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Abstract We demonstrate a pulsed operation of an entangled photon pair source that is based on a silicon ring resonator. Time-bin entangled photon pairs at telecommunication wavelengths are generated via spontaneous four-wave mixing, which is excited by a pulsed pump laser. The entanglement between the generated photon pair is analyzed by using asymmetric Mach–Zehnder interferometers followed by single-photon detectors, resulting in non-classical interference with a visibility exceeding a classical limit. The reason for the degradation of the interference visibility is discussed using the theoretical model with experimental parameters. Our experimental results show successful pulsed generation of entanglement, which represents an important step towards a synchronized quantum network based on silicon photonics.

Abstract Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) centers in diamond are promising solid-state quantum emitters that can be utilized for photonic quantum applications. Various diamond nanophotonic devices have been fabricated for efficient extraction of single photons emitted from NV centers to a single guided mode. However, for constructing scalable quantum networks, further efficient coupling of single photons to a guided mode of a single-mode fiber (SMF) is indispensable and a difficult challenge. Here, we propose a novel efficient hybrid system between an optical nanofiber and a cylindrical-structured diamond nanowire. The maximum coupling efficiency as high as 75% for the sum of both fiber ends is obtained by numerical simulations. The proposed hybrid system will provide a simple and efficient interface between solid-state quantum emitters and a SMF suitable for constructing scalable quantum networks.

To observe the loophole-free violation of the Clauser–Horne–Shimony–Holt (CHSH) inequality between distant two parties, i.e. the CHSH value $S\gt 2$ , the main limitation of distance stems from the loss in the transmission channel. The entanglement swapping relay (ESR) is a simple way to amplify the signal and enables us to evade the impact of the transmission loss. Here, we experimentally test the heralded nonlocality amplifier protocol based on the ESR. We observe that the obtained probability distribution is in excellent agreement with those expected by the numerical simulation with experimental parameters which are precisely characterized in a separate measurement. Moreover, we experimentally estimate the nonlocality of the heralded state after the transmission of 10 dB loss just before final detection. The estimated CHSH value is $S=2.113\gt 2$ , which indicates that our final state possesses nonlocality even with transmission loss and various experimental imperfections. Our result clarifies an important benchmark of the ESR protocol, and paves the way towards the long-distance realization of the loophole-free CHSH-violation as well as device-independent quantum key distribution.