Bidirectional Multiphoton Communication between Remote Superconducting Nodes.

Quantum communication test beds provide a useful resource for experimentally investigating a variety of communication protocols. Here we demonstrate a superconducting circuit test bed with bidirectional multiphoton state transfer capability using time-domain shaped wave packets. The system we use to achieve this comprises two remote nodes, each including a tunable superconducting transmon qubit and a tunable microwave-frequency resonator, linked by a 2 m-long superconducting coplanar waveguide, which serves as a transmission line.

Splitting phonons: Building a platform for linear mechanical quantum computing.

Linear optical quantum computing provides a desirable approach to quantum computing, with only a short list of required computational elements. The similarity between photons and phonons points to the interesting potential for linear mechanical quantum computing using phonons in place of photons. Although single-phonon sources and detectors have been demonstrated, a phononic beam splitter element remains an outstanding requirement.

Entanglement Purification and Protection in a Superconducting Quantum Network.

High-fidelity quantum entanglement is a key resource for quantum communication and distributed quantum computing, enabling quantum state teleportation, dense coding, and quantum encryption. Any sources of decoherence in the communication channel, however, degrade entanglement fidelity, thereby increasing the error rates of entangled state protocols. Entanglement purification provides a method to alleviate these nonidealities by distilling impure states into higher-fidelity entangled states.

Deterministic multi-qubit entanglement in a quantum network.

The generation of high-fidelity distributed multi-qubit entanglement is a challenging task for large-scale quantum communication and computational networks. The deterministic entanglement of two remote qubits has recently been demonstrated with both photons and phonons. However, the deterministic generation and transmission of multi-qubit entanglement has not been demonstrated, primarily owing to limited state-transfer fidelities.

Remote Entanglement via Adiabatic Passage Using a Tunably Dissipative Quantum Communication System.

Effective quantum communication between remote quantum nodes requires high fidelity quantum state transfer and remote entanglement generation. Recent experiments have demonstrated that microwave photons, as well as phonons, can be used to couple superconducting qubits, with a fidelity limited primarily by loss in the communication channel [P. Kurpiers et al.

Phonon-mediated quantum state transfer and remote qubit entanglement.

Phonons, and in particular surface acoustic wave phonons, have been proposed as a means to coherently couple distant solid-state quantum systems. Individual phonons in a resonant structure can be controlled and detected by superconducting qubits, enabling the coherent generation and measurement of complex stationary phonon states. We report the deterministic emission and capture of itinerant surface acoustic wave phonons, enabling the quantum entanglement of two superconducting qubits.

Quantum control of surface acoustic-wave phonons.

One of the hallmarks of quantum physics is the generation of non-classical quantum states and superpositions, which has been demonstrated in several quantum systems, including ions, solid-state qubits and photons. However, only indirect demonstrations of non-classical states have been achieved in mechanical systems, despite the scientific appeal and technical utility of such a capability, including in quantum sensing, computation and communication applications. This is due in part to the highly linear response of most mechanical systems, which makes quantum operations difficult, as well as their characteristically low frequencies, which hinder access to the quantum ground state.

Oxidation of organic contaminants by manganese oxide geomedia for passive urban stormwater treatment systems.

To advance cost-effective strategies for removing trace organic contaminants from urban runoff, the feasibility of using manganese oxides as a geomedia amendment in engineered stormwater infiltration systems to oxidize organic contaminants was evaluated. Ten representative organic chemicals that have previously been detected in urban stormwater were evaluated for reactivity in batch experiments with birnessite. With respect to reactivity, contaminants could be classified as: highly reactive (e.

Impact of halide ions on natural organic matter-sensitized photolysis of 17β-estradiol in saline waters.

Indirect (sensitized) photolysis by natural organic matter (NOM), mainly from terrestrial sources, can be an important mechanism for attenuation of organic contaminants in estuarine waters, but the effect of salt gradients has been poorly investigated. We studied Suwannee River NOM-sensitized photolysis of 17β-estradiol (E2) in freshwater and saline media. Indirect photolysis by 4 mg-C/L SRNOM was much faster than direct photolysis, and quenching by sorbic acid verified the importance of triplet-excited NOM chromophores.

Sorbic acid as a quantitative probe for the formation, scavenging and steady-state concentrations of the triplet-excited state of organic compounds.

Sorbic acid (trans,trans-hexadienoic acid) was developed as a probe for the quantification of the formation rate, overall solution scavenging rate and steady-state concentrations of triplet-excited states of organic compounds. The method was validated against literature data for the quenching rate constant of triplet benzophenone by tyrosine obtained by laser flash photolysis and by Stern-Volmer plots of phosphorescence quenching. In contrast to these methods, the probe method does not require knowledge of the optical properties of triplets to monitor their quenching.

Effect of halide ions and carbonates on organic contaminant degradation by hydroxyl radical-based advanced oxidation processes in saline waters.

Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) generating nonselective hydroxyl radicals (HO*) provide a broad-spectrum contaminant destruction option for the decontamination of waters. Halide ions are scavengers of HO* during AOP treatment, such that treatment of saline waters would be anticipated to be ineffective. However, HO* scavenging by halides converts HO* to radical reactive halogen species (RHS) that participate in contaminant destruction but react more selectively with electron-rich organic compounds.

Nitrogen-phosphorus detection and nitrogen chemiluminescence detection of volatile nitrosamines in water matrices: optimization and performance comparison.

Two nitrogen-specific detection methods, nitrogen-phosphorus detection (NPD) and nitrogen chemiluminescence detection (NCD), were investigated as low cost alternatives to mass spectrometry (MS) with chemical ionization (CI) for analysis of nitrosamines in aqueous samples. NCD showed greater sensitivity to N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) and seven other volatile nitrosamines than did NPD. Instrument detection levels for NDMA were established at 2.

Solid-phase microextraction of N-nitrosamines.

A method was developed for the extraction of seven N-nitrosamine compounds from water by solid-phase microextraction (SPME). The method developed requires a total analysis time of only 1.25 h for both extraction and detection (versus 3-20 h for other isolation techniques).