Search

Quantum entanglement is of central importance to quantum computing, quantum metrology, quantum information as well as the nature of quantum physics. Quantum theory does not prevent entanglement from being created and observed in macroscopic physical systems, in reality however, the accessible scale of entanglement is still very limited due to decoherence effects. Recently, entanglement has been observed among atoms from thousands to millions level in extremely low-temperature and well-isolated systems. Here, we create multipartite entanglement of billions of motional atoms in a quantum memory at room temperature, and certify the genuine entanglement via $M$-separability witness associated with photon statistics. The information contained in a single photon is found strongly correlated with the excitation shared by the motional atoms, which intrinsically address the large system and therefore stimulate the multipartite entanglement. Remarkably, our heralded and quantum memory built-in entanglement generation allows us to directly observe the dynamic evolution of entanglement depth and further to reveal the effects of decoherence. Our results verify the existence of genuine multipartite entanglement among billions of motional atoms at ambient condition, significantly extending the boundary of the accessible scale of entanglement. Besides probing the quantum-to-classical transition in an entirely new realm, the developed abilities of manipulating such a large-scale entanglement may enhance a wide spectrum of applications for emerging quantum technologies., 26 pages, 5 figures

Quantum entanglement recognized by Einstein, Podolsky, Rosen and Schrodinger is the essence of quantum physics, and has become a real available resource in the laboratory over recent years. The observation of quantum entanglement in macroscopic matters has implications in the fundamental studies of quantum mechanics, as well as the implementations of quantum information technologies, such as quantum communication, enhanced sensing and distributed quantum computing. Here, we report the creation and storage of the heralded entanglement between two different types of broadband quantum memories located on separated platforms at room temperature: a single-photon entangled state delocalized between billions of motional atoms as a collective excitation and an all-optical loop as a flying qubit. The stored entangled state is subsequently retrieved after a programmable storage time, and is verified by measuring the nonclassical correlations, quantum interference, and concurrence of the mapped-out Raman-scattered photons. Our results show that quantum entanglement can be sustained in macroscopic matters at ambient condition, which pushes the fundamental researches of the transition boundary between quantum and classical worlds. Also, the two quantum memories constitute a hybrid memory-built-in quantum network, which highlights the potential of the cooperation between an stationary atomic ensemble and an all-optical loop as quantum nodes at ambient condition, and brings a significant step towards practical quantum networks.

To realize a large-scale quantum network, both quantum memory and the interference of retrieved indistinguishable photons are essentially required to perform multi-photon synchronization and quantum-interference-mediated entanglement swapping. Significant progress has been achieved in low-temperature and well-isolated systems. However, linking independent quantum memories at room temperature remain challenging. Here, we present an experimental demonstration of Hong–Ou–Mandel interference between single photons from two independent room-temperature quantum memories. We manage to simultaneously operate two such quantum memories and individually obtain a memory-built-in quantum correlation of Stokes and anti-Stokes photons by a far-off-resonance Duan–Lukin–Cirac–Zoller protocol. We also successfully enhance the Hong–Ou–Mandel interference rate up to about 15 times by increasing each photon rate, which is achieved by coordinating two quantum memories with a repeat-until-success fashion. We observe the visibility of quantum interference up to 75.0% without reduction of any background noise, well exceeding the classical limit of 50%. Our results, together with its straightforward, broadband, and room-temperature features, open up a promising way towards realizing large-scale quantum networks at ambient conditions.

The authors theoretically propose and experimentally demonstrate a scheme for generating time-bin entanglement with a quantum memory based on an ensemble of room-temperature atoms. The results are interesting for the manipulation of quantum information in quantum networks and may serve as an element in future quantum repeaters and quantum computers.

Atmospheric free space and fiber have been widely exploited as the channels for quantum communication, and have enabled intercontinent and intercity applications. An air-sea free-space channel, being capable of linking the satellite-based quantum resource and underwater vehicle, has now become the last piece of the puzzle in building a global quantum communication network. Here, we present an experimental demonstration of air-water decoy-state quantum key distribution against high loss, meanwhile keeping a low quantum bit error rate less than 2.5% for different distances. We are able to reach a long-distance quantum key distribution in water channel that can enable real-life air-sea quantum-communication tasks. The demonstrated distance, even in coastal water of Jerlov type III, is up to 30 m, about one-order improvement over the proof-in-principle demonstrations in the previous experiments, and the channel loss is equivalent to 345-m-long clean seawater of Jerlov type I, representing a key step forward to practical air-sea secure communication.

Vector vortex beams simultaneously carrying spin and orbital angular momentum of light promise additional degrees of freedom for modern optics and emerging resources for both classical and quantum information technologies. The inherently infinite dimensions can be exploited to enhance data capacity for sustaining the unprecedented growth in big data and internet traffic, and can be encoded to build quantum computing machines in high-dimensional Hilbert space. So far much progress has been made in the emission of vector vortex beams from a chip surface into free space, however, the generation of vector vortex beams inside a photonic chip hasn't been realized yet. Here, we demonstrate the first vector vortex beam emitter embedded in a photonic chip by using femtosecond laser direct writing. We achieve a conversion of vector vortex beams with an efficiency up to 30% and scalar vortex beams with an efficiency up to 74% from Gaussian beams. We also present an expanded coupled-mode model for understanding the mode conversion and the influence of the imperfection in fabrication. The fashion of embedded generation makes vector vortex beams directly ready for further transmission, manipulation and emission without any additional interconnection. Together with the ability to be integrated as an array, our results may enable vector vortex beams become accessible inside a photonic chip for high-capacity communication and high-dimensional quantum information processing., 20 pages, 7 figures

Quantum memory capable of stopping flying photons and storing their quantum coherence is essential for scalable quantum technologies. A room-temperature broadband quantum memory will enable the implementation of large-scale quantum systems for real-life applications. Due to either intrinsic high noises or short lifetime, it is still challenging to find a room-temperature broadband quantum memory beyond conceptual demonstration. Here, we present a far-off-resonance Duan-Lukin-Cirac-Zoller (FORD) protocol and demonstrate the broadband quantum memory in room-temperature atoms. We observe a low unconditional noise level of $10^{-4}$ and a cross-correlation up to 28. A strong violation of Cauchy-Schwarz inequality indicates high-fidelity generation and preservation of non-classical correlation. Furthermore, the achieved cross-correlation in room-temperature atoms exceeds the key boundary of 6 above which quantum correlation is able to violate Bell's inequality. Our results open up the door to an entirely new realm of memory-enabled quantum applications at ambient conditions., Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables

Unconditionally secure communication, being pursued for thousands of years, however, hasn't been reached yet due to continuous competitions between encryption and hacking. Quantum key distribution (QKD), harnessing the quantum mechanical nature of superposition and non-cloning, may promise unconditional security by incorporating the one-time pad algorithm rigorously proved by Claude Shannon. Massive efforts have been made in building practical and commercial QKD systems, in particular, decoy states are employed to detect photon-number splitting attack against single-photon source loophole, and measurement-device-independent (MDI) QKD has further closed all loopholes in detection side, which leads to a seemingly real-life application. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate an MDI-QKD hacking strategy on the trusted source assumption by using injection locking technique. Eve injects near off-resonance photons in randomly chosen polarization into sender's laser, where injection locking in a shifted frequency can happen only when Eve's choice matches with sender's state. By setting a shifted window and switching the frequency of photons back afterwards, Eve in principle can obtain all the keys without terminating the real-time QKD. We observe the dynamics of a semiconductor laser with injected photons, and obtain a hacking success rate reaching 60.0% of raw keys. Our results suggest that the spear-and-shield competitions on unconditional security may continue until all potential loopholes are discovered and closed ultimately., 10 pages, 8 figures, 4 tables

Quantum walks on graphs play an important role in the field of quantum algorithms. Fast hitting is one of the properties that quantum walk algorithms can utilize to outperform classical random walk algorithms. Fast hitting refers to a particle starting from the entrance node on a graph and trying to hit the exit node quickly. Especially, continuous-time quantum walks on random glued binary trees have been investigated in theories extensively for their exponentially faster hitting speed over classical random walks. Here, using heralded single photons to represent quantum walkers and laser-written waveguide arrays to simulate the theoretical graph, we are able to demonstrate the hitting efficiency of quantum walks with tree depth as high as 16 layers for the first time. Furthermore, we expand the graph’s branching rate from 2 to 5, revealing that quantum walks can exhibit more superiority over classical random walks as the branching rate increases. Our results may shed light on the physical implementation of quantum walk algorithms as well as quantum computation and quantum simulation.

Nonclassical state is an essential resource for quantum-enhanced communication, computing and metrology to outperform their classical counterpart. The nonclassical states that can operate at high bandwidth and room temperature while being compatible with quantum memory are highly desirable to enable the scalability of quantum technologies. Here, we present a direct observation of broadband nonclasscal states in a room-temperature light-matter interface, where the atoms can also be controlled to store and interfere with photons. With a single coupling pulse and far off-resonance configuration, we are able to induce a multi-field interference between light and atoms to create the desired nonclassical states by spectrally selecting the two correlated photons out of seven possible emissions. We explicitly confirm the nonclassicality by observing a cross correlation up to 17 and a violation of Cauchy-Schwarz inequality with 568 standard deviations. Our results demonstrate the potential of a state-built-in, broadband and room-temperature light-matter interface for scalable quantum information networks., Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures

Quantum memory capable of storage and retrieval of flying photons on demand is crucial for developing quantum information technologies. However, the devices needed for long-distance links are quite different from those envisioned for local processing. Here, we present the first hybrid quantum memory enabled network by demonstrating the interconnection and simultaneous operation of two types of quantum memory: an atomic-ensemble-based memory and an all-optical loop memory. The former generates and stores single atomic excitations that can then be converted to single photons; and the latter maps incoming photons in and out on demand, at room-temperature and with a broad acceptance bandwidth. Interfacing these two types of quantum memories, we observe a well-preserved quantum cross-correlation, reaching a value of 22, and a violation of the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality up to 549 standard deviations. Furthermore, we demonstrate the creation and storage of a fully operable heralded photon chain state that can achieve memory-built-in combining, swapping, splitting, tuning and chopping single photons in a chain temporally. Such a quantum network allows atomic excitations to be generated, stored, and converted to broadband photons, which are then transferred to the next node, stored, and faithfully retrieved, all at high speed and in a programmable fashion., 14 pages, 10 figures, 1 table

The gaps separating two different states widely exist in various physical systems: from the electrons in periodic lattices to the analogs in photonic, phononic, plasmonic systems, and even quasicrystals. Recently, a thermalization gap, an inaccessible range of photon statistics, was proposed for light in disordered structures [Nat. Phys. 11, 930 (2015)], which is intrinsically induced by the disorder-immune chiral symmetry and can be reflected by the photon statistics. The lattice topology was further identified as a decisive role in determining the photon statistics when the chiral symmetry is satisfied. Being very distinct from one-dimensional lattices, the photon statistics in ring lattices are dictated by its parity, i.e, odd or even sited. Here, we for the first time experimentally observe a parity-induced thermalization gap in strongly disordered ring photonic structures. In a limited scale, though the light tends to be localized, we are still able to find clear evidence of the parity-dependent disorder-immune chiral symmetry and the resulting thermalization gap by measuring photon statistics, while strong disorder-induced Anderson localization overwhelms such a phenomenon in larger-scale structures. Our results shed new light on the relation among symmetry, disorder, and localization, and may inspire new resources and artificial devices for information processing and quantum control on a photonic chip., Comment: 20 pages, 19 figures

Recently, ceramic composites with low dielectric constant, low loss tangent, high flexural strength and high thermal shock resistance have received a considerable attention as candidate materials for certain high speed radome. In this paper, Si3N4-BN ceramic composites were fabricated by dry-press processing and cold isostatic pressing, with α-Si3N4 and BN as starting powder, Al2O3 and Yb2O3 as sintering additives, PMMA as pore-forming agenSubscript textt. After sintering for 2 h at 1750°C, porous Si3N4-BN ceramic composites with a three-point bending strength of 50~120MPa and a dielectric constant of 3.2~4.4 at 7~18 GHz frequency were obtained. The sintered body was mainly β-Si3N4 grains; BN was dispersed in the grains. The formation of β-Si3N4 grains was demonstrated by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) respectively. Furthermore, the influence of the BN content on the dielectric and mechanical properties was also studied. The porous Si3N4-BN ceramic composites showed a lower dielectric constant and shrinkage. For above excellent properties, Si3N4-BN ceramic composites have been became one of the most hopeful candidate materials for high speed radome.

We propose a scheme to construct a two-dimensional Aubry-Andr\'e (AA) model and realize two-dimensional AA localization of light waves via electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). The system we suggest is a cold, resonant atomic gas with an $N$-type level configuration and interacting with probe, control, assisted, and far-detuned laser fields. We show that under EIT conditions the probe-field envelope obeys a modified nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation with a quasiperiodic potential, which becomes a two-dimensional nonlinear AA model when the system parameters are suitably chosen. The quasiperiodic potential is obtained by the cross-phase modulation of the assisted field and the Stark shift of the far-detuned laser field. In addition, the cubic nonlinearity term appearing in the model is contributed by the self-phase modulation of the probe field. We demonstrate that the system can be used to not only realize various two-dimensional AA localizations of light waves, but also to display nonlinearity and dimensionality effects on the AA localizations.

We propose a scheme to realize parity-time (PT) symmetry via electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). The system we consider is an ensemble of cold four-level atoms with an EIT core. We show that the cross-phase modulation contributed by an assisted field, the optical lattice potential provided by a far-detuned laser field, and the optical gain resulted from an incoherent pumping can be used to construct a PT-symmetric complex optical potential for probe field propagation in a controllable way. Comparing with previous study, the present scheme uses only a single atomic species and hence is easy for the physical realization of PT-symmetric Hamiltonian via atomic coherence.