I. Marcikic

Long-distance teleportation of qubits at telecommunication wavelengths

Elementary 2-dimensional quantum states (qubits) encoded in 1300 nm wavelength photons are teleported onto 1550 nm photons. The use of telecommunication wavelengths enables to take advantage of standard optical fibre and permits to teleport from one lab to a distant one, 55 m away, connected by 2 km of fibre. A teleportation fidelity of 81.2 % is reported. This is large enough to demonstrate the principles of quantum teleportation, in particular that entanglement is exploited. This experiment constitutes a first step towards a quantum repeater.Matter and energy cannot be teleported (that is, transferred from one place to another without passing through intermediate locations). However, teleportation of quantum states (the ultimate structure of objects) is possible: only the structure is teleported—the matter stays at the source side and must be already present at the final location. Several table-top experiments have used qubits (two-dimensional quantum systems) or continuous variables to demonstrate the principle over short distances. Here we report a long-distance experimental demonstration of probabilistic quantum teleportation. Qubits carried by photons of 1.3 µm wavelength are teleported onto photons of 1.55 µm wavelength from one laboratory to another, separated by 55 m but connected by 2 km of standard telecommunications fibre. The first (and, with foreseeable technologies, the only) application of quantum teleportation is in quantum communication, where it could help to extend quantum cryptography to larger distances.

Distribution of time-bin entangled qubits over 50 km of optical fiber

We report experimental distribution of time-bin entangled qubits over 50 km of optical fibers. Using actively stabilized preparation and measurement devices we demonstrate violation of the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt Bell inequality by more than 15 standard deviations without removing the detector noise. In addition we report a proof-of principle experiment of quantum key distribution over 50 km of optical fibers using entangled photon.

Time-bin entangled qubits for quantum communication created by femtosecond pulses

We create pairs of non-degenerate time-bin entangled photons at telecom wavelengths with ultra-short pump pulses. Entanglement is shown by performing Bell kind tests of the Franson type with visibilities of up to 91%. As time-bin entanglement can easily be protected from decoherence as encountered in optical fibers, this experiment opens the road for complex quantum communication protocols over long distances. We also investigate the creation of more than one photon pair in a laser pulse and present a simple tool to quantify the probability of such events to happen.

Long-distance entanglement swapping with photons from separated sources

We report the experimental realization of entanglement swapping over long distances in optical fibers. Two photons separated by more than 2 km of optical fibers are entangled, although they never directly interacted. We use two pairs of time-bin entangled qubits created in spatially separated sources and carried by photons at telecommunication wavelengths. A partial Bell-state measurement is performed with one photon from each pair, which projects the two remaining photons, formerly independent onto an entangled state. A visibility high enough to infer a violation of a Bell inequality is reported, after both photons have each traveled through 1.1 km of optical fiber.

Quantum interference with photon pairs created in spatially separated sources

We report on a quantum interference experiment to probe the coherence between two photons coming from nondegenerate photon pairs at telecom wavelength created in spatially separated sources. The two photons are mixed on a beam splitter and we observe a reduction of up to 84% in the net coincidence count rate when the photons are made indistinguishable. This experiment constitutes an important step towards the realization of quantum teleportation and entanglement swapping with independent sources.

Tailoring photonic entanglement in high-dimensional Hilbert spaces

We present an experiment where two photonic systems of arbitrary dimensions can be entangled. The method is based on spontaneous parametric down-conversion with trains of d pump pulses with a fixed phase relation, generated by a mode-locked laser. This leads to a photon pair created in a coherent superposition of d discrete emission times, given by the successive laser pulses. Entanglement is shown by performing a two-photon interference experiment and by observing the visibility of the interference fringes increasing as a function of the dimension d. Factors limiting the visibility, such as the presence of multiple pairs in one train, are discussed.

Experimental realization of a quantum relay over a significant distance

Abstract A quantum teleportation over long distances is reported. Alices unknown quantum state carried by a 1300 nm photon is teleported onto Bobs 1550 nm photon. Bob is situated in another lab connected with the EPR source by 2 km of optical fibres and at a physical distance of 55 m. The Bell state measurement is performed between two photons that travelled through 2 km of optical fibres each. This is a simulation of a transmission of a quantum state over 6 km using quantum teleportation which is the principle of a quantum relay protocol. A fidelity of 77% is obtained which is higher than the fidelity obtained with the best protocol using not entangled particles.