This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 8163, including the Title Page, Copyright information, Table of Contents, and the Conference Committee listing.

Quantum properties of the optical field represent a resource of the utmost relevance for the development of quantum technologies, allowing unprecedented results in disciplines ranging from quantum information and metrology to quantum imaging. Spatial quantum correlations generated by of parametric down conversion (PDC) represents a tool for quantum imaging because they are intrinsically multimode, a requirement for obtaining large degree of correlation over small portions of the beams, allowing to register the spatial structure of an object. In particular a very interesting example is provided by the detection of weak objects, a result that could have important practical applications. The principle of this technique is to take advantage of the correlation in the noise of two conjugated branches of PDC emission: in fact, subtracting the noise measured on one branch from the image of a weak object obtained in the other branch, the image of the object, eventually previously hidden in the noise, could be restored. Here, after a general summary of quantum imaging techniques, firstly we will show how we have reached a sub shot noise regime and then improved this result up to reach a regime where it was possible to achieve the first experimental realisation of sub shot noise imaging of a weak absorbing object.

To understand the limits and tradeoffs of nearly all existing subwavelength imaging techniques it sufficient to understand magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and its generalizations. In many cases, subwavelength optical lithography can be viewed as the inverse problem to imaging and so the same principles apply. A simple review of MRI is given which shows how the most popular subwavelength imaging and lithography techniques naturally arise as special cases.

Turbulence is a serious problem for long distance imaging such as from satellites or ground based telescopes. In this paper we discuss our turbulence-free ghost imaging¹ approach that is virtually free from the degrading effects of turbulence. We discuss motivation for the experiments, theory, experimental setup, procedures, and results. The results suggest that thermal two-photon interference may not only be used to improve imaging through turbulence but may also lead to a resource for quantum information processing.

We demonstrate a balanced-homodyne LADAR receiver employing a phase-sensitive amplifier (PSA) to raise the effective photon detection efficiency (PDE) to nearly 100%. Since typical LADAR receivers suffer from losses in the receive optical train that routinely limit overall PDE to less than 50% thus degrading SNR, PSA can provide significant improvement through amplification with noise figure near 0 dB. Receiver inefficiencies arise from sub-unity quantum efficiency, array fill factors, signal-local oscillator mixing efficiency (in coherent receivers), etc. The quantum-enhanced LADAR receiver described herein is employed in target discrimination scenarios as well as in imaging applications. We present results showing the improvement in detection performance achieved with a PSA, and discuss the performance advantage when compared to the use of a phase-insensitive amplifier, which cannot amplify noiselessly.

We investigate the performance of phase-sensitive versus phase-insensitive pre-amplification in optical resolution enhancement with a binary hypothesis test. Phase-sensitive pre-amplification is shown to outperform phaseinsensitive pre-amplification by more than 2 dB.

In the paper we will discuss the design of a long range quantum repeater network and the components required to realize it. We being by first reviewing the general approaches taken for distributing entanglement over long ranges and identify general limitations caused by such approaches. We present a new entanglement generation scheme that permits the near deterministic establishment of entangled links between nearest neighbor repeater nodes and can be used to construct an arbitrary topology quantum network. The creation rate is shown at worst to be a function of the maximum distance between any two adjacent quantum repeaters rather than of the entire length of the network.

When built, quantum repeaters will allow the distribution of entangled quantum states across large distances, playing a vital part in many proposed quantum technologies. Enabling multiple users to connect through the same network will be key to their real-world deployment. Previous work on repeater technologies has focussed only on simple entanglment production, without considering the issues of resource scarcity and competition that necessarily arise in a network setting. In this paper we simulated a thirteen-node network with up to five flows sharing different parts of the network, measuring the total throughput and fairness for each case. Our results suggest that the Internet-like approach of statistical multiplexing use of a congested link gives the highest aggregate throughput. Time division multiplexing and buffer space multiplexing were slightly less effective, but all three schemes allow the sum of multiple flows to substantially exceed that of any one flow, improving over circuit switching by taking advantage of resources that are forced to remain idle in circuit switching. All three schemes proved to have excellent fairness. The high performance, fairness and simplicity of implementation support a recommendation of statistical multiplexing for shared quantum repeater networks.

The shift in the Communication paradigm from the bit to the qubit is increasingly exploited in terrestrial long range links and networks, with strong potentials in secure communications, quantum computing and metrology. The space-to-ground quantum key distribution was also considered as feasible. A new different scenario for the quantum communications is that of the intersatellite link. In this study we focus on the extension of intersatellite communications into the quantum domain. The long distances involved and the fast relative motion are severe constraints, partially compensated by the absence of beam degradation due to the propagation in the atmosphere as well as the relatively low background noise level. We address the conception of the optical terminal and the predicted performances in the case of constellations of LEO and MEO satellite including the quantum communications and quantum teleportation.

The quantum noise based direct encryption protocol Y-OO is expected to provide physical complexity based security, which is thought to be comparable to information theoretic security in mathematical cryptography, for the. physical layer of fiber-optic communication systems. So far, several randomization techniques for the quantum stream cipher by Y-OO protocol have been proposed, but most of them were developed under the assumption that phase shift keying is used as the modulation format. On the other hand, the recent progress in the experimental study on the intensity modulation based quantum stream cipher by Y-OO protocol raises expectations for its realization. The purpose of this paper is to present design and implementation methods of a composite model of the intensity modulation based quantum stream cipher with some randomization techniques. As a result this paper gives a viewpoint of how the Y-OO cryptosystem is miniaturized.

Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) exploits the rules of quantum mechanics to generate and securely distribute a random sequence of bits to two spatially separated clients. Typically a QKD system can support only a single pair of clients at a time, and so a separate quantum link is required for every pair of users. We overcome this limitation with the design and characterization of a multi-client entangled-photon QKD system with the capacity for up to 100 clients simultaneously. The time-bin entangled QKD system includes a broadband down-conversion source with two unique features that enable the multi-user capability. First, the photons are emitted across a very large portion of the telecom spectrum. Second, and more importantly, the photons are strongly correlated in their energy degree of freedom. Using standard wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) hardware, the photons can be routed to different parties on a quantum communication network, while the strong spectral correlations ensure that each client is linked only to the client receiving the conjugate wavelength. In this way, a single down-conversion source can support dozens of channels simultaneously--and to the extent that the WDM hardware can send different spectral channels to different clients, the system can support multiple client pairings. We will describe the design and characterization of the down-conversion source, as well as the client stations, which must be tunable across the emission spectrum.

This paper investigates the potential improvements that may be obtained in terms of the secret key transmission rate in a Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) scheme whereby photon-counting detectors are used at the receiver. To take full advantage of such detectors, soft information is generated in the form of Log-Likelihood Ratios (LLRs) using a Bayesian estimator of phase of the signal pulse which is used to carry the information. The technique is general in a sense that any optical communication scheme whereby the received mean photon count is relatively small, but not necessarily below one and uses the polarization state of light to transmit the binary data may benefit from the soft information processing proposed, although in this paper, we have focused on the QKD application. We demonstrate using simulations the significant reduction in the residual Bit Error Rate (BER) and Frame Error Rate (FER) that is achievable using the proposed soft information processing scheme for a given Quantum BER (QBER) on the quantum link, after the information reconciliation process using LDPC Forward Error Correction (FEC) coding.

Weak coherent states (WCS) are being extensively employed in quantum communications and cryptography at telecommunications wavelengths. For these low-photon-number applications, simultaneous field quadrature measurements are frequently required, such as in the detection of multilevel modulations in the communications scenario or in cryptographic applications employing continuous variables. For this task multiport balanced homodyne detection (BHD) structures are employed, based on the splitting of the received field into its (non-commutating) in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) components and their separate beating with a local oscillator (LO) in two BHD. This allows the simultaneous measurements of the 2 quadratures at the price of an additional noise due to the vacuum fields that leak via the unused ports. These schemes require the proper optical phase synchronization between the LO and the incoming field, which constitutes a challenge for WCS reception, especially for suppressed carrier modulations that are required for power economy. For this task, a Costas loop is implemented for low photon number WCS, with the design of an optimum feedback scheme considering the phase diffusion of WCS generated by semiconductor lasers. We implemented an optical Costas loop at 1550 nm based on polarization splitting of the laser field to detect I and Q quadratures simultaneously. We present results on the performance in phase error and bit error rate and compare with corresponding quantum limit.

The orbital angular momentum (OAM) state of light can potentially be used to implement higher dimensional entangled systems for quantum communication. Unfortunately, optical fibers in use today support only modes with zero OAM values. Free-space quantum communication is an alternative to traditional way of communicating through optical fibers. However the refractive index fluctuation of the atmosphere gives rise to random phase aberrations on a propagating optical beam. To transmit quantum information successfully through a free-space optical channel, one needs to understand how atmospheric turbulence influences quantum entanglement. Here, we present a numerical study of the evolution of quantum entanglement between a pair of qubits. The qubits consist of photons entangled in the OAM basis. The photons propagate in a turbulent atmosphere modeled by a series of consecutive phase screens based on the Kolmogorov theory of turbulence. Maximally entangled initial states are considered, and the concurrence is used as a measure of entanglement. We show how the evolution of entanglement is influenced by various parameters such as the beam waist, the strength of the turbulence and the wavelength of the beam. We restricted our analysis to the OAM values l = ±1 and we compared our results to previous work.

We have studied single photon level frequency up-conversion, and developed efficient single photon detectors and a highly sensitive spectrometer at a telecommunication wavelength (around 1310 nm). We have applied the detector and spectrometer to the implementation of a quantum key distribution system; to the characterization of an entangled photon source and a single photon source from quantum dots; to increase the temporal resolution of the single photon detector; and to study on high-order temporal correlation following frequency conversion. In this paper, we will present an overview on the frequency up-conversion technique and its applications in quantum information systems.

We develop a theoretical framework to evaluate the energy spectrum, stationary states, and dielectric susceptibility of two Jaynes-Cummings systems coupled together by the overlap of their respective longitudinal field modes, and we solve and characterize the combined system for the case that the two atoms and two cavities share a single quantum of energy.

In this paper we provide a review of the perpetual optical topological quantum computer, a large scale quantum architecture utilising a single quantum component. We will examine the building block of this architecture, the photonic module, the original architecture design and a modified design which allows for the entire computer to be constructed solely from a single component. Given the extraordinary specificity of this design we can provide a pessimistic resource analysis, utilising deliberately bad circuit designs and arrangements to determine the size and speed of a large scale factoring engine.

Optical communication at the quantum limit requires that measurements on the optical field be maximally informative, but devising physical measurements that accomplish this objective has proven challenging. The Dolinar receiver exemplifies a rare instance of success in distinguishing between two coherent states: an adaptive local oscillator is mixed with the signal prior to photodetection, which yields an error probability that meets the Helstrom lower bound with equality. Here we apply the same local-oscillator-based architecture with an information-theoretic optimization criterion. We begin with analysis of this receiver in a general framework for an arbitrary coherent-state modulation alphabet, and then we concentrate on two relevant examples. First, we study a binary antipodal alphabet and show that the Dolinar receiver's feedback function not only minimizes the probability of error, but also maximizes the mutual information. Next, we study ternary modulation consisting of antipodal coherent states and the vacuum state. We derive an analytic expression for a near-optimal local-oscillator feedback function, and, via simulation, we determine its photon information efficiency (PIE). We provide the PIE versus dimensional information efficiency (DIE) trade-off curve and show that this modulation and the our receiver combination performs universally better than (generalized) on-off keying plus photon counting, although, the advantage asymptotically vanishes as the bits-per-photon diverges towards infinity.

Optimized state-discrimination receiver strategies for nonorthogonal states can improve the capacity of the communication channels operating with error rates below the ones corresponding to conventional receivers. Coherent signal-nulling receivers use a local oscillator to null the signal state and perform the discrimination of the signal from an alphabet of nonorthogonal states. We describe our study of signal nulling for signals encoded in nonorthogonal phase states. The signal nulling discrimination setup is the first step for the experimental investigation of different discrimination strategies for receivers of coherent multi-phase encoded signals.

Phase-sensitive amplification (PSA) can enhance the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of an optical measurement suffering from detection inefficiency. Previously, we showed that this increased SNR improves LADAR-imaging spatial resolution when infinite spatial-bandwidth PSA is employed. Here, we evaluate the resolution enhancement for realistic, finite spatial-bandwidth amplification. PSA spatial bandwidth is characterized by numerically calculating the input and output spatial modes and their associated phase-sensitive gains under focused-beam pumping. We then compare the spatial resolution of a baseline homodyne-detection LADAR system with homodyne LADAR systems that have been augmented by pre-detection PSA with infinite or finite spatial bandwidth. The spatial resolution of each system is quantified by its ability to distinguish between the presence of 1 point target versus 2 closely-spaced point targets when minimum error-probability decisions are made from quantum limited measurements. At low (5-10 dB) SNR, we find that a PSA system with a 2.5kWatts pump focused to 25μm × 400μm achieves the same spatial resolution as a baseline system having 5.5 dB higher SNR. This SNR gain is very close to the 6 dB SNR improvement possible with ideal (infinite bandwidth, infinite gain) PSA at our simulated system detection efficiency (0.25). At higher SNRs, we have identified a novel regime in which finite spatial-bandwidth PSA outperforms its infinite spatial-bandwidth counterpart. We show that this performance crossover is due to the focused pump system's input-to-output spatial-mode transformation converting the LADAR measurement statistics from homodyne to heterodyne performance.

Theory has shown [1] that the quantum enhancements afforded by squeezed-vacuum injection (SVI) and phasesensitive amplification (PSA) can improve the spatial resolution of a soft-aperture, homodyne-detection laserradar (ladar) system. Here we show they can improve the range resolution of such a ladar system. In particular, because an experimental PSA-enhanced system is being built whose slow photodetectors imply multi-pulse integration, we develop range-measurement theory that encompasses its processing architecture. We allow the target to have an arbitrary mixture of specular and speckle components, and present computer simulation results demonstrating the range-resolution improvement that accrues from quantum enhancement with PSA.

The universal transpose of quantum states is an anti-unitary transformation that is not allowed in quantum theory. In this work, we investigate approximating the universal transpose of quantum states of two-level systems (qubits) using the method known as structural physical approximation. We also report its experimental implementation in linear optics. The scheme is optimal in that the maximal fidelity is attained, and also practical as measurement and preparation of quantum states that are experimentally feasible within current technologies are solely applied.

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) based on Michelson interferometer has widely been utilized in biology and medicine as a type of optical biopsy and quantum optical coherence tomography (QOCT) based on Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer has recently been demonstrated. By use of quantum entangled photon pairs generated via spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC) process, axial resolution of QOCT can be better than that of OCT in principle for a source of same bandwidth and group velocity dispersion (GVD) effect for QOCT can be automatically cancelled thanks to the frequency correlation of entangled photon pairs. To realize high-resolution QOCT, we need a broadband quantum entangled photon pair source. Then we proposed a novel conventional method to generate broadband spontaneous parametric fluorescence via SPDC by using multiple nonlinear crystals pumped by a CW laser. Our method has controllability to tune the center frequency of generated photons and scalability to extend the number of crystals. This conventional method can enable us to achieve sub-micron axial resolution of QOCT.

Atmospheric turbulence creates index of refraction variations that affect the paths of light propagation and provide a media for the quantum interference phenomena of quantum ghost imaging. The usual techniques for characterization of conventional optical turbulence are not generally sufficient for characterization of the effects of turbulence on quantum ghost imaging. In this paper we explore improved measurement and characterization of turbulence for improved analysis of quantum ghost imaging experiments including Turbulence-Free Ghost Imaging experiments.^1-3

Spatial interference of quantum mechanical particles exhibits a fundamental feature of quantum mechanics. A two-mode entangled state of N particles known as N00N state can give rise to non-classical interference. We report the first experimental observation of a three-photon N00N state exhibiting Young's double-slit type spatial quantum interference. Compared to a single-photon state, the three-photon entangled state generates interference fringes that are three times denser. Moreover, its interference visibility of 0.49 ± 0.09 is well above the limit of 0.1 for spatial super-resolution of classical origin. The demonstration of spatial quantum interference by a N00N state composed of more than two photons represents an important step towards applying quantum entanglement to technologies such as lithography and imaging.

We report an experimental realization of an atomic vapor quantum memory for the photonic polarization qubit. The performance of the quantum memory for the polarization qubit, realized with electromagnetically-induced transparency in two spatially separated ensembles of warm Rubidium atoms in a single vapor cell, has been characterized with quantum process tomography. The process fidelity better than 0.91 for up to 16 μs of storage time has been achieved.