
- Photonics Research
- Vol. 10, Issue 3, 777 (2022)
Abstract
1. INTRODUCTION
Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen (EPR) entanglement plays a crucial role in quantum information processing, such as quantum communication, quantum computation, and quantum precision measurement [1–5]. Besides entanglement, quantum steering, which stands between entanglement [1] and Bell nonlocality [6] in the hierarchy of quantum correlations [7], has been identified as a useful quantum resource. Different from entanglement and Bell nonlocality, quantum steering shows unique asymmetry or even one-way characteristics [8–16] and, thus, allows asymmetric quantum information processing. For example, quantum steering enables one-side device-independent quantum key distribution [17–19].
Multiplexing provides an efficient method to enhance the data-carrying capability in both classical and quantum communication systems by combining multiple channels into a single channel. By utilizing different degrees of freedom (DOFs) of light, such as wavelength [20,21], polarization [22], temporal [23–25] or spatial [26,27] modes, different types of multiplexing can be realized. Orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light [28] has also been found to be an attractive DOF to realize multiplexing due to its infinite range of possibly achievable topological charges [29,30]. OAM has found applications in discrete-variable quantum information processing, such as high-dimensional OAM entanglement generation [31], and 18-qubit entanglement with six photons’ three DOFs including OAM [32].
Four-wave mixing (FWM) process in warm alkali vapor cell has found a wide range of applications [33–39]. Especially, spatial-multi-mode advantage of the FWM process, attributed to its cavity-free configuration, makes it an ideal optical parametric amplifier to generate entangled images [35] and reconfigurable multipartite entanglement [36]. Quantum correlated twin beams carrying OAM were generated based on the FWM process in rubidium vapor [37]. OAM multiplexed bipartite and multipartite continuous-variable (CV) entangled states have been generated based on the FWM process [40–42]. Furthermore, OAM multiplexed deterministic all-optical quantum teleportation has also been demonstrated by utilizing the OAM multiplexed bipartite CV entangled state generated from the FWM process [43]. To enhance the data-carrying capacity in quantum communication based on OAM multiplexed CV entangled states, it is essential to distribute them in lossy and noisy quantum channels towards practical applications. The distributions of weak coherent field and single photons carrying OAM in fiber, free space, and underwater have been experimentally investigated [44–46]. However, it remains unclear whether the quantum entanglement and steering of OAM multiplexed CV entangled states are more sensitive to loss and noise than a commonly used Gaussian mode with
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Here, we present the deterministic distribution of OAM multiplexed CV quantum entanglement and steering in lossy and noisy channels. In the experiment, the OAM multiplexed entangled fields are generated deterministically based on the FWM process in warm cesium vapor and distributed deterministically in quantum channels. We show that the CV entangled states carrying topological charges
2. PRINCIPLE AND EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
Figure 1(a) shows the schematic of the experimental setup, and Fig. 1(b) shows the double-
Figure 1.(a) Experimental setup for the generation and distribution of OAM multiplexed CV quantum entanglement and steering in a lossy or noisy channel. Pr, probe beam; Conj, conjugate beam;
The Conj field is kept by Alice, whereas the Pr field is distributed to a remote quantum node owned by Bob through a lossy or noisy channel. The lossy channel is simulated by an HWP and a PBS. The noisy channel is modeled by combining the Pr field with an auxiliary beam at a PBS followed by an HWP and a PBS. The auxiliary beam carries the same frequency and topological charge as the Pr field and is modulated by an AM and a PM with white noise [16]. To characterize the OAM multiplexed CV entangled state, its covariance matrix is experimentally measured by utilizing two sets of BHDs. In order to extract the CV quadrature information carried by the OAM mode with a topological charge
The Hamiltonian of the OAM multiplexed FWM process can be expressed as [40]
All Gaussian properties of the CV entangled state
The Peres–Horodecki criterion of positivity under the partial transpose (PPT) criterion is a sufficient and necessary criterion to characterize the entanglement of CV bipartite entanglement [48]. If the smallest symplectic eigenvalue
Quantum steering for bipartite Gaussian states of CV systems can be quantified by [49]
3. RESULTS
To verify the OAM property of the optical fields, we measure the spatial beam patterns of quantum states
Figure 2.(a) and (b) Beam patterns of the OAM multiplexed CV entanglement for
The covariance matrices of the OAM multiplexed entangled states are reconstructed by measuring the noise variances of the amplitude and phase quadratures of the Conj and Pr fields
Figure 2(c) shows the dependence of PPT values of the CV bipartite entangled state carrying different topological charges on the transmission efficiency of the Pr field. The correlation and anticorrelation levels of the initial CV entangled states carrying topological charges
Figure 3 shows the dependence of PPT values of the CV bipartite entangled state carrying different topological charges in noisy channels. Compared with the results in Fig. 2(c), the entanglement disappears at a certain transmission efficiency of the Pr field in the presence of excess noise, which demonstrates the sudden death of CV quantum entanglement. Furthermore, the higher the excess noise is, the sooner entanglement disappears. The transmission efficiencies where entanglement starts to disappear are
Figure 3.Dependence of PPT values of the OAM multiplexed CV entanglement on transmission efficiency
The dependence of steerabilities
Figure 4.Quantum steerabilities of OAM multiplexed CV entangled state distributed in a (a) lossy or (b) noisy channel. The excess noise shown in (b) is
4. CONCLUSION
The distribution of OAM multiplexed CV entanglement and quantum steering in quantum channels with homogeneous loss and noise, such as fiber channels, was experimentally simulated in our paper. There were also other quantum channels with inhomogeneous loss and noise, such as atmospheric turbulence and diffraction. Recently, it was shown that other optical fields carrying OAM, such as vector beams, were turbulence resilient in atmospheric turbulence [52]. Thus, it is worthwhile to investigate the turbulence-resilient characteristics of OAM multiplexed CV quantum entanglement and steering, which have the potential to substantially improve the quantum communication distance and fidelity.
To summarize, we experimentally demonstrated quantum steering of OAM multiplexed optical fields and investigated the distribution of OAM multiplexed CV entanglement and quantum steering in quantum channels. We showed that the decoherence property of CV entanglement and quantum steering of the OAM multiplexed optical fields carrying topological charges
APPENDIX A: THEORETICAL MODEL
The Hamiltonian of the OAM multiplexed FWM process can be expressed as
The pump field is much stronger than the Pr and Conj fields in the FWM process, so it can be regarded as a classical field. By combining the intensity of the pump field
The output state of the OAM multiplexed FWM process is as follows:
All Gaussian properties of the CV Gaussian entangled state
The covariance matrix of the CV bipartite entangled state can be written as
Then, we consider the distribution of CV entangled state
APPENDIX B: DETAILS OF THE EXPERIMENT
The Ti:sapphire laser (Coherent MBR-110) is about 1.6 GHz blue detuned from the
Figure 5.Detailed experimental schematic for distributing OAM multiplexed CV entanglement in a noisy channel. The lossy channel is realized by blocking the auxiliary beam. D-shaped mirrors (DMs) are utilized to combine or separate light beams with small distances. HWP, half-wave plate; PBS, polarization beam splitter; EOM, electro-optic modulator; VPP, vortex phase plate; GL, Glan-laser polarizer; GT, Glan–Thompson polarizer; Pr, probe beam; Conj, conjugate beam; AM, amplitude modulator; PM, phase modulator; M, mirror; DM, D-shaped mirror; PZT, piezoelectric ceramics; BS, 50:50 beam splitter; BHD, balanced homodyne detector; SA, spectrum analyzer.
The two sets of FWM processes are constructed in the same cesium vapor cell with a height difference of 5 mm. The bottom FWM process is used to generate the OAM multiplexed CV entangled state, whereas the top FWM process is used to generate spatially matched LOs with Pr and Conj fields. The pump power in the bottom FWM process for generating OAM multiplexed CV entanglement is 240 mW. The probe gain of the bottom FWM process is around 3, and the degree of initially generated CV entanglement is around
The lossy channel is simulated by
APPENDIX C: MEASUREMENT OF COVARIANCE MATRIX
To reconstruct the covariance matrix of the CV quantum entangled state, we perform six different measurements on the output optical modes. These measurements include the variances of the amplitude and phase quadratures of Conj and Pr fields
Figure
Figure 6.Measured quantum correlation noises for initially generated OAM multiplexed CV entangled states carrying topological charges (a)
With the measured six noise variances, the cross-correlation matrix elements are calculated via
In the experiment, we obtain all the covariance matrices of quantum states with different transmission efficiencies and excess noise and then calculate the smallest symplectic eigenvalue
APPENDIX D: SUPPLEMENTAL BEAM PATTERNS
Supplemental beam patterns of the OAM modes of Pr and Conj beams generated from the FWM process are shown in Fig.
Figure 7.Images of OAM modes of the Pr beam and Conj beam generated from the FWM process. (a)
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