Building complex quantum systems has the potential to reveal phenomena that cannot be studied using classical simulation. Photonics has proven to be an effective test-bed for the investigation of such quantum-enhanced technologies, however, the proliferation of bulk optical components is unlikely to be a scalable route towards building more complex devices. Instead, the miniaturisation, inherent phase stability and trivial alignment afforded by integrated photonic systems has been shown to be a promising alternative. In the first half of this thesis, we describe experiments exploiting the quantum interference of three single photons on a reconfigurable integrated photonic chip. We develop a low-loss source of single photons and introduce a low-loss silica-on-silicon waveguide architecture which enables us to show the first genuine quantum interference of three single photons on an integrated platform. A loss-tolerant, element-wise characterisation scheme is developed along with a statistical test to verify that this multi-photon circuit behaves as expected. We then make use of this three-photon interference to detail the first proof-of-principle demonstration of a new intermediate model of quantum computation called boson sampling. Finally, we perform an on-chip demonstration of the quantum teleportation protocol where all key parts --- entanglement preparation, Bell-state analysis and quantum state tomography --- are performed on a reconfigurable photonic chip. The element-wise characterisation scheme developed earlier is shown to be critical to mitigate fabricated component errors. We develop a theoretical model to account for all sources of possible error in the circuit and find good agreement with the measured teleported state fidelities, which exceed the average teleportation fidelity possible with a classical device. We identify the elements of this error budget relevant to scaling and propose improvements to chip characterisation and fabrication in order to achieve high fidelity operation. In the second half, we discuss the use of high efficiency superconducting transition edge sensors in enabling quantum experiments using more photons. We detail the installation and characterisation of these detectors in a new lab in Oxford. We achieve good photon number-resolution and high-efficiency operation. Work to integrate these detectors on the silica-on-silicon waveguide architecture is discussed and we detail the optical and thermal device modelling performed to optimise the on-chip detection efficiency. New, on-chip detectors, fabricated according to this design are shown to operate as expected and achieve high-efficiency and good energy resolution.

<p>Optical control of interactions in ultracold gases opens new fields of research by creating ``designer" interactions with high spatial and temporal resolution. However, previous optical methods using single optical fields generally suffer from atom loss due to spontaneous scattering. This thesis reports new optical methods, employing two optical fields to control interactions in ultracold gases, while suppressing spontaneous scattering by quantum interference. In this dissertation, I will discuss the experimental demonstration of two optical field methods to control narrow and broad magnetic Feshbach resonances in an ultracold gas of $^6$Li atoms. The narrow Feshbach resonance is shifted by $30$ times its width and atom loss suppressed by destructive quantum interference. Near the broad Feshbach resonance, the spontaneous lifetime of the atoms is increased from $0.5$ ms for single field methods to $400$ ms using our two optical field method. Furthermore, I report on a new theoretical model, the continuum-dressed state model, that calculates the optically induced scattering phase shift for both the broad and narrow Feshbach resonances by treating them in a unified manner. The continuum-dressed state model fits the experimental data both in shape and magnitude using only one free parameter. Using the continuum-dressed state model, I illustrate the advantages of our two optical field method over single-field optical methods.</p> / Dissertation

Semiconductors provide an interesting platform for studying light-matter interactions due to their unique electrically conductive behavior which can be deliberately altered in useful ways with the controlled introduction of confinement and doping, which changes the electronic band structure. This area of research has led to many important fundamental scientific discoveries that have in turn spawned a plethora of applications in areas such as photonics, microscopy, single-photon sources, and metamaterials. Silicon is the prevalent semiconductor platform for microelectronics because of its cost and electrical properties, while III-V materials are optimal for optoelectronics because of the ability to engineer a direct bandgap and create versatile heterojunctions by growing binary, ternary, or quaternary compounds.

We investigate two medium-facilitated interactions between properties of light upon propagation through optical fiber. The first is interaction between the spin and intrinsic orbital angular momentum in a linear optical medium. This interaction gives rise to fine structure in the longitudinal momenta of fiber modes and manifests in rotational beating effects. We probe those beating effects experimentally in cutback experiments, where small segments are cut from the output of a fiber to probe the evolution of both output polarization and spatial orientation, and find agreement between theoretical predictions and measured behavior. The second is nonlinear optical interaction due to cross- and self-phase modulation between the complex-valued temporal amplitude profile of pump pulses and the amplitude profiles of generated signal and idler pulses in optical fiber photon-pair sources utilizing the four-wave mixing process named modulation instability. We develop a model including the effects of these nonlinear phase modulations (NPM) describing the time-domain wave function of the output biphoton in the low-gain regime. Assuming Gaussian temporal amplitude profiles for the pump pulse, we numerically simulate the structure of the biphoton wave function, in symmetric and asymmetric group velocity matching configurations. Comparing the overlap of the joint temporal amplitudes with and without NPM indicates how good of an approximation neglecting NPM is, and we investigate the effects of NPM on the Schmidt modes. We find that effects of NPM are small on temporally separable sources utilizing symmetric group velocity matching, but appreciably change the state of temporally entangled sources with the same group velocity matching scheme. For sources designed to produce entangled biphotons, our simulations suggest that NPM increases the Schmidt number, which may increase entanglement resource availability with utilization of a phase-sensitive detection scheme. We find that NPM effects on temporally separable sources designed with asymmetric group velocity matching produce non-negligible changes in the state structure. The purity is unaffected at perfect asymmetric group velocity matching, but if the pump is detuned from the correct wavelength, the purity degrades. The largest changes to the state due to NPM occur in long fibers with long pulse durations and low repetition rates.

A mistura de quatro ondas (4WM) é um processo não linear que permite a amplificação paramétrica de campos óticos. A partir de um campo de bombeio, podemos amplificar um campo de prova e gerar um campo conjugado neste processo com um elevado ganho. Recentemente, vários experimentos de 4WM foram realizados em células de rubídio revelando compressão de ruído e emaranhamento da luz [1, 2, 3], levando a aplicações interessantes na área de informação quântica. Estudamos a mistura de quatro ondas numa célula de vapor de rubídio dentro de uma cavidade ótica, servindo como um oscilador paramétrico ótico (OPO). Resolvemos o modelo de campo médio e estudamos as flutuações quânticas dos campos na operação acima do limiar de oscilação para os casos de ressonância dupla (prova e conjugado) e tripla. Mostramos o emaranhamento de três campos (bombeio, prova e conjugado), além de compressão de ruído para o campo de bombeio e para os campos convertidos. Nosso modelo permite estudar o caso de uma cavidade aberta, explorando a região próxima ao limiar, diferente da situação experimental observada para sistemas com não-linearidades (2), que geralmente possuem ganhos baixos e necessitam de cavidades fechadas. Palavras chave: ótica quântica, mistura de quatro ondas, Oscilador paramétrico ótico, emaranhamento. [1] Squeezed light and entangled images from four-wave-mixing in hot rubidium vapor, vol. 7092, 2008. [2] R. C. Pooser, A. M. Marino, V. Boyer, K. M. Jones, and P. D. Lett, Low-noise amplifi- cation of a continuous-variable quantum state, Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 103, p. 010501, Jun 2009. [3] V. Boyer, A. M. Marino, R. C. Pooser, and P. D. Lett, Entangled images from four-wave mixing, Science, vol. 321, no. 5888, pp. 544547, 2008. / The four waves (4WM) is a non-linear process that allows a parametric amplification of optical fields. From a pump field, we can amplify a test field and generate a conjugate field in this process with a high gain. Recently, several experiments of 4WM were carried out on rubidium cells revealing noise squeezing and entanglement [1, 2, 3], leading to some interesting aplications in the area of quantum information. We Studied the four wave mix in a rubidium vapor cell inside an optical cavity, serving as an optical parametric oscillator (OPO). We solved the mean field model and studied the quantum fluctuations of the fields in the operation above the oscillation threshold for the cases of double resonance (pump and conjugate) and triple (pump, probe and conjugate). We show the entanglement of three fields (pump, probe and conjugate), as well as squeezing for the pump field and the converted fields. The model allows to study the case of an open cavity, exploring the region around the threshold, different from the experimental situation observed for non-linear systems (2), which in general producess low gains and needs closed cavities. Key words: quantum optics, four wave mixing, optical parametric oscilator, entanglement. [1] Squeezed light and entangled images from four-wave-mixing in hot rubidium vapor, vol. 7092, 2008. [2] R. C. Pooser, A. M. Marino, V. Boyer, K. M. Jones, and P. D. Lett, Low-noise amplifi- cation of a continuous-variable quantum state, Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 103, p. 010501, Jun 2009. [3] V. Boyer, A. M. Marino, R. C. Pooser, and P. D. Lett, Entangled images from four-wave mixing, Science, vol. 321, no. 5888, pp. 544547, 2008.

Mistura de quatro ondas não degenerada em fibras ópticas na configuração de cavidade foi inicialmente proposto como forma de geração de estados comprimidos da luz. Neste trabalho desenvolvemos um tratamento pura- mente quântico da análise da interação não linear entre a luz e a matéria. Com a equação de Fokker-Planck na representação de Wigner obtemos di- retamente das equações o limiar de oscilação dos feixes gêmeos e o efeito de biestabilidade. Das equações de dinâmica linearizadas para as flutuações de quadraturas confirmamos a geração de estados comprimidos provenientes do processo de 4WM, tanto abaixo quanto acima do limiar de oscilação. Não é possível iniciar a geração dos feixes gêmeos sem antes alcançar o limiar de oscilação do espalhamento Brillouin estimulado. Portanto, técnicas para aumentar este limiar devem ser empregadas em qualquer medida de ruído ao nível de shot-noise com geração de campos. Nós também testamos as limitações técnicas intrínsecas do laser de diodo, como o ruído de amplitude e fase, assim como sua estabilidade em um experimento interferômetrico. Abaixo do limiar, a cavidade atua no sentido de reduzir o ruído de fase do laser em um intervalo de frequência que vai de 10MHz a 80MHz. / Nondegenarate four-wave mixing in an optical-fiber cavity geometry, was initially proposed as a mean to generate squeezed states of light. We developed in this work a purely quantum analyzis of the nonlinear interaction between light and medium. With Fokker-Planck equation in the Wigner representation, we obtained directly from the equations, the twin beams oscillation threshold and bistability. From the linearized dynamic equations for the quadratures fluctuations, we confirmed the generation of squeezed states proceeding from 4WM process, not only below but above the threshold oscillation. It is not possible to initiate the twin beams generation without first reaching the stimulated Brillouin scattering threshold. Therefore, techniques to increase this threshold, must be used for any noise measure to the shot-noise level with fields generation. We also have tested the technical limitations of laser diode, as amplitude and phase noise, as well as the stability in an interferometric experiment. Below threshold, the cavity acts in the sense of reducing the intrinsic laser phase noise in a frequency range that goes from 10MHz to 80MHz.

The Optical Parametric Oscillator (OPO) has been one of the most versatile source of non-classical states of light. Usual configurations of such devices are a macroscopic second order nonlinear crystals inside an optical cavity. Recently the use of silicon photonics techniques allowed the implementation of high quality factor microcavities and OPOs which include several technological advantages over usual configuration as a small size, bigger bandwidth, CMOS compatibility, facility to engineer the dispersion properties and compatibility with commercial optical fiber communications. Nevertheless the nonlinearity present within these systems is a third order nonlinearity for which theoretical calculations lack in the literature. Here we describe theoretically the quantum properties of the light generated in an OPO with a third order nonlinearity. We showed that the effects of phase modulation (which are not present in the second order nonlinearity) and dispersion are determinant in the way that oscillation and entanglement is produced in the system. Despite of these effects, bipartite and tripartite entanglement is predicted with the use of the Schmidt modes formalism. We also describe the system when there are more modes exited within the cavity and a frequency comb is formed. In such a situation, using again the Schmidt modes formalism, multipartite entanglement was predicted as well. / O oscilador paramétrico ótico (OPO) tem sido uma fonte muito versátil de estados não clássicos da luz. A configuração usual destes OPOs consiste em um cristal macroscópico com não linearidade de segunda ordem no interior de uma cavidade ótica. Recentemente, devido ao desenvolvimento da fotonica de silício, foi possível a implementação de micro- cavidades óticas e OPOs que possuem varias vantagens sobre OPOs usuais. Não entanto a não linearidade destes sistemas é de terceira ordem. Neste trabalho, descrevemos teoricamente as propriedades quânticas da luz gerada num OPO com não linearidade de terceira ordem. Mostra-se que os efeitos de modulação de fase (não presentes na não linearidade de segunda ordem) e a dispersão são determinantes para a geração e o emaranhamento produzido no sistema. Emaranhamento bi e tri partito foi predito teoricamente usando o formalismo de modos de Schmidt. Também foi feita uma descrição quando mais modos da cavidade são excitados gerando um pente de frequência. Nesta situação. e utilizando novamente o formalismo de modos de Schmidt, foi predito emaranhamento multimodo destes sistemas.

Construímos uma armadilha magneto-ótica (MOT) para átomos de rubídio visando o seu aprisionamento em um potencial periódico formado por feixes de luz (rede ótica) e a realização de experimentos em física atômica, com possíveis aplicações no campo da informação quântica. A necessidade de uma MOT vem dos problemas que o movimento térmico dos átomos impõem à realização de medidas precisas. Neste arranjo, combina-se a pressão de radiação de feixes laser com o efeito do campo magnético para resfriar e aprisionar átomos neutros. Durante a execução deste projeto, construímos os lasers e o sistema eletrônico de controle de frequência, intensidade e temperatura; montamos o sistema de bombeamento de vácuo e a câmara de vácuo onde é feito o aprisionamento; fizemos os arranjos para caracterizar a MOT, usando programas de computador para capturar e analisar as medidas. Caracterizamos a nuvem de átomos frios obtida, estimamos o número de átomos aprisionados, o tempo de carregamento e a temperatura da nuvem. / We built a magneto-optical trap (MOT) for rubidium as a first step for the trapping of a cloud of cold atoms in a periodic potential formed by light beams. This system will be used for experiments in atom physics, with possible applications in quantum information. A MOT is necessary to avoid the problems imposed by the thermal agitation of the atoms to the measurement of their properties. In this configuration, we combine the radiative pressure of laser beam with the effect of a magnetic field to cool and trap neutral atoms. During the execution of this project, we built the lasers and the electronic system for their control of frequency, intensity and temperature. We also built the system for vacuum pumping and the vacuum chamber for the trapping, as well as the setup for the MOT characterization, with computer programs for capture and analyze the measurements. We characterize the cold atoms cloud, measuring the number of trapped atoms, their loading time in the MOT and their temperature.

Les phénomènes quantiques ouvrent des possibilités nouvelles et révolutionnaires dans les domaines du calcul et de la cryptographie. Il est attendue, que des problèmes impossibles à résoudre avec des moyens classiques, peuvent être résolus par des ordinateurs quantiques, et la communication devient absolument sécurisée si elle est encodée dans un état de système quantique – un bit quantique. Un effort important a récemment été consacré à la recherche sur le transfert déterministe d’information entre photons et atomes, fonctionnant comme des bits quantiques volants et stationnaires respectivement. L’interaction entre ces deux composants est augmentée s’ils sont placés dans un milieu optique unidimensionnel, réalisant un système appelée “un atome 1D”. L’étude de ce milieu optique et des ses applications aux technologies quantiques constitue l’objectif de cette thèse.Tout d’abord, nous explorons l’interaction entre le champ lumineux et un atome 1D, en prenant une boîte quantique semi-conductrice dans un micropilier comme exemple. Nous étudions le contrôle cohérent de ce système avec des impulsions lumineuses afin de trouver un moyen optimal de contrôler son état, en faisant varier la puissance, la forme et la durée d’une impulsion, ainsi que la statistique de l’état quantique du champ lumineux. Nous étudions également l’impact de l’atome 1D sur l'état du champ réfléchi en fonction des paramètres du système expérimental.Nous poursuivons avec l’étude de l’état quantique du champ lumineux réfléchi, en nous concentrant sur sa pureté. C’est important pour transmettre fidèlement l’état superposition d’un bit stationnaire à un autre par la lumière, qui agit comme un bit quantique volant. Nous développons une méthode de caractérisation expérimentale de la pureté et l’appliquons à des données expérimentales, démontrant ainsi que la technologie moderne permet de créer des superpositions de haute pureté.Enfin, nous nous concentrons sur la lecture d’un qubit stationnaire basé sur un spin dans un environnement unidimensionnel. Nous étudions comment la lumière polarisée peut être utilisé pour cela, en montrant qu’il est possible de lire l’état de spin en détectant qu’un seul photon. Nous explorons différents écarts de ce régime optimal. Nous étudions également la décohérence de l’état de spin due à l’interaction avec le champ lumineux, et back-action de la mesure, montrant que l’état de spin peut être “gelé”. C’est une manifestation de l’effet Zeno quantique, qui permet la préparation du qubit dans un état arbitraire. Cela ouvre des perspectives pour la réalisation efficace de bits quantiques stationnaires basés sur des spins uniques incorporés dans un environnement électromagnétique unidimensionnel. / Quantum phenomena give rise to new and revolutionary possibilities in the fields of computation and cryptography. The problems that are unsolvable with classical means are expected to be solved by quantum computers, and communication becomes absolutely secure, if it is encoded in a state of a quantum system. A large effort has been recently paid to research of deterministic transfer of information between photons and atoms, acting as flying and stationary quantum bits respectively. The interaction between these two components is enhanced, if they are put in a unidimensional medium, realizing a so called "1D atom". The study of this specific optical medium and its applications to quantum technologies constitutes the objective of this thesis.First, we explore the light-matter interface realized as a 1D atom, with a semiconductor quantum dot in a micropillar cavity as an example. We study the coherent control of this system with light pulses in order to find an optimal way to control its state, varying the power, shape and duration of a pulse and statistics of the state of light field. We also study the impact of the 1D atom on the state of the reflected field as a function of parameters of the experimental device, describing the filtering of single photon Fock state from incident pulse.We continue with the study of the quantum state of the scattered light field, focusing on its purity. This is required to faithfully transmit the superposition state of one stationary qubit to another using light as a flying quantum bit. We develop a method to experimentally characterize the purity, and apply it to experimental data, showing that the state of art technology allows to create high-purity superpositions.Finally, we focus on the readout of a stationary qubit based on a single spin in a unidimensional environment. We study how to efficiently use polarized light for this purpose, showing that it is possible to readout the spin state, by detection of only one photon. We explore different deviations from this optimal regime. We also study the decoherence of the spin state due to interaction with the light field and the back-action of the measurement, showing that it is possible to freeze the spin state due to the quantum Zeno effect, which allows the preparation of the qubit, based on it, in an arbitrary superposition state. This opens perspectives towards efficient realization of stationary quantum bits based on single spins embedded in unidimensional electromagnetic environment.

Investigamos o emaranhamento gerado pelo oscilador paramétrico ´otico (OPO) operando acima do limiar. Mostramos que o sistema tripartite, preparado diretamente usando o OPO e formado pelos feixes gêmeos e pelo campo de bombeio refletido, ´e inseparável. Esta foi a primeira observação de emaranhamento entre três frequências distintas de luz. Também investigamos a dinâmica deste emaranhamento sob a ac¸ ao de perdas por transmissão. Dependendo da região de potência do campo de bombeio, pudemos preparar estados tripartites cujo emaranhamento inicial entre bombeio e feixes gêmeos se mantém ou ´e perdido após a atenuação dos mesmos. Estendemos o estudo para o sistema bipartite formado pelos feixes gêmeos. Neste sistema mais simples, pudemos investigar em detalhes a robustez do emaranhamento e as condições nas quais o emaranhamento se torna frágil. Também conduzimos um estudo teórico e derivamos uma condição suficiente para que um estado emaranhado formado por dois modos seja robusto frente a perdas. Esta condição se torna necessária para estados gaussianos e nos permite traçar uma fronteira no espaço de estados emaranhados que separa os estados robustos dos frágeis. Estudamos em mais detalhes o processo de medição de flutuações de intensidades no domínio da frequência. As flutuações na intensidade são convertidas para frequências de rádio, com banda limitada pela detecção. Isto se reflete no fato de que cada componente de frequência da fotocorrente contém a informação referente a dois modos do campo eletromagnético, as chamadas bandas laterais. Isto faz com que cada campo de luz que descrevemos seja de fato formado por dois modos, fazendo o nosso sistema mais rico. Demonstramos que o sistema hexapartite gerado pelo OPO, e formado pelas duas bandas laterais de cada um dos campos, é inseparável. Também descrevemos as condições dentro das quais a aproximação de um modo por campo, utilizada nos nossos outros trabalhos e por quase toda a comunidade, ´e válida. Mostramos também que a detecção com cavidades ´e capaz de caracterizar completamente o sistema gaussiano formado pelas duas bandas laterais de cada campo e que a detecção homodina, o método mais usado para caracterizar o estado quântico em variáveis contínuas, falha em medir todas as correlações presentes no sistema bimodal. / We investigate the entanglement generated by an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) operating above threshold. We showed that the tripartite system, prepared directly from the OPO and composed by the twin beams and the reflected pump field, is completely inseparable. This was the first observation of entanglement between three di_erent frequencies of light. We also investigated the dynamics of entanglement under transmission losses. Depending on the injected pump power, we were able to prepare states with tripartite entanglement between the initial pump and twin beams that was maintained or lost after transmission losses. We extended the study to the bipartite system formed by the twin beams. In this simpler system, we investigated in more detail the robustness of entanglement and the conditions under which the entanglement becomes fragile. We also conducted a heoretical study and derived a suficient condition for the entangled state formed by two modes to be robust against losses. This condition also become necessary for Gaussian states. We also studied the measurement process of intensity fluctuations in the frequency domain. The fluctuations are converted to the radiofrequency range, with bandwidth limited by the detector. This is also reflected in the fact that each frequency component, , of the photocurrent contains the information relative to the two modes of the electromagnetic field equally spaced from its center frequency, the sidebands. Therefore each light beam we describe is actually composed by two modes, making our system more rich. We were able to demonstrate that this hexapartite system generated by our OPO, and composed by the two sidebands of each field, is completely inseparable. We also described under which conditions the approximation of one mode per field, used in our prior work and for almost the entire community, is valid. We also showed that resonator detection is able to completely characterize the system composed by the two sidebands of each field if the state is Gaussian and that homodyne detection, the method used to characterize the quantum state for continuous variables, fails to measure all correlations present in this bimodal system.