Bell-state measurement exceeding 50% success probability with linear optics.

Bell-state projections serve as a fundamental basis for most quantum communication and computing protocols today. However, with current Bell-state measurement schemes based on linear optics, only two of four Bell states can be identified, which means that the maximum success probability of this vital step cannot exceed 50%. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a scheme that amends the original measurement with additional modes in the form of ancillary photons, which leads to a more complex measurement pattern, and ultimately a higher success probability of 62.

Optimal Entanglement Swapping in Quantum Repeaters.

We formulate the problem of finding the optimal entanglement swapping scheme in a quantum repeater chain as a Markov decision process and present its solution for different repeaters' sizes. Based on this, we are able to demonstrate that the commonly used "doubling" scheme for performing probabilistic entanglement swapping of probabilistically distributed entangled qubit pairs in quantum repeaters does not always produce the best possible raw rate. Focusing on this figure of merit, without considering additional probabilistic elements for error suppression such as entanglement distillation on higher "nesting levels," our approach reveals that a power-of-two number of segments has no privileged position in quantum repeater theory; the best scheme can be constructed for any number of segments.

All-Optical Storage of Phase-Sensitive Quantum States of Light.

We experimentally demonstrate storage and on-demand release of phase-sensitive, photon-number superposition states of the form α|0⟩+βe^{iθ}|1⟩ for an optical quantized oscillator mode. For this purpose, we newly developed a phase-probing mechanism compatible with a storage system composed of two concatenated optical cavities, which was previously employed for storage of phase-insensitive single-photon states [Phys. Rev.

Ultrafast Long-Distance Quantum Communication with Static Linear Optics.

We propose a projection measurement onto encoded Bell states with a static network of linear optical elements. By increasing the size of the quantum error correction code, both Bell measurement efficiency and photon-loss tolerance can be made arbitrarily high at the same time. As a main application, we show that all-optical quantum communication over large distances with communication rates similar to those of classical communication is possible solely based on local state teleportations using optical sources of encoded Bell states, fixed arrays of beam splitters, and photon detectors.

Synchronization of optical photons for quantum information processing.

A fundamental element of quantum information processing with photonic qubits is the nonclassical quantum interference between two photons when they bunch together via the Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) effect. Ultimately, many such photons must be processed in complex interferometric networks. For this purpose, it is essential to synchronize the arrival times of the flying photons and to keep their purities high.

Entanglement swapping between discrete and continuous variables.

We experimentally realize "hybrid" entanglement swapping between discrete-variable (DV) and continuous-variable (CV) optical systems. DV two-mode entanglement as obtainable from a single photon split at a beam splitter is robustly transferred by means of efficient CV entanglement and operations, using sources of squeezed light and homodyne detections. The DV entanglement after the swapping is verified without postselection by the logarithmic negativity of up to 0.

Noiseless Conditional Teleportation of a Single Photon.

We experimentally demonstrate the noiseless teleportation of a single photon by conditioning on quadrature Bell measurement results near the origin in phase space and thereby circumventing the photon loss that otherwise occurs even in optimal gain-tuned continuous-variable quantum teleportation. In general, thanks to this loss suppression, the noiseless conditional teleportation can preserve the negativity of the Wigner function for an arbitrary pure input state and an arbitrary pure entangled resource state. In our experiment, the positive value of the Wigner function at the origin for the unconditional output state, W(0,0)=0.

3/4-Efficient Bell measurement with passive linear optics and unentangled ancillae.

It is well known that an unambiguous discrimination of the four optically encoded Bell states is possible with a probability of 50% at best, when using static, passive linear optics and arbitrarily many vacuum-mode ancillae. By adding unentangled single-photon ancillae, we are able to surpass this limit and reach a success probability of at least 75%. We discuss the error robustness of the proposed scheme and a generalization to reach a success probability arbitrarily close to 100%.

Deterministic quantum teleportation of photonic quantum bits by a hybrid technique.

Quantum teleportation allows for the transfer of arbitrary unknown quantum states from a sender to a spatially distant receiver, provided that the two parties share an entangled state and can communicate classically. It is the essence of many sophisticated protocols for quantum communication and computation. Photons are an optimal choice for carrying information in the form of 'flying qubits', but the teleportation of photonic quantum bits (qubits) has been limited by experimental inefficiencies and restrictions.

Beating the one-half limit of ancilla-free linear optics Bell measurements.

We show that optically encoded two-qubit Bell states can be unambiguously discriminated with a success probability of more than 50% in both single-rail and dual-rail encodings by using active linear-optical resources that include Gaussian squeezing operations. These results are in contrast to the well-known upper bound of 50% for unambiguous discrimination of dual-rail Bell states using passive, static linear optics and arbitrarily many vacuum modes. We present experimentally feasible schemes that improve the success probability to 64.

Demonstration of a controlled-phase gate for continuous-variable one-way quantum computation.

We experimentally demonstrate a controlled-phase gate for continuous variables using a cluster-state resource of four optical modes. The two independent input states of the gate are coupled with the cluster in a teleportation-based fashion. As a result, one of the entanglement links present in the initial cluster state appears in the two unmeasured output modes as the corresponding entangling gate acting on the input states.

How to decompose arbitrary continuous-variable quantum operations.

We present a general, systematic, and efficient method for decomposing any given exponential operator of bosonic mode operators, describing an arbitrary multimode Hamiltonian evolution, into a set of universal unitary gates. Although our approach is mainly oriented towards continuous-variable quantum computation, it may be used more generally whenever quantum states are to be transformed deterministically, e.g.

Demonstration of unconditional one-way quantum computations for continuous variables.

One-way quantum computation is a very promising candidate to fulfill the capabilities of quantum information processing. Here we demonstrate an important set of unitary operations for continuous variables using a linear cluster state of four entangled optical modes. These operations are performed in a fully measurement-controlled and completely unconditional fashion.

Demonstration of a quantum nondemolition sum gate.

The sum gate is the canonical two-mode gate for universal quantum computation based on continuous quantum variables. It represents the natural analogue to a qubit C-NOT gate. In addition, the continuous-variable gate describes a quantum nondemolition (QND) interaction between the quadrature components of two light modes.

Universal quantum computation with continuous-variable cluster states.

We describe a generalization of the cluster-state model of quantum computation to continuous-variable systems, along with a proposal for an optical implementation using squeezed-light sources, linear optics, and homodyne detection. For universal quantum computation, a nonlinear element is required. This can be satisfied by adding to the toolbox any single-mode non-Gaussian measurement, while the initial cluster state itself remains Gaussian.

Experimental creation of a fully inseparable tripartite continuous-variable state.

A continuous-variable tripartite entangled state is experimentally generated by combining three independent squeezed vacuum states, and the variances of its relative positions and total momentum are measured. We show that the measured values violate the separability criteria based on the sum of these quantities and prove the full inseparability of the generated state.