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Kawano, Y., & Ishibashi, K. (2008). An on-chip near-field terahertz probe and detector. Nature Photon, 2(10), 618–621.
Abstract: The advantageous properties of terahertz waves, such as their transmission through objects opaque to visible light, are attracting attention for imaging applications. A promising approach for achieving high spatial resolution is the use of near-field imaging. Although this method has been well established in the visible and microwave regions, it is challenging to perform in the terahertz region. In the terahertz techniques investigated to date, detectors have been located remotely from the probe, which degrades sensitivity, and the influence of far-field waves is unavoidable. Here we present a new integrated detection device for terahertz near-field imaging in which all the necessary detection components — an aperture, a probe and a terahertz detector — are integrated on one semiconductor chip, which is cryogenically cooled. This scheme allows highly sensitive, high-resolution detection of the evanescent field alone and promises new capabilities for high-resolution terahertz imaging.
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Taylor, F. W. (1983). Atmospheric physics: Natural lasers on Venus and Mars. Nature, 306(5944), 640.
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Johnson, B. R., Reed, M. D., Houck, A. A., Schuster, D. I., Bishop, L. S., Ginossar, E., et al. (2010). Quantum non-demolition detection of single microwave photons in a circuit. Nat. Phys., 6(9), 663–667.
Abstract: Thorough control of quantum measurement is key to the development of quantum information technologies. Many measurements are destructive, removing more information from the system than they obtain. Quantum non-demolition (QND) measurements allow repeated measurements that give the same eigenvalue. They could be used for several quantum information processing tasks such as error correction, preparation by measurement and one-way quantum computing. Achieving QND measurements of photons is especially challenging because the detector must be completely transparent to the photons while still acquiring information about them. Recent progress in manipulating microwave photons in superconducting circuits has increased demand for a QND detector that operates in the gigahertz frequency range. Here we demonstrate a QND detection scheme that measures the number of photons inside a high-quality-factor microwave cavity on a chip. This scheme maps a photon number, n, onto a qubit state in a single-shot by means of qubit-photon logic gates. We verify the operation of the device for n=0 and 1 by analysing the average correlations of repeated measurements, and show that it is 90% QND. It differs from previously reported detectors because its sensitivity is strongly selective to chosen photon number states. This scheme could be used to monitor the state of a photon-based memory in a quantum computer.
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Dada, A. C., Leach, J., Buller, G. S., Padgett, M. J., & Andersson, E. (2011). Experimental high-dimensional two-photon entanglement and violations of generalized Bell inequalities. Nat. Phys., 7(9), 677–680.
Abstract: Quantum entanglement plays a vital role in many quantum-information and communication tasks. Entangled states of higher-dimensional systems are of great interest owing to the extended possibilities they provide. For example, they enable the realization of new types of quantum information scheme that can offer higher-information-density coding and greater resilience to errors than can be achieved with entangled two-dimensional systems (see ref. and references therein). Closing the detection loophole in Bell test experiments is also more experimentally feasible when higher-dimensional entangled systems are used. We have measured previously untested correlations between two photons to experimentally demonstrate high-dimensional entangled states. We obtain violations of Bell-type inequalities generalized to d-dimensional systems up to d=12. Furthermore, the violations are strong enough to indicate genuine 11-dimensional entanglement. Our experiments use photons entangled in orbital angular momentum, generated through spontaneous parametric down-conversion, and manipulated using computer-controlled holograms.
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Zhang, Q., Goebel, A., Wagenknecht, C., Chen, Y. - A., Zhao, B., Yang, T., et al. (2006). Experimental quantum teleportation of a two-qubit composite system. Nat. Phys., 2(10), 678–682.
Abstract: Quantum teleportation, a way to transfer the state of a quantum system from one location to another, is central to quantum communication and plays an important role in a number of quantum computation protocols. Previous experimental demonstrations have been implemented with single photonic or ionic qubits. However, teleportation of single qubits is insufficient for a large-scale realization of quantum communication and computation. Here, we present the experimental realization of quantum teleportation of a two-qubit composite system. In the experiment, we develop and exploit a six-photon interferometer to teleport an arbitrary polarization state of two photons. The observed teleportation fidelities for different initial states are all well beyond the state estimation limit of 0.40 for a two-qubit system. Not only does our six-photon interferometer provide an important step towards teleportation of a complex system, it will also enable future experimental investigations on a number of fundamental quantum communication and computation protocols
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Lydersen, L., Wiechers, C., Wittmann, C., Elser, D., Skaar, J., & Makarov, V. (2010). Hacking commercial quantum cryptography systems by tailored bright illumination. Nat. Photon., 4(10), 686–689.
Abstract: The peculiar properties of quantum mechanics allow two remote parties to communicate a private, secret key, which is protected from eavesdropping by the laws of physics. So-called quantum key distribution (QKD) implementations always rely on detectors to measure the relevant quantum property of single photons. Here we demonstrate experimentally that the detectors in two commercially available QKD systems can be fully remote-controlled using specially tailored bright illumination. This makes it possible to tracelessly acquire the full secret key; we propose an eavesdropping apparatus built of off-the-shelf components. The loophole is likely to be present in most QKD systems using avalanche photodiodes to detect single photons. We believe that our findings are crucial for strengthening the security of practical QKD, by identifying and patching technological deficiencies.
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Grinolds, M. S., Maletinsky, P., Hong, S., Lukin, M. D., Walsworth, R. L., & Yacoby, A. (2011). Quantum control of proximal spins using nanoscale magnetic resonance imaging. Nat. Phys., 7(9), 687–692.
Abstract: Quantum control of individual spins in condensed-matter systems is an emerging field with wide-ranging applications in spintronics, quantum computation and sensitive magnetometry. Recent experiments have demonstrated the ability to address and manipulate single electron spins through either optical or electrical techniques. However, it is a challenge to extend individual-spin control to nanometre-scale multi-electron systems, as individual spins are often irresolvable with existing methods. Here we demonstrate that coherent individual-spin control can be achieved with few- nanometre resolution for proximal electron spins by carrying out single-spin magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which is realized using a scanning-magnetic-field gradient that is both strong enough to achieve nanometre spatial resolution and sufficiently stable for coherent spin manipulations. We apply this scanning-field-gradient MRI technique to electronic spins in nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centres in diamond and achieve nanometre resolution in imaging, characterization and manipulation of individual spins. For NV centres, our results in individual-spin control demonstrate an improvement of nearly two orders of magnitude in spatial resolution when compared with conventional optical diffraction-limited techniques. This scanning-field-gradient microscope enables a wide range of applications including materials characterization, spin entanglement and nanoscale magnetometry.
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Hadfield, R. H. (2009). Single-photon detectors for optical quantum information applications. Nature Photonics, 3, 696–705.
Abstract: The past decade has seen a dramatic increase in interest in new single-photon detector technologies. A major cause of this trend has undoubtedly been the push towards optical quantum information applications such as quantum key distribution. These new applications place extreme demands on detector performance that go beyond the capabilities of established single-photon detectors. There has been considerable effort to improve conventional photon-counting detectors and to transform new device concepts into workable technologies for optical quantum information applications. This Review aims to highlight the significant recent progress made in improving single-photon detector technologies, and the impact that these developments will have on quantum optics and quantum information science.
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Pirandola, S., Mancini, S., Lloyd, S., & Braunstein, S. L. (2008). Continuous-variable quantum cryptography using two-way quantum communication. Nat. Phys., 4(9), 726–730.
Abstract: Quantum cryptography has recently been extended to continuous-variable systems, such as the bosonic modes of the electromagnetic field possessing continuous degrees of freedom. In particular, several cryptographic protocols have been proposed and experimentally implemented using bosonic modes with Gaussian statistics. These protocols have shown the possibility of reaching very high secret key rates, even in the presence of strong losses in the quantum communication channel. Despite this robustness to loss, their security can be affected by more general attacks where extra Gaussian noise is introduced by the eavesdropper. Here, we show a `hardware solution' for enhancing the security thresholds of these protocols. This is possible by extending them to two-way quantum communication where subsequent uses of the quantum channel are suitably combined. In the resulting two-way schemes, one of the honest parties assists the secret encoding of the other, with the chance of a non-trivial superadditive enhancement of the security thresholds. These results should enable the extension of quantum cryptography to more complex quantum communications.
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Capmany, J., Gasulla, I., & Sales, S. (2011). Microwave photonics: Harnessing slow light. Nat. Photon., 5(12), 731–733.
Abstract: Slow-light techniques originally conceived for buffering high-speed digital optical signals now look set to play an important role in providing broadband phase and true time delays for microwave signals.
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Hannay, T. (2011). A new kind of science? Nat. Phys., 7, 742.
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Prevedel, R., Hamel, D. R., Colbeck, R., Fisher, K., & Resch, K. J. (2011). Experimental investigation of the uncertainty principle in the presence of quantum memory and its application to witnessing entanglement. Nat. Phys., 7(10), 757–761.
Abstract: Heisenberg's uncertainty principle provides a fundamental limitation on the ability of an observer holding classical information to predict the outcome when one of two measurements is performed on a quantum system. However, an observer with access to a particle (stored in a quantum memory) which is entangled with the system generally has a reduced uncertainty: indeed, if the particle and system are maximally entangled, the observer can perfectly predict the outcome of whichever measurement is chosen. This effect has recently been quantified in a new entropic uncertainty relation. Here we experimentally investigate this relation, showing its effectiveness as an efficient entanglement witness. We use entangled photon pairs, an optical delay line serving as a simple quantum memory and fast, active feed-forward. Our results quantitatively agree with the new uncertainty relation. Our technique acts as a witness for almost all entangled states in our experiment as we obtain lower uncertainties than would be possible without the entangled particle.
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Fuchs, G. D., Burkard, G., Klimov, P. V., & Awschalom, D. D. (2011). A quantum memory intrinsic to single nitrogen–vacancy centres in diamond. Nat. Phys., 7(10), 789–793.
Abstract: A quantum memory, composed of a long-lived qubit coupled to each processing qubit, is important to building a scalable platform for quantum information science. These two qubits should be connected by a fast and high-fidelity operation to store and retrieve coherent quantum states. Here, we demonstrate a room-temperature quantum memory based on the spin of the nitrogen nucleus intrinsic to each nitrogen–vacancy (NV) centre in diamond. We perform coherent storage of a single NV centre electronic spin in a single nitrogen nuclear spin using Landau–Zener transitions across a hyperfine-mediated avoided level crossing. By working outside the asymptotic regime, we demonstrate coherent state transfer in as little as 120 ns with total storage fidelity of 88±6%. This work demonstrates the use of a quantum memory that is compatible with scaling as the nitrogen nucleus is deterministically present in each NV centre defect.
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Hosseini, M., Campbell, G., Sparkes, B. M., Lam, P. K., & Buchler, B. C. (2011). Unconditional room-temperature quantum memory. Nat. Phys., 7(10), 794–798.
Abstract: Just as classical information systems require buffers and memory, the same is true for quantum information systems. The potential that optical quantum information processing holds for revolutionizing computation and communication is therefore driving significant research into developing optical quantum memory. A practical optical quantum memory must be able to store and recall quantum states on demand with high efficiency and low noise. Ideally, the platform for the memory would also be simple and inexpensive. Here, we present a complete tomographic reconstruction of quantum states that have been stored in the ground states of rubidium in a vapour cell operating at around 80 °C. Without conditional measurements, we show recall fidelity up to 98% for coherent pulses containing around one photon. To unambiguously verify that our memory beats the quantum no-cloning limit we employ state-independent verification using conditional variance and signal-transfer coefficients.
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Saffman, M. (2010). Quantum computing: A quantum telecom link. Nat. Phys., 6(11), 838–839.
Abstract: Converting data-carrying photons to telecommunication wavelengths enables distribution of quantum information over long distances.
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