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Quantum receivers aim to effectively navigate the vast quantum-state space to endow quantum information processing capabilities unmatched by classical receivers. To date, only a handful of quantum receivers have been constructed to tackle the problem of discriminating coherent states. Quantum receivers designed by analytical approaches, however, are incapable of effectively adapting to diverse environment conditions, resulting in their quickly diminishing performance as the operational complexities increase. Here, we present a general architecture, dubbed the quantum receiver enhanced by adaptive learning (QREAL), to adapt quantum receiver structures to diverse operational conditions. QREAL is experimentally implemented in a hardware platform with record-high efficiency. Combining the QREAL architecture and the experimental advances, the error rate is reduced up to 40% over the standard quantum limit in two coherent-state encoding schemes., Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures

Indistinguishable single photons are key ingredient for a plethora of quantum information processing applications ranging from quantum communications to photonic quantum computing. A mainstream platform to produce indistinguishable single photons over a wide spectral range is based on biphoton generation through spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) in nonlinear crystals. The purity of the SPDC biphotons, however, is limited by their spectral correlations. Here, we present a design recipe, based on a machine-learning framework, for the engineering of biphoton joint spectrum amplitudes over a wide spectral range. By customizing the poling profile of the KTiOPO$_4$ (KTP) crystal, we show, numerically, that spectral purities of 99.22%, 99.99%, and 99.82% can be achieved, respectively, in the 1310-nm, 1550-nm, and 1600-nm bands after applying a moderate 8-nm filter. The machine-learning framework thus enables the generation of near-indistinguishable single photons over the entire telecommunication band without resorting to KTP crystal's group-velocity-matching wavelength window near 1582 nm.

To store information at extremely high-density and data-rate, we propose to adapt, integrate, and extend the techniques developed by chemists and molecular biologists for the purpose of manipulating biological and other macromolecules. In principle, volumetric densities in excess of 10^21 bits/cm^3 can be achieved when individual molecules having dimensions below a nanometer or so are used to encode the 0's and 1's of a binary string of data. In practice, however, given the limitations of electron-beam lithography, thin film deposition and patterning technologies, molecular manipulation in submicron dimensions, etc., we believe that volumetric storage densities on the order of 10^16 bits/cm^3 (i.e., petabytes per cubic centimeter) should be readily attainable, leaving plenty of room for future growth. The unique feature of the proposed new approach is its focus on the feasibility of storing bits of information in individual molecules, each only a few angstroms in size., Comment: 13 pages, 5 references, 13 figures

We report ultra-strong high-order nonlinear multiphoton processes in monolayer MoS$_2$ (1L-MoS$_2$): the third harmonic is thirty times stronger than the second harmonic, and the fourth harmonic is comparable to the second harmonic. We find that second and third harmonic processes are strongly dependent on elliptical polarization, which can be used to selectively tune harmonic generation with different orders. We explain this by calculating the nonlinear response functions of 1L-MoS$_2$ with a continuum-model Hamiltonian and quantum-mechanical diagrammatic perturbation theory, highlighting the crucial role of trigonal warping. A similar effect is expected for all other transition-metal dichalcogenides. Our results pave the way for efficient and tunable harmonic generation based on layered materials for various applications, including microscopy and imaging

We predict and experimentally observe a nonlinear variant of stimulated Brillouin scattering in a single-mode fiber that arises from consideration of higher-order processes for phonon generation. The effect manifests itself at high laser excitation as the appearance of Stokes gain for a detuning equal to half of the conventional Brillouin frequency in the fiber, with no accompanying anti-Stokes absorption at the opposite detuning, and requires counter-propagating pump beams for phase-matching. We believe that this could be a new nonlinear optical effect that has not been observed before.

We have developed a novel integrated platform for liquid photonics based on liquid core optical fiber (LCOF). The platform is created by fusion splicing liquid core optical fiber to standard single-mode optical fiber making it fully integrated and practical - a major challenge that has greatly hindered progress in liquid-photonic applications. As an example, we report here the realization of ultralow threshold Raman generation using an integrated CS2 filled LCOF pumped with sub-nanosecond pulses at 1064nm and 532nm. The measured energy threshold for the Stokes generation is ~ 1nJ, about three orders of magnitude lower than previously reported values in the literature for hydrogen gas. The integrated LCOF platform opens up new possibilities for ultralow power nonlinear optics such as efficient white light generation for displays, mid-IR generation, slow light generation, parametric amplification, all-optical switching and wavelength conversion using liquids that have orders of magnitude larger optical nonlinearities compared with silica glass., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures