Many protocols and experiments in quantum information science are described in terms of simple measurements on qubits. However, in an experimental implementation, the exact description of the measurement is usually more complicated. If there is a claim made from the results of an experiment by using the simplified measurement description, then do the claims still hold when the more realistic description is taken into account? We present a "squashing" model that decomposes the realistic measurement description into first a map, followed by a simplified measurement. The squashing model then provides a connection between a realistic measurement and an ideal measurement. If the squashing model exists for a given measurement, then all claims made about a measurement using the simplified description also apply to the complicated one. We give necessary and sufficient conditions to determine when this model exists. We show how it can be applied to quantum key distribution, entanglement verification, and other quantum communication protocols. We also consider several examples of detectors commonly used in quantum communication to determine if they have squashing models.

Many protocols and experiments in quantum information science are described in terms of simple measurements on qubits. However, in an experimental implementation, the exact description of the measurement is usually more complicated. If there is a claim made from the results of an experiment by using the simplified measurement description, then do the claims still hold when the more realistic description is taken into account? We present a "squashing" model that decomposes the realistic measurement description into first a map, followed by a simplified measurement. The squashing model then provides a connection between a realistic measurement and an ideal measurement. If the squashing model exists for a given measurement, then all claims made about a measurement using the simplified description also apply to the complicated one. We give necessary and sufficient conditions to determine when this model exists. We show how it can be applied to quantum key distribution, entanglement verification, and other quantum communication protocols. We also consider several examples of detectors commonly used in quantum communication to determine if they have squashing models.

In this thesis, we develop a number of operational tests and tools for benchmarking the quantum nature of optical quantum communication devices. Using the laws of quantum physics, ideal quantum devices can fundamentally outperform their classical counterparts, or even achieve objectives which are classically impossible. Actual devices will not be ideal, but they may still be capable of facilitating quantum communication. Benchmarking tests, based on the presence of entanglement, can be used to verify whether or not imperfect quantum devices offer any advantage over their classical analogs. The general goal in this thesis is to provide strong benchmarking tools which simultaneously require minimal experimental resources but also offer a wide range of applicability. Another major component is the extension of existing qualitative benchmarks (`Is it quantum or classical?') to more quantitative forms (`How quantum is it?'). We provide a number of benchmarking results applicable to two main situations, namely discrete remote state preparation protocols and continuous-variable quantum device testing. The theoretical tools derived throughout this thesis are also applied to the tasks of certifying a remote state preparation experiment and a continuous-variable quantum memory.

Quantum communication between two remote locations often involves remote parties sharing an entangled quantum state. At present, entanglement distribution is usually performed using photons transmitted through optical fibers. However, the absorption of light in the fiber limits the communication distances to less than 200 km, even for optimal photon telecom wavelengths. To increase this distance, the quantum repeater idea was proposed. In the quantum repeater architecture, one divides communication distance into segments of the order of the attenuation length of the photons and places quantum memory nodes at the intermediate locations. Since the photon loss between intermediate locations is low, it is possible then to establish entanglement between intermediate quantum memory nodes. Once entanglement between adjacent nodes is established, one can extend it over larger distances using entanglement swapping. The long coherence time of a quantum memory is a crucial requirement for the quantum repeater protocol. It is obvious that the coherence time of a quantum memory should be much longer that the time it takes for light to travel between remote locations. For a communication distance l = 1000 km, the corresponding time is t = l/c = 3.3 ms. One can show that for a simple repeater protocol and realistic success probabilities of entanglement generation, the required coherence time should be on the order of many seconds, while for the more complicated protocols that involve multiplexing and several quantum memory cells per intermediate node, the required coherence time is on the order of milliseconds. In this thesis, I describe a quantum memory based on an ensemble of rubidium atoms confined in a one-dimensional optical lattice. The use of the magnetically- insensitive clock transition and suppression of atomic motion allows us to increase coherence time of the quantum memory by two-orders of magnitude compared to previous work. I also propose a method for determining the Zeeman content of atomic samples. In addition, I demonstrate the observation of quantum evolution under continuous measurement. The long quantum memory lifetime demonstrated in this work opens the way for scalable processing of quantum information and long distance quantum communication.

This thesis is about the experimental implementation of a high-speed and robust quantum memory for light. A novel far off-resonant Raman approach to ensemble-based quantum memories in a room-temperature environment is developed and demonstrated. Storage and retrieval of sub-nanosecond, weak coherent light pulses at the single-photon-level with total efficiencies exceeding 30% and storage times of up to 4 μs are achieved. The coherence of the memory is shown by directly interfering a copy of the incident signal with the retrieved signal from the memory. The unconditional noise floor of the memory is found to be low enough to operate the memory in the quantum regime at room temperature. Multiple readout of a single stored excitation is demonstrated, suggesting that 100% readout is possible in different temporal modes. Furthermore, first results regarding the storage and retrieval of polarisation encoded qubits are obtained. This and the memory’s ability to operate in the quantum regime at room temperature with a low unconditional noise floor illustrate its potential usefulness for real world applications.

In this thesis, we develop a number of operational tests and tools for benchmarking the quantum nature of optical quantum communication devices. Using the laws of quantum physics, ideal quantum devices can fundamentally outperform their classical counterparts, or even achieve objectives which are classically impossible. Actual devices will not be ideal, but they may still be capable of facilitating quantum communication. Benchmarking tests, based on the presence of entanglement, can be used to verify whether or not imperfect quantum devices offer any advantage over their classical analogs. The general goal in this thesis is to provide strong benchmarking tools which simultaneously require minimal experimental resources but also offer a wide range of applicability. Another major component is the extension of existing qualitative benchmarks (`Is it quantum or classical?') to more quantitative forms (`How quantum is it?'). We provide a number of benchmarking results applicable to two main situations, namely discrete remote state preparation protocols and continuous-variable quantum device testing. The theoretical tools derived throughout this thesis are also applied to the tasks of certifying a remote state preparation experiment and a continuous-variable quantum memory.

In this thesis I present the investigations of matter-light entanglement in cold atomic samples. Particularly, entanglement of mixed species ensembles and bichromatic light fields is proposed and demonstrated experimentally. This approach avoids the use of two interferometrically separate paths for qubits entanglement distribution. I also present the first implementation of multiplexed quantum memory, and experimentally demonstrate entanglement involving arbitrary pairs of elements within this memory array. Finally, quantum interference of electromagnetic fields emitted by remote quantum memory elements separated by 5.5 m is realized.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2007. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 251-264). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

In the twentieth century, the founding fathers of quantum mechanics explored the implications of their theory by designing gedanken experiments. In recent years, continuous improvement of the experimental manipulation of individual quantum systems has opened the way to exciting research, both on blackboards and in laboratories, and even towards field experiments. The manipulation of individual quantum systems is the basis for quantum information processing: when an information content is associated with transformations and measurements of quantum systems, it offers a new paradigm, full of potentialities, to information theory. This leads to quantum random number generation, quantum computing, quantum communication, including quantum teleportation and quantum cryptography, etc. One of the promises of quantum information is the realization of a quantum internet: quantum communication links would allow to share quantum states between the nodes (quantum computers) of the network.<p><p>Our work lies in the context of experimental quantum optics in optical fibers at telecommunication wavelengths, in view of quantum communication applications. More particularly, we study photon pairs entangled in their energy-time degree of freedom. The traditional approach to manipulate energy-time entangled photons is based on the notion of time bin: quantum information is encoded in the relative phase between distinct spatio-temporal paths, which interfere via Mach-Zehnder interferometers. The aim of our work is to demonstrate an alternative approach to manipulate energy-time entangled photons in optical fibers at telecommunication wavelengths. We investigate and implement an original method for their manipulation by building on proven techniques for their production, transmission and detection (namely nonlinear waveguides, optical fibers and single-photon detectors, respectively). The photon pairs produced by a parametric down-conversion source are sent through independent electro-optic phase modulators, which act as high-dimensional frequency beam splitters, transforming the photonic states in the frequency domain. We then use frequency filters to discriminate the photons' frequencies. Such experimental methods, whose classical origin can be traced back to coherent communication, have been previously used with attenuated coherent states as approximations of single photons.<p><p>In the present work, we aim to show that frequency-bin entanglement provides an interesting alternative platform for quantum communication. Our main experimental results towards this goal are the obtaining of high-visibility two-photon interference patterns allowing Bell inequality violations. Our method provides decisive advantages: high dimensionality, use of standard optical and optoelectronic components, inherent stability and robustness, no need for active stabilization in laboratory conditions, visibilities comparable to the highest obtained using other degrees of freedom, etc. It has however a few drawbacks, mainly high losses and the somewhat complexity of the radio-frequency system which is not standard in quantum optics. Exploiting the high dimensionality is also challenging. Overall, our method allows the implementation of traditional and original quantum optics experiments with interesting perspectives for quantum information and communication. / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

In this thesis we study the information transmission through Gaussian quantum channels. Gaussian quantum channels model physical communication links, such as free space communication or optical fibers and therefore, may be considered as the most relevant quantum channels. One of the central characteristics of any communication channel is its capacity. In this work we are interested in the classical capacity, which is the maximal number of bits that can be reliably transmitted per channel use. An important lower bound on the classical capacity is given by the Gaussian capacity, which is the maximal transmission rate with the restriction that only Gaussian encodings are allowed: input messages are encoded in so-called Gaussian states for which the mean field amplitudes are Gaussian distributed.<p><p>We focus in this work mainly on the Gaussian capacity for the following reasons. First, Gaussian encodings are easily accessible experimentally. Second, the difficulty of studying the classical capacity, which arises due to an optimization problem in an infinite dimensional Hilbert space, is greatly reduced when considering only Gaussian input encodings. Third, the Gaussian capacity is conjectured to coincide with the classical capacity, even though this longstanding conjecture is unsolved until today.<p><p>We start with the investigation of the capacities of the single-mode Gaussian channel. We show that the most general case can be reduced to a simple, fiducial Gaussian channel which depends only on three parameters: its transmissivity (or gain), the added noise variance and the squeezing of the noise. Above a certain input energy threshold, the optimal input variances are given by a quantum water-filling solution, which implies that the optimal modulated output state is a thermal state. This is a quantum extension (or generalization) of the well-known classical water-filling solution for parallel Gaussian channels. Below the energy threshold the solution is given by a transcendental equation and only the less noisy quadrature is modulated. We characterize in detail the dependence of the Gaussian capacity on its channel parameters. In particular, we show that the Gaussian capacity is a non-monotonous function of the noise squeezing and analytically specify the regions where it exhibits one maximum, a maximum and a minimum, a saddle point or no extrema. <p><p>Then, we investigate the case of n-mode channels with noise correlations (i.e. memory), where we focus in particular on the classical additive noise channel. We consider memory models for which the noise correlations can be unraveled by a passive symplectic transformation. Therefore, we can simplify the problem to the study of the Gaussian capacity in an uncorrelated basis, which corresponds to the Gaussian capacity of n single-mode channels with a common input energy constraint. Above an input energy threshold the solutions is given by a global quantum water-filling solution, which implies that all modulated single-mode output states are thermal states with the same temperature. Below the threshold the channels are divided into three sets: i) those that are excluded from information transmission, ii) those for which only the less noisy quadrature is modulated, and iii) those for which the quantum water-filling solution is satisfied. As an example we consider a Gauss-Markov correlated noise, which in the uncorrelated basis corresponds to a collection of single-mode classical additive noise channels. When rotating the collection of optimal single-mode input states back to the original, correlated basis the optimal multi-mode input state becomes a highly entangled state. We then compare the performance of the optimal input state with a simple coherent state encoding and conclude that one gains up to 10% by using the optimal encoding.<p><p>Since the preparation of the optimal input state may be very challenging we consider sub-optimal Gaussian-matrix product states (GMPS) as input states as well. GMPS have a known experimental setup and, though being heavily entangled, can be generated sequentially. We demonstrate that for the Markovian correlated noise as well as for a non-Markovian noise model in a wide range of channel parameters, a nearest-neighbor correlated GMPS achieves more than 99.9% of the Gaussian capacity. At last, we introduce a new noise model for which the GMPS is the exact optimal input state. Since GMPS are known to be ground states of quadratic Hamiltonians this suggests a starting point to develop links between optimization problems of quantum communication and many body physics. / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished