X. Y. Chang

State-Independent Experimental Test of Quantum Contextuality in an Indivisible System

We report the first state-independent experimental test of quantum contextuality on a single photonic qutrit (three-dimensional system), based on a recent theoretical proposal [Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 030402 (2012)]. Our experiment spotlights quantum contextuality in its most basic form, in a way that is independent of either the state or the tensor product structure of the system.

Experimental demonstration of quantum gain in a zero-sum game

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a zero-sum game that is in a fair Nash equilibrium for classical players, but has the property that a quantum player can always win using an appropriate strategy. The gain of the quantum player is measured experimentally for different quantum strategies and input states. It is found that the quantum gain is maximized by a maximally entangled state, but does not decrease to zero when entanglement disappears. Instead, it links with another kind of quantum correlation described by discord for the qubit case and the connection is demonstrated both theoretically and experimentally.

Experimental demonstration of a quantum router

The router is a key element for a network. We describe a scheme to realize genuine quantum routing of single-photon pulses based on cascading of conditional quantum gates in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer and report a proof-of-principle experiment for its demonstration using linear optics quantum gates. The polarization of the control photon routes in a coherent way the path of the signal photon while preserving the qubit state of the signal photon represented by its polarization. We demonstrate quantum nature of this router by showing entanglement generated between the initially unentangled control and signal photons, and confirm that the qubit state of the signal photon is well preserved by the router through quantum process tomography.

Quantum teleportation from light beams to vibrational states of a macroscopic diamond.

With the recent development of optomechanics, the vibration in solids, involving collective motion of trillions of atoms, gradually enters into the realm of quantum control. Here, building on the recent remarkable progress in optical control of motional states of diamonds, we report an experimental demonstration of quantum teleportation from light beams to vibrational states of a macroscopic diamond under ambient conditions. Through quantum process tomography, we demonstrate average teleportation fidelity (90.6±1.0)%, clearly exceeding the classical limit of 2/3. The experiment pushes the target of quantum teleportation to the biggest object so far, with interesting implications for optomechanical quantum control and quantum information science.

Experimental Distillation of Quantum Nonlocality

We report the first experimental demonstration of distillation of quantum nonlocality, confirming the recent theoretical protocol [Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 120401 (2009)]. Quantum nonlocality is described by a correlation box with binary inputs and outputs, and the nonlocal boxes are realized through appropriate measurements on polarization entangled photon pairs. We demonstrate that nonlocality is amplified by connecting two nonlocal boxes into a composite one through local operations and four-photon measurements.

Room-temperature storage of quantum entanglement using decoherence-free subspace in a solid-state spin system

We experimentally demonstrate room-temperature storage of quantum entanglement using two nuclear spins weakly coupled to the electronic spin carried by a single nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond. We realize universal quantum gate control over the three-qubit spin system and produce entangled states in the decoherence-free subspace of the two nuclear spins. By injecting arbitrary collective noise, we demonstrate that the decoherence-free entangled state has coherence time longer than that of other entangled states by an order of magnitude in our experiment.

Observation of Topological Links Associated with Hopf Insulators in a Solid-State Quantum Simulator*

Hopf insulators are intriguing three-dimensional topological insulators characterized by an integer topological invariant. They originate from the mathematical theory of Hopf fibration and epitomize the deep connection between knot theory and topological phases of matter, which distinguishes them from other classes of topological insulators. Here, we implement a model Hamiltonian for Hopf insulators in a solid-state quantum simulator and report the first experimental observation of their topological properties, including nontrivial topological links associated with the Hopf fibration and the integer-valued topological invariant obtained from a direct tomographic measurement. Our observation of topological links and Hopf fibration in a quantum simulator opens the door to probe rich topological properties of Hopf insulators in experiments. The quantum simulation and probing methods are also applicable to the study of other intricate three-dimensional topological model Hamiltonians.

Experimental realization of an entanglement access network and secure multi-party computation

To construct a quantum network with many end users, it is critical to have a cost-efficient way to distribute entanglement over different network ends. We demonstrate an entanglement access network, where the expensive resource, the entangled photon source at the telecom wavelength and the core communication channel, is shared by many end users. Using this cost-efficient entanglement access network, we report experimental demonstration of a secure multiparty computation protocol, the privacy-preserving secure sum problem, based on the network quantum cryptography.

Experimental observation of entanglement duality for identical particles

It was shown recently that entanglement of identical particles has a feature called dualism (Bose and Home 2013 Phys. Rev. Lett. 110 140404), which is fundamentally connected with quantum indistinguishability. Here we report an experiment that observes the entanglement duality for the first time with two identical photons, which manifest polarization entanglement when labeled by different paths or path entanglement when labeled by polarization states. By adjusting the mismatch in frequency or arrival time of the entangled photons, we tune the photon indistinguishability from the quantum to the classical limit and observe that the entanglement duality disappears under the emergence of classical distinguishability, confirming it as a characteristic feature of quantum indistinguishable particles.

Realization of Quantum Maxwell's Demon with Solid-State Spins

Resolution of the century-long paradox on Maxwells demon reveals a deep connection between information theory and thermodynamics. Although initially introduced as a thought experiment, Maxwells demon can now be implemented in several physical systems, leading to intriguing test of information-thermodynamic relations. Here, we report experimental realization of a quantum version of Maxwells demon using solid state spins where the information acquiring and feedback operations by the demon are achieved through conditional quantum gates. A unique feature of this implementation is that the demon can start in a quantum superposition state or in an entangled state with an ancilla observer. Through quantum state tomography, we measure the entropy in the system, demon, and the ancilla, showing the influence of coherence and entanglement on the result. A quantum implementation of Maxwells demon adds more controllability to this paradoxical thermal machine and may find applications in quantum thermodynamics involving microscopic systems.