique. The quantum efficiency is obtained as a function of the threshold value and of the wavelength of the detected light. In addition, we study the homogeneity of the photon sensitivity over the camera chip area. The experiment is performed in the autonomous regime, without using any additional detectors. We therefore demonstrate the self-calibration of an ICCD camera.
Engineering the Frequency Spectrum of Bright Squeezed Vacuum via Group
Velocity Dispersion in an SU(1,1) Interferometer
Samuel Lemieux,
Mathieu Manceau,
Polina R. Sharapova,
Olga V. Tikhonova,
Robert W. Boyd,
Gerd Leuchs,
Maria V. Chekhova
Bright squeezed vacuum, a promising tool for quantum information, can be generated by high-gain parametric down-conversion. However, its frequency and angular spectra are typically quite broad, which is undesirable for applications requiring single-mode radiation. We tailor the frequency spectrum of high-gain parametric down-conversion using an SU(1,1) interferometer consisting of two nonlinear crystals with a dispersive medium separating them. The dispersive medium allows us to select a narrow band of the frequency spectrum to be exponentially amplified by high-gain parametric amplification. The frequency spectrum is thereby narrowed from (56.5±0.1) to (1.22±0.02) THz and, in doing so, the number of frequency modes is reduced from approximately 50 to 1.82±0.02. Moreover, this method provides control and flexibility over the spectrum of the generated light through the timing of the pump.
Hybrid photonic-crystal fiber for single-mode phase matched generation of third harmonic and photon triplets
Andrea Cavanna,
Felix Just,
Xin Jiang,
Gerd Leuchs,
Maria V. Chekhova,
Philip St. J. Russell,
Nicolas Y. Joly
All-fiber systems for third harmonic generation are of great interest because they can be used for the inverse process, namely, the generation of entangled photon triplets. Usually, chromatic dispersion prevents phase matching between the incident and generated radiation when they are both guided in an LP01-like mode. Here, we present a hybrid photonic crystal fiber that has been designed for phase matched third harmonic generation from 1596 to 532 nm in single-lobed modes. The third harmonic radiation is guided by an all-solid bandgap microstructure, while the pump frequency is confined by conventional total internal reflection. The fiber is also suitable for the generation of photon triplet states.
Nonlinear interferometers in quantum optics
M. V. Chekhova,
Z. Y. Ou
Advances in Optics and Photonics
8
104-155
(2016)
| Journal
We review the main works in the field of nonlinear interferometers, which has been developing ever since the start of nonlinear optics and has seen growing interest in recent years due to the applications in quantum information and quantum metrology. Because the class of schemes that are referred to as nonlinear interferometers is too broad, we restrict the consideration to the cases in which crystals, fibers, or atomic systems producing the nonlinear effect are placed inside the interferometer, and only linear phase shifts are imposed. As a nonlinear effect, we consider four-wave mixing and parametric down-conversion, at both low and high gain.
Efficient single-photon absorption by a trapped moving atom
Direct writing using a focused electron beam allows for fabricating truly three-dimensional structures of sub-wavelength dimensions in the visible spectral regime. The resulting sophisticated geometries are perfectly suited for studying light-matter interaction at the nanoscale. Their overall optical response will strongly depend not only on geometry but also on the optical properties of the deposited material. In the case of the typically used metal-organic precursors, the deposits show a substructure of metallic nanocrystals embedded in a carbonaceous matrix. Since gold-containing precursor media are especially interesting for optical applications, we experimentally determine the effective permittivity of such an effective material. Our experiment is based on spectroscopic measurements of planar deposits. The retrieved permittivity shows a systematic dependence on the gold particle density and cannot be sufficiently described using the common Maxwell-Garnett approach for effective medium.
Resonant photo-ionization of Yb+ to Yb2+
Simon Heugel,
Martin Fischer,
Vladimir Elman,
Robert Maiwald,
Markus Sondermann,
Gerd Leuchs
JOURNAL OF PHYSICS B-ATOMIC MOLECULAR AND OPTICAL PHYSICS
49
(1)
015002
(2016)
| Journal
We demonstrate the controlled creation of a Yb-174(2+) ion by photo-ionizing Yb-174(+) with weak continuous-wave lasers at ultraviolet wavelengths. The photo-ionization is performed by resonantly exciting transitions of the Yb-174(+) ion in three steps. Starting from an ion crystal of two laser-cooled Yb-174(+) ions localized in a radio-frequency trap, the verification of the ionization process is performed by characterizing the properties of the resulting mixed-species ion-crystal. The obtained results facilitate fundamental studies of physics involving Yb2+ ions.
Influence of the substrate material on the knife-edge based profiling of
tightly focused light beams
The performance of the knife-edge method as a beam profiling technique for tightly focused light beams depends on several parameters, such as the material and height of the knife-pad as well as the polarization and wavelength of the focused light beam under study. Here we demonstrate that the choice of the substrate the knife-pads are fabricated on has a crucial influence on the reconstructed beam projections as well. We employ an analytical model for the interaction of the knife-pad with the beam and report good agreement between our numerical and experimental results. Moreover, we simplify the analytical model and demonstrate, in which way the underlying physical effects lead to the apparent polarization dependent beam shifts and changes of the beamwidth for different substrate materials and heights of the knife-pad. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America
Spontaneous generation of singularities in paraxial optical fields
In nonrelativistic quantum mechanics, the spontaneous generation of singularities in smooth and finite wave functions is a well understood phenomenon also occurring for free particles. We use the familiar analogy between the two-dimensional Schrodinger equation and the optical paraxial wave equation to define a new class of square-integrable paraxial optical fields that develop a spatial singularity in the focal point of a weakly focusing thin lens. These fields are characterized by a single real parameter whose value determines the nature of the singularity. This novel field enhancement mechanism may stimulate fruitful research for diverse technological and scientific applications. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America
The many facets of the Fabry-Perot
Luis L. Sanchez-Soto,
Juan J. Monzon,
Gerd Leuchs
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICS
37
(6)
064001
(2016)
| Journal
Local Sampling of the Wigner Function at Telecom Wavelength with
Loss-Tolerant Detection of Photon Statistics
G. Harder,
Ch Silberhorn,
J. Rehacek,
Z. Hradil,
L. Motka,
B. Stoklasa,
L. L. Sanchez-Soto
We report the experimental point-by-point sampling of the Wigner function for nonclassical states created in an ultrafast pulsed type-II parametric down-conversion source. We use a loss-tolerant time-multiplexed detector based on a fiber-optical setup and a pair of photon-number-resolving avalanche photodiodes. By capitalizing on an expedient data-pattern tomography, we assess the properties of the light states with outstanding accuracy. The method allows us to reliably infer the squeezing of genuine two-mode states without any phase reference.
Chiral optical response of planar and symmetric nanotrimers enabled by
heteromaterial selection
Peter Banzer,
Pawel Wozniak,
Uwe Mick,
Israel De Leon,
Robert W. Boyd
Wolfgang P. Schleich,
Kedar S. Ranade,
Christian Anton,
Markus Arndt,
Markus Aspelmeyer,
Manfred Bayer,
Gunnar Berg,
Tommaso Calarco,
Harald Fuchs, et al.
The term quantum physics refers to the phenomena and characteristics of atomic and subatomic systems which cannot be explained by classical physics. Quantum physics has had a long tradition in Germany, going back nearly 100 years. Quantum physics is the foundation of many modern technologies. The first generation of quantum technology provides the basis for key areas such as semiconductor and laser technology. The "new" quantum technology, based on influencing individual quantum systems, has been the subject of research for about the last 20 years. Quantum technology has great economic potential due to its extensive research programs conducted in specialized quantum technology centres throughout the world. To be a viable and active participant in the economic potential of this field, the research infrastructure in Germany should be improved to facilitate more investigations in quantum technology research.
Implementing a neutral-atom controlled-phase gate with a single Rydberg
pulse
One can implement fast two-qubit entangling gates by exploiting the Rydberg blockade. Although various theoretical schemes have been proposed, experimenters have not yet been able to demonstrate two-atom gates of high fidelity due to experimental constraints. We propose a novel scheme, which only uses a single Rydberg pulse illuminating both atoms, for the construction of neutral-atom controlled-phase gates. In contrast to the existing schemes, our approach is simpler to implement and requires neither individual addressing of atoms nor adiabatic procedures. With parameters estimated based on actual experimental scenarios, a gate fidelity higher than 0.99 is achievable. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2016
Polarization-controlled directional scattering for nanoscopic position
sensing
Martin Neugebauer,
Pawel Wozniak,
Ankan Bag,
Gerd Leuchs,
Peter Banzer
Controlling the propagation and coupling of light to sub-wavelength antennas is a crucial prerequisite for many nanoscale optical devices. Recently, the main focus of attention has been directed towards high-refractive-index materials such as silicon as an integral part of the antenna design. This development is motivated by the rich spectral properties of individual high-refractive-index nanoparticles. Here we take advantage of the interference of their magnetic and electric resonances to achieve strong lateral directionality. For controlled excitation of a spherical silicon nanoantenna, we use tightly focused radially polarized light. The resultant directional emission depends on the antenna's position relative to the focus. This approach finds application as a novel position sensing technique, which might be implemented in modern nanometrology and super-resolution microscopy set-ups. We demonstrate in a proof-of-concept experiment that a lateral resolution in the Angstrom regime can be achieved.
Attacks on practical quantum key distribution systems (and how to
prevent them)
Nitin Jain,
Birgit Stiller,
Imran Khan,
Dominique Elser,
Christoph Marquardt,
Gerd Leuchs
With the emergence of an information society, the idea of protecting sensitive data is steadily gaining importance. Conventional encryption methods may not be sufficient to guarantee data protection in the future. Quantum key distribution (QKD) is an emerging technology that exploits fundamental physical properties to guarantee perfect security in theory. However, it is not easy to ensure in practice that the implementations of QKD systems are exactly in line with the theoretical specifications. Such theory-practice deviations can open loopholes and compromise security. Several such loopholes have been discovered and investigated in the last decade. These activities have motivated the proposal and implementation of appropriate countermeasures, thereby preventing future attacks and enhancing the practical security of QKD. This article introduces the so-called field of quantum hacking by summarising a variety of attacks and their prevention mechanisms.
Towards Laser-based Photonic Chip Integrated Quantum Random Number
Generators
M. Sabuncu
LASERS IN ENGINEERING
33
(1-3)
117-127
(2016)
Lasers are recently being used more frequently in random number generators. The world record in random number generation was broken by the help of lasers. The world's fastest quantum random number generators utilize lasers to tap into the random fluctuations in order to extract true random bit sequences. We investigate a system based on a Nd:YAG laser that potentially generates true random bits at Gbit/s rates. As photonic on chip technologies progress we foresee laser based high speed random number generators integrated on chips. Such a photonic chip will create a revolution in the technology of security devices that employ quantum cryptography techniques for secure communication.
Optical Polarization Mobius Strips and Points of Purely Transverse Spin
Density
Thomas Bauer,
Martin Neugebauer,
Gerd Leuchs,
Peter Banzer
Tightly focused light beams can exhibit complex and versatile structured electric field distributions. The local field may spin around any axis including a transverse axis perpendicular to the beams' propagation direction. At certain focal positions, the corresponding local polarization ellipse can even degenerate into a perfect circle, representing a point of circular polarization or C point. We consider the most fundamental case of a linearly polarized Gaussian beam, where-upon tight focusing-those C points created by transversely spinning fields can form the center of 3D optical polarization topologies when choosing the plane of observation appropriately. Because of the high symmetry of the focal field, these polarization topologies exhibit nontrivial structures similar to Mobius strips. We use a direct physical measure to find C points with an arbitrarily oriented spinning axis of the electric field and experimentally investigate the fully three-dimensional polarization topologies surrounding these C points by exploiting an amplitude and phase reconstruction technique.
Detecting the spatial quantum uncertainty of bosonic systems
Vanessa Chille,
Nicolas Treps,
Claude Fabre,
Gerd Leuchs,
Christoph Marquardt,
Andrea Aiello
We investigate the lateral transport of (longitudinal) spin angular momentum in a special polarization tailored light beam composed of a superposition of a y-polarized zero-order and an x-polarized first-order Hermite-Gaussian mode. This phenomenon is linked to the relative Gouy phase shift between the individual modes upon propagation, but can also be interpreted as a geometric phase effect. Experimentally, we demonstrate the implementation of such a mode and measure the spin density upon propagation. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America
Operational meaning of quantum measures of recovery
Tom Cooney,
Christoph Hirche,
Ciara Morgan,
Jonathan P. Olson,
Kaushik P. Seshadreesan,
John Watrous,
Mark M. Wilde
Several information measures have recently been defined that capture the notion of recoverability. In particular, the fidelity of recovery quantifies how well one can recover a system A of a tripartite quantum state, defined on systems ABC, by acting on system C alone. The relative entropy of recovery is an associated measure in which the fidelity is replaced by relative entropy. In this paper we provide concrete operational interpretations of the aforementioned recovery measures in terms of a computational decision problem and a hypothesis testing scenario. Specifically, we show that the fidelity of recovery is equal to the maximum probability with which a computationally unbounded quantum prover can convince a computationally bounded quantum verifier that a given quantum state is recoverable. The quantum interactive proof system giving this operational meaning requires four messages exchanged between the prover and verifier, but by forcing the prover to perform actions in superposition, we construct a different proof system that requires only two messages. The result is that the associated decision problem is in QIP(2) and another argument establishes it as hard for QSZK (both classes contain problems believed to be difficult to solve for a quantum computer). We finally prove that the regularized relative entropy of recovery is equal to the optimal type II error exponent when trying to distinguish many copies of a tripartite state from a recovered version of this state, such that the type I error is constrained to be no larger than a constant.
Ring-shaped spectra of parametric downconversion and entangled photons
that never meet
Kirill Yu. Spasibko,
Denis A. Kopylov,
Tatiana V. Murzina,
Gerd Leuchs,
Maria V. Chekhova
We report on the observation of an unusual type of parametric downconversion. In the regime where collinear degenerate emission is in the anomalous range of group-velocity dispersion, its spectrum is restricted in both angle and wavelength. Detuning from exact collinear-degenerate phase-matching leads to a ring shape of the wavelength-angular spectrum, suggesting a new type of spatiotemporal coherence and entanglement of photon pairs. By imposing a phase varying in a specific way in both angle and wavelength, one can obtain an interesting state of an entangled photon pair, with the two photons being never at the same point at the same time. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America
Efficient microwave to optical photon conversion: an electro-optical
realization
Alfredo Rueda,
Florian Sedlmeir,
Michele C. Collodo,
Ulrich Vogl,
Birgit Stiller,
Gerhard Schunk,
Dmitry V. Strekalov,
Christoph Marquardt,
Johannes M. Fink, et al.
Linking classical microwave electrical circuits to the optical telecommunication band is at the core of modern communication. Future quantum information networks will require coherent microwave-to-optical conversion to link electronic quantum processors and memories via low-loss optical telecommunication networks. Efficient conversion can be achieved with electro-optical modulators operating at the single microwave photon level. In the standard electro-optic modulation scheme, this is impossible because both up-and down-converted sidebands are necessarily present. Here, we demonstrate true single-sideband up-or down-conversion in a triply resonant whispering gallery mode resonator by explicitly addressing modes with asymmetric free spectral range. Compared to previous experiments, we show a 3 orders of magnitude improvement of the electro-optical conversion efficiency, reaching 0.1% photon number conversion for a 10 GHz microwave tone at 0.42 mW of optical pump power. The presented scheme is fully compatible with existing superconducting 3D circuit quantum electrodynamics technology and can be used for nonclassical state conversion and communication. Our conversion bandwidth is larger than 1 MHz and is not fundamentally limited. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America
The duality principle in the presence of postselection
Jonathan Leach,
Eliot Bolduc,
Filippo M. Miatto,
Kevin Piche,
Gerd Leuchs,
Robert W. Boyd
The duality principle, a cornerstone of quantum mechanics, limits the coexistence of wave and particle behaviours of quantum systems. This limitation takes a quantitative form when applied to the visibility V of interference fringes and predictability P of paths within a two-alternative system, which are bound by the inequality V-2 + P-2 <= 1. However, if such a system is coupled to its environment, it becomes possible to obtain conditional measures of visibility and predictability, i.e. measures that are conditioned on the state of the environment. We show that in this case, the predictability and visibility values can lead to an apparent violation of the duality principle. We experimentally realize this apparent violation in a controlled manner by enforcing a fair-sampling-like loophole via postselection. This work highlights some of the subtleties that one can encounter while interpreting familiar quantities such as which-alternative information and visibility. While we concentrated on an extreme example, it is of utmost importance to realise that such subtleties might also be present in cases where the results are not obviously violating an algebraic bound, making them harder (but not any less crucial) to detect.
Low-noise macroscopic twin beams
Timur Sh. Iskhakov,
Vladyslav C. Usenko,
Radim Filip,
Maria V. Chekhova,
Gerd Leuchs
Applying a multiphoton-subtraction technique to the two-color macroscopic squeezed vacuum state of light generated via high-gain parametric down-conversion we conditionally prepare a different state of light: bright multimode low-noise twin beams. A lower noise in the sum of the photon numbers opens a possibility to encode information into this variable while keeping the nonclassical character of the state. The obtained results demonstrate up to eightfold suppression of noise in each beam while preserving and even moderately improving the nonclassical photon-number correlations between the beams. The prepared low-noise macroscopic state, containing up to 2000 photons per mode, is not among the Gaussian states achievable through nonlinear optical processes. Apart from that, we suggest a method for measuring quantum efficiency, which is based on the Fano factor measurement. The proposed technique substantially improves the usefulness of twin beams for quantum communication and metrology.
Nonlinear interferometer for tailoring the frequency spectrum of bright squeezed vacuum
T. Sh. Iskhakov,
S. Lemieux,
A. Perez,
R. W. Boyd,
G. Leuchs,
M. V. Chekhova
JOURNAL OF MODERN OPTICS
63
(1 SI)
64-70
(2016)
| Journal
We propose a method for tailoring the frequency spectrum of bright squeezed vacuum by generating it in a nonlinear interferometer, consisting of two down-converting nonlinear crystals separated by a dispersive medium. Due to a faster dispersive spreading of higher order Schmidt modes, the spectral width of the radiation at the output is reduced as the length of the dispersive medium is increased. Preliminary results show 30% spectral narrowing.
Parsing polarization squeezing into Fock layers
Christian R. Mueller,
Lars S. Madsen,
Andrei B. Klimov,
Luis L. Sanchez-Soto,
Gerd Leuchs,
Christoph Marquardt,
Ulrik L. Andersen
We investigate polarization squeezing in squeezed coherent states with varying coherent amplitudes. In contrast to the traditional characterization based on the full Stokes parameters, we experimentally determine the Stokes vector of each excitation subspace separately. Only for states with a fixed photon number do the methods coincide; when the photon number is indefinite, we parse the state in Fock layers, finding that substantially higher squeezing can be observed in some of the single layers. By capitalizing on the properties of the Husimi Q function, we map this notion onto the Poincare space, providing a full account of the measured squeezing.
Tunable optical parametric generator based on the pump spatial walk-off
Andrea Cavanna,
Felix Just,
Polina R. Sharapova,
Michael Taheri,
Gerd Leuchs,
Maria V. Chekhova
We suggest a novel optical parametric generator (OPG) in which one of the downconverted beams is spontaneously generated along the Poynting vector of the pump beam. In this configuration, the generation takes advantage of the walk-off of the extraordinary pump, rather than being degraded by it. As a result, the generated signal and idler beams are bright due to a high conversion efficiency, spatially nearly single mode due to the preferred direction of the Poynting vector, tunable over a wide range of wavelengths and broadband. The two beams are also correlated in frequency and in the photon number per pulse. Furthermore, due to their thermal statistics, these beams can be used as a pump to efficiently generate other nonlinear processes. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America
Integrated plasmonic metasurfaces for spectropolarimetry
Wei Ting Chen,
Peter Torok,
Matthew R. Foreman,
Chun Yen Liao,
Wei-Yi Tsai,
Pei Ru Wu,
Din Ping Tsai
Plasmonic metasurfaces enable simultaneous control of the phase, momentum, amplitude and polarization of light and hence promise great utility in realization of compact photonic devices. In this paper, we demonstrate a novel chip-scale device suitable for simultaneous polarization and spectral measurements through use of six integrated plasmonic metasurfaces (IPMs), which diffract light with a given polarization state and spectral component into well-defined spatial domains. Full calibration and characterization of our device is presented, whereby good spectral resolution and polarization accuracy over a wavelength range of 500-700 nm is shown.
Functionality of our device in a Muller matrix modality is demonstrated through determination of the polarization properties of a commercially available variable waveplate. Our proposed IPM is robust, compact and can be fabricated with a single photolithography step, promising many applications in polarization imaging, quantum communication and quantitative sensing.
Optical trapping of nanoparticles by full solid-angle focusing
Vsevolod Salakhutdinov,
Markus Sondermann,
Luigi Carbone,
Elisabeth Giacobino,
Alberto Bramati,
Gerd Leuchs
Measuring the modulus of the spatial coherence function using an error
tolerant phase shifting algorithm and a continuous lateral shearing
interferometer
Irina Harder,
Martin Eisner,
Reinhard Voelkel,
Sergej Rothau,
Johannes Schwider,
Peter Schwider
The modulus of the degree of coherence can be derived from interference patterns either by using fringes and next neighbour operations or by using several interferograms produced through phase shifting. Here the latter approach will be followed by using a lateral shearing interferometer exploiting a diffractive grating wedge providing a linearly progressive shear. Phase shifting methods offer pixel-oriented evaluations but suffer from instabilities and drifts which is the reason for the derivation of an error immune algorithm. This algorithm will use five pi/2-steps of the reference phase also for the calculation of the modulus of the coherence function. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America
Experimental generation of amplitude squeezed vector beams
Vanessa Chille,
Stefan Berg-Johansen,
Marion Semmler,
Peter Banzer,
Andrea Aiello,
Gerd Leuchs,
Christoph Marquardt
We present an experimental method for the generation of amplitude squeezed high-order vector beams. The light is modified twice by a spatial light modulator such that the vector beam is created by means of a collinear interferometric technique. A major advantage of this approach is that it avoids systematic losses, which are detrimental as they cause decoherence in continuous-variable quantum systems. The utilisation of a spatial light modulator (SLM) gives the flexibility to switch between arbitrary mode orders. The conversion efficiency with our setup is only limited by the efficiency of the SLM. We show the experimental generation of Laguerre-Gauss (LG) modes with radial indices 0 or 1 and azimuthal indices up to 3 with complex polarization structures and a quantum noise reduction up to -0.9dB +/- 0.1dB. The corresponding polarization structures are studied in detail by measuring the spatial distribution of the Stokes parameters. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America
Progress towards practical device-independent quantum key distribution
with spontaneous parametric down-conversion sources, on-off
photodetectors, and entanglement swapping
Kaushik P. Seshadreesan,
Masahiro Takeoka,
Masahide Sasaki
Device-independent quantum key distribution (DIQKD) guarantees unconditional security of a secret key without making assumptions about the internal workings of the devices used for distribution. It does so using the loophole-free violation of a Bell's inequality. The primary challenge in realizing DIQKD in practice is the detection loophole problem that is inherent to photonic tests of Bell' s inequalities over lossy channels. We revisit the proposal of Curty and Moroder [Phys.Rev.A 84, 010304(R) (2011)] to use a linear optics-based entanglement-swapping relay (ESR) to counter this problem. We consider realistic models for the entanglement sources and photodetectors: more precisely, (a) polarization-entangled states based on pulsed spontaneous parametric down-conversion sources with infinitely higher-order multiphoton components and multimode spectral structure, and (b) on-off photodetectors with nonunit efficiencies and nonzero dark-count probabilities. We show that the ESR-based scheme is robust against the above imperfections and enables positive key rates at distances much larger than what is possible otherwise.
Quantum-polarization state tomography
Oemer Bayraktar,
Marcin Swillo,
Carlota Canalias,
Gunnar Bjork
We propose and demonstrate a method for quantum-state tomography of qudits encoded in the quantum polarization of N-photon states. This is achieved by distributing N photons nondeterministically into three paths and their subsequent projection, which for N = 1 is equivalent to measuring the Stokes (or Pauli) operators. The statistics of the recorded N-fold coincidences determines the unknown N-photon polarization state uniquely. The proposed, fixed setup manifestly rules out any systematic measurement errors due to moving components and allows for simple switching between tomography of different states, which makes it ideal for adaptive tomography schemes.
Tighter spots of light with superposed orbital-angular-momentum beams
Pawel Wozniak,
Peter Banzer,
Frederic Bouchard,
Ebrahim Karimi,
Gerd Leuchs,
Robert W. Boyd
The possibility of focusing light to an ever tighter spot has important implications for many applications and fields of optics research, such as nano-optics and plasmonics, laser-scanning microscopy, optical data storage, and many more. The size of lateral features of the field at the focus depends on several parameters, including the numerical aperture of the focusing system, but also the wavelength and polarization, phase and intensity distribution of the input beam. Here, we study the smallest achievable focal feature sizes of coherent superpositions of two copropagating beams carrying opposite orbital angular momentum. We investigate the feature sizes for this class of beams not only in the scalar limit, but also use a fully vectorial treatment to discuss the case of tight focusing. Both our numerical simulations and our experimental results confirm that lateral feature sizes considerably smaller than those of a tightly focused Gaussian light beam can be observed. These findings may pave the way for improving the resolution of imaging systems or may find applications in nano-optics experiments.
Single-mode squeezing in arbitrary spatial modes
Marion Semmler,
Stefan Berg-Johansen,
Vanessa Chille,
Christian Gabriel,
Peter Banzer,
Andrea Aiello,
Christoph Marquardt,
Gerd Leuchs
As the generation of squeezed states of light has become a standard technique in laboratories, attention is increasingly directed towards adapting the optical parameters of squeezed beams to the specific requirements of individual applications. It is known that imaging, metrology, and quantum information may benefit from using squeezed light with a tailored transverse spatial mode. However, experiments have so far been limited to generating only a few squeezed spatial modes within a given setup. Here, we present the generation of single-mode squeezing in Laguerre-Gauss and Bessel-Gauss modes, as well as an arbitrary intensity pattern, all from a single setup using a spatial light modulator (SLM). The degree of squeezing obtained is limited mainly by the initial squeezing and diffractive losses introduced by the SLM, while no excess noise from the SLM is detectable at the measured sideband. The experiment illustrates the single-mode concept in quantum optics and demonstrates the viability of current SLMs as flexible tools for the spatial reshaping of squeezed light. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America
Demonstration of local teleportation using classical entanglement
Diego Guzman-Silva,
Robert Bruening,
Felix Zimmermann,
Christian Vetter,
Markus Graefe,
Matthias Heinrich,
Stefan Nolte,
Michael Duparre,
Andrea Aiello, et al.
Teleportation describes the transmission of information without transport of neither matter nor energy. For many years, however, it has been implicitly assumed that this scheme is of inherently nonlocal nature, and therefore exclusive to quantum systems. Here, we experimentally demonstrate that the concept of teleportation can be readily generalized beyond the quantum realm. We present an optical implementation of the teleportation protocol solely based on classical entanglement between spatial and modal degrees of freedom, entirely independent of nonlocality. Our findings could enable novel methods for distributing information between different transmission channels and may provide the means to leverage the advantages of both quantum and classical systems to create a robust hybrid communication infrastructure.
Spatially-controlled laser-induced decoration of 2D and 3D substrates
with plasmonic nanoparticles
M. Y. Bashouti,
A. V. Povolotckaia,
A. V. Povolotskiy,
S. P. Tunik,
S. H. Christiansen,
G. Leuchs,
A. A. Manshina
We demonstrate a new approach which can be used for targeted imparting of plasmonic properties for a wide range of different substrates (transparent and non-transparent) which may have any 2D or 3D topological structure created independently in a prior step with some other technology.
30 years of squeezed light generation
Ulrik L. Andersen,
Tobias Gehring,
Christoph Marquardt,
Gerd Leuchs
Squeezed light generation has come of age. Significant advances on squeezed light generation have been made over the last 30 years-from the initial, conceptual experiment in 1985 till today's top-tuned, application-oriented setups. Here we review the main experimental platforms for generating quadrature squeezed light that have been investigated in the last 30 years.
Exotic looped trajectories of photons in three-slit interference
Omar S. Magana-Loaiza,
Israel De Leon,
Mohammad Mirhosseini,
Robert Fickler,
Akbar Safari,
Uwe Mick,
Brian McIntyre,
Peter Banzer,
Brandon Rodenburg, et al.
In a direct detection scheme, we observed 7.8 dB of twin-beam squeezing for multi-mode two-color squeezed vacuum generated via parametric downconversion. Applying postselection, we conditionally prepared a sub-Poissonian state of light containing 6.3 . 10(5) photons per pulse on the average with the Fano factor 0.63 +/- 0.01. The scheme can be considered as the heralded preparation of pulses with the mean energy varying between tens and hundreds of fJ and the uncertainty considerably below the shot-noise level. Such pulses can be used in metrology (for instance, for radiometer calibration), as well as for probing multi-mode non-linear optical effects. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America
Achieving the ultimate optical resolution
Martin Paur,
Bohumil Stoklasa,
Zdenek Hradil,
Luis L. Sanchez-Soto,
Jaroslav Rehacek
