Abstract
Field-orthogonal temporal modes of photonic quantum states provide a new framework for quantum information science (QIS). They intrinsically span a high-dimensional Hilbert space and lend themselves to integration into existing single-mode fiber communication networks. We show that the three main requirements to construct a valid framework for QIS—the controlled generation of resource states, the targeted and highly efficient manipulation of temporal modes, and their efficient detection—can be fulfilled with current technology. We suggest implementations of diverse QIS applications based on this complete set of building blocks.
- Received 23 April 2015
- Corrected 21 January 2016
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.5.041017
This article is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.
Published by the American Physical Society
Corrections
21 January 2016
Erratum
Publisher’s Note: Photon Temporal Modes: A Complete Framework for Quantum Information Science [Phys. Rev. X 5, 041017 (2015)]
B. Brecht, Dileep V. Reddy, C. Silberhorn, and M. G. Raymer
Phys. Rev. X 6, 019901 (2016)
Popular Summary
Quantum information science promises to store, process, and transmit information in ways not achievable using classical information technology. One prominent example of quantum information science is unconditionally secure data encryption, which is secure thanks to fundamental physical properties. To exploit these capabilities, it is necessary to choose an appropriate alphabet for information encoding. Ideally, this alphabet should be large—as opposed to classical information encoding, which relies on only two characters (“0” and “1”)—and experimentally accessible. Here, we show that temporal modes of single-photon states, that is, the temporal shape of pulsed single photons, form an alphabet that fulfills these requirements.
Photons possess 4 degrees of freedom that can be used for storing information. Temporal modes of single-photon states are formally comparable with transverse spatial field modes, but these modes possess distinct advantages: They are naturally compatible with integrated communication networks based on single-mode fiber, and they are unaffected by typical medium distortions such as linear dispersion. These modes are, accordingly, a robust alphabet for real-world applications. Here, we introduce a method for the controlled generation of quantum states comprising a user-defined number of temporal modes. We discuss temporal mode-selective operations based on dispersion-engineered frequency conversion in waveguides. These methods facilitate the generation, manipulation, and detection that form the basis of any quantum information application. With these tools in hand, we propose the implementation of quantum communication and computation schemes based on temporal modes to demonstrate the widespread utility of an alphabet of temporal modes for quantum information science.
We expect that our findings will pave the way for future experimental studies of photonic quantum information science.
