Generation of continuous variable quantum entanglement using a fiber optical parametric amplifier

Time-domain measurement of twin beams produced by fiber amplifiers with an ultra-fast pulse train as a pump

A pulsed pumped four-wave mixing process via χ⁽³⁾ nonlinearity in an optical fiber can generate optical pulses with continuous variable quantum correlation. However, pairwise correlation of the generated pulses in this system has not been demonstrated. Here we report a time-domain measurement of an intensity difference squeezed state generated in a fiber. With a fast response differential detection system, we show the generated twin-beam pulses are pairwisely correlated, and -3.8-dB (-8.1 dB after detection losses correction) intensity difference squeezing degree is measured in the time domain. Our result is beneficial for generating multi-mode entangled state by time-division multiplexing in fiber system.

Phase Sensitivity Improvement in Correlation-Enhanced Nonlinear Interferometers

Interferometers are widely used as sensors in precision measurement. Compared with a conventional Mach–Zehnder interferometer, the sensitivity of a correlation-enhanced nonlinear interferometer can break the standard quantum limit. Phase sensitivity plays a significant role in the enhanced performance. In this paper, we review improvement in phase estimation technologies in correlation-enhanced nonlinear interferometers, including SU(1,1) interferometer and SU(1,1)-SU(2) hybrid interferometer, and so on, and the applications in quantum metrology and quantum sensing networks.

Phase locking of squeezed vacuum generated by a single-pass optical parametric amplifier

In high-precision optical measurements, squeezed vacuum states are a promising resource for reducing the shot noise. To utilize a squeezed vacuum, it is important to lock the phase of the local oscillator (LO) to the squeezed light. The coherent control sideband (CCSB) scheme has been established for the precise phase locking, while the previous CCSB scheme was designed for the squeezed vacuum generated with an optical parametric oscillator (OPO). Thus the previous CCSB scheme is not applicable to squeezing by a single-pass optical parametric amplifier (OPA), which is attractive for generating broadband squeezed vacuum states. In this study, we propose a variant of CCSB scheme, which is applicable to the squeezing by single-pass OPA. In this scheme, we inject pump light and frequency-shifted signal light into an OPA crystal in the same way as the previous CCSB scheme. The parametric process in the OPA crystal generates a squeezed vacuum, amplifies the signal light, generates an idler light, and causes the pump depletion reflecting the interference of the amplified signal light and the idler light. Through the lock-in detection of the pump depletion, we can phase-lock the injected signal light to the pump light. Then, after the heterodyne detection of the signal and the idler light, we get the error signal of LO and realize the precise phase locking of LO to the squeezed quadrature. We show the feasibility of the proposed scheme by deriving the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the modulated pump signal. We experimentally demonstrate the proposed scheme on pulsed squeezing by a single-pass OPA.

Single-shot analysis of amplified correlated light

Correlated beams are important in classical and quantum communication as well as other technologies. However, classical amplifiers, which are essential for long transmission of correlated beams, degrade the correlation due to noise and due to the amplifier spectral response. We measure, with a novel high resolution single-shot measurement system, the impact of amplifiers on correlated beams. We develop a new method for analyzing the correlation between the signal and idler beams by choosing peaks in the pulses according to their power levels. We demonstrate how to tailor the correlation after the amplifier to obtain either higher or lower correlation. Our research may influence the future use of amplifiers in non-classical communication systems as well as the transmission of quantum information over long distances.

Pulsed entanglement measured by parametric amplifier assisted homodyne detection

Balanced homodyne detection relies on a beam splitter to superpose the weak signal input and strong local oscillator. However, recent investigation shows that a high gain phase sensitive amplifier (PSA) can be viewed as homodyne detector, in which the strong pump of PSA serves as the local oscillator [1]. Here, we analyze a new method of measuring the continuous variable entanglement by assisting a balanced homodyne detector with the PSA and implement it experimentally. Before measuring quadrature amplitude with the balanced homodyne detectors, two entangled fields generated from a pulse pumped fiber optical parametric amplifier are simultaneously coupled into the PSA. We find that the normalized noise for both the difference and sum of the quadrature amplitudes of the two entangled fields fall below the shot noise limit by about 4.6 dB, which is the record degree of entanglement measured in optical fiber systems. The experimental results illustrate that the advantages of the new measurement method include but not limit to tolerance to detection loss and characterizing entanglement with only one homodyne detector. The influence of mode-mismatching due to multi-mode property of entanglement on the measured noise reduction can also be greatly mitigated, indicating the new method is advantageous over the traditional measurement in multi-mode case.

Optimum quantum resource distribution for phase measurement and quantum information tapping in a dual-beam SU(1,1) interferometer

Quantum entanglement is a resource in quantum metrology that can be distributed to two conjugate physical quantities for the enhancement of their measurement sensitivity. This is demonstrated in the joint measurement of phase and amplitude modulation signals in quantum dense metrology schemes. We can also devote all the quantum resource to phase measurement only, leading to the optimum sensitivity enhancement. In this paper, we experimentally implement a dual-beam sensing scheme in an SU(1,1) interferometer for the optimum quantum enhancement of phase measurement sensitivity. We demonstrate a 3.9-dB improvement in signal-to-noise ratio over the optimum classical method, and this is 3-dB better than the traditional single-beam scheme. Furthermore, such as cheme also realizes a quantum optical tap of quantum entangled fields and has the full advantages of an SU(1,1) interferometer, such as detection loss tolerance, making it more suitable for practical applications in quantum metrology and quantum information.

Long-distance distribution of the telecom band intensity difference squeezing generated in a fiber optical parametric amplifier

Using an all-fiber source of pulsed twin beams, with the record intensity difference squeezing of 6.1±0.15  dB for fiber optical parametric amplifiers, we experimentally distribute the pulsed continuous variable (CV) quantum state over a long distance. After separating the signal and idler twin beams by 26 km single-mode fibers, the measured intensity difference noise is still below the shot noise limit by 2 dB. The result shows that the distribution process is only affected by the vacuum noise originated from the fiber transmission loss. The extra noise contributed by the acoustic wave Brillouin scattering and Raman scattering in 26 km transmission fibers has not been observed. The investigation is beneficial for studying long-distance CV quantum communication.

Loss-tolerant quantum dense metrology with SU(1,1) interferometer

Heisenberg uncertainty relation in quantum mechanics sets the limit on the measurement precision of non-commuting observables in one system, which prevents us from measuring them accurately at the same time. However, quantum entanglement between two systems allows us to infer through Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen correlations two conjugate observables with precision better than what is allowed by Heisenberg uncertainty relation. With the help of the newly developed SU(1,) interferometer, we implement a scheme to jointly measure information encoded in multiple non-commuting observables of an optical field with a signal-to-noise ratio improvement of about 20% over the classical limit on all measured quantities simultaneously. This scheme can be generalized to the joint measurement of information in arbitrary number of non-commuting observables.

Ultra-wideband and high-gain parametric amplification in telecom wavelengths with an optimally mode-matched PPLN waveguide

We report a wideband optical parametric amplification (OPA) over 14 THz covering telecom S, C, and L bands with observed maximum parametric gain of 38.3 dB. The OPA is realized through cascaded second-harmonic generation and difference-frequency generation (cSHG-DFG) in a 2 cm periodically poled LiNbO₃ (PPLN) waveguide. With tailored cross section geometry, the waveguide is optimally mode matched for efficient cascaded nonlinear wave mixing. We also identify and study the effect of competing nonlinear processes in this cSHG-DFG configuration.

Quantum information tapping using a fiber optical parametric amplifier with noise figure improved by correlated inputs

One of the important functions in a communication network is the distribution of information. It is not a problem to accomplish this in a classical system since classical information can be copied at will. However, challenges arise in quantum system because extra quantum noise is often added when the information content of a quantum state is distributed to various users. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a quantum information tap by using a fiber optical parametric amplifier (FOPA) with correlated inputs, whose noise is reduced by the destructive quantum interference through quantum entanglement between the signal and the idler input fields. By measuring the noise figure of the FOPA and comparing with a regular FOPA, we observe an improvement of 0.7 ± 0.1 dB and 0.84 ± 0.09 dB from the signal and idler outputs, respectively. When the low noise FOPA functions as an information splitter, the device has a total information transfer coefficient of Ts+Ti = 1.5 ± 0.2, which is greater than the classical limit of 1. Moreover, this fiber based device works at the 1550 nm telecom band, so it is compatible with the current fiber-optical network for quantum information distribution.