arXiv subjects

Changchen Chen

Publications and source records attributed to Changchen Chen.

13 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

Individually Addressable and Spectrally Programmable Artificial Atoms in Silicon Photonics

Artificial atoms in solids have emerged as leading systems for quantum information processing tasks such as quantum networking, sensing, and computing. A central goal is to develop platforms for precise and scalable control of individually addressable artificial atoms that feature efficient optical interfaces. Color centers in silicon, such as the recently-isolated carbon-related 'G-center', exhibit emission directly into the telecommunications O-band and can leverage the maturity of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) photonics. Here, we demonstrate the generation, individual addressing, and spectral trimming of G-center artificial atoms in a SOI photonic integrated circuit (PIC) platform. Focusing on the neutral charge state emission at 1278nm, we observe waveguide-coupled single photon emission with an exceptionally narrow inhomogeneous distribution with standard deviation of 1.1nm, an excited state lifetime of 8.3$\pm$0.7ns, and no degradation after months of operation. In addition, we introduce a technique for optical trimming of spectral transitions up to 300 pm (55 GHz) and local deactivation of single artificial atoms. This non-volatile "spectral programming" enables the alignment of quantum emitters into 25 GHz telecommunication grid channels. Our demonstration opens the path to quantum information processing based on implantable artificial atoms in very large scale integrated (VLSI) photonics.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Spectrally separable photon-pair generation in dispersion engineered thin-film lithium niobate

Existing nonlinear-optic implementations of pure, unfiltered heralded single-photon sources do not offer the scalability required for densely integrated quantum networks. Additionally, lithium niobate has hitherto been unsuitable for such use due to its material dispersion. We engineer the dispersion and the quasi-phasematching conditions of a waveguide in the rapidly emerging thin-film lithium niobate platform to generate spectrally separable photon pairs in the telecommunications band. Such photon pairs can be used as spectrally pure heralded single-photon sources in quantum networks. We estimate a heralded-state spectral purity of ${>}94\%$ based on joint spectral intensity measurements. Further, a joint spectral phase-sensitive measurement of the unheralded time-integrated second-order correlation function yields a heralded-state purity of $(86 \pm 5)\%$.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2021

Spectral control of nonclassical light using an integrated thin-film lithium niobate modulator

Manipulating the frequency and bandwidth of nonclassical light is essential for implementing frequency-encoded/multiplexed quantum computation, communication, and networking protocols, and for bridging spectral mismatch among various quantum systems. However, quantum spectral control requires a strong nonlinearity mediated by light, microwave, or acoustics, which is challenging to realize with high efficiency, low noise, and on an integrated chip. Here, we demonstrate both frequency shifting and bandwidth compression of nonclassical light using an integrated thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) phase modulator. We achieve record-high electro-optic frequency shearing of telecom single photons over terahertz range ($\pm$ 641 GHz or $\pm$ 5.2 nm), enabling high visibility quantum interference between frequency-nondegenerate photon pairs. We further operate the modulator as a time lens and demonstrate over eighteen-fold (6.55 nm to 0.35 nm) bandwidth compression of single photons. Our results showcase the viability and promise of on-chip quantum spectral control for scalable photonic quantum information processing.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2021

Experimental demonstration of conjugate-Franson interferometry

Franson interferometry is a well-known quantum measurement technique for probing photon-pair frequency correlations that is often used to certify time-energy entanglement. We demonstrate the complementary technique in the time basis, called conjugate-Franson interferometry, that measures photon-pair arrival-time correlations, thus providing a valuable addition to the quantum toolbox. We obtain a conjugate-Franson interference visibility of $96\pm 1$% without background subtraction for entangled photon pairs generated by spontaneous parametric down-conversion. Our measured result surpasses the quantum-classical threshold by 25 standard deviations and validates the conjugate-Franson interferometer (CFI) as an alternative method for certifying time-energy entanglement. Moreover, the CFI visibility is a function of the biphoton's joint temporal intensity and is therefore sensitive to that state's spectral phase variation, something which is not the case for Franson interferometry or Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometry. We highlight the CFI's utility by measuring its visibilities for two different biphoton states, one without and the other with spectral phase variation, and observing a 21% reduction in the CFI visibility for the latter. The CFI is potentially useful for applications in areas of photonic entanglement, quantum communications, and quantum networking.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Quantum transport simulations in a programmable nanophotonic processor

Environmental noise and disorder play critical roles in quantum particle and wave transport in complex media, including solid-state and biological systems. Recent work has predicted that coupling between noisy environments and disordered systems, in which coherent transport has been arrested due to localization effects, could actually enhance transport. Photonic integrated circuits are promising platforms for studying such effects, with a central goal being the development of large systems providing low-loss, high-fidelity control over all parameters of the transport problem. Here, we fully map the role of disorder in quantum transport using a nanophotonic processor consisting of a mesh of 88 generalized beamsplitters programmable on microsecond timescales. Over 64,400 transport experiments, we observe several distinct transport regimes, including environment-assisted quantum transport and the ''quantum Goldilocks'' regime in strong, statically disordered discrete-time systems. Low loss and high-fidelity programmable transformations make this nanophotonic processor a promising platform for many-boson quantum simulation experiments.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Resolving photon numbers using a superconducting tapered nanowire detector

Time- and number-resolved photon detection is crucial for photonic quantum information processing. Existing photon-number-resolving (PNR) detectors usually have limited timing and dark-count performance or require complex fabrication and operation. Here we demonstrate a PNR detector at telecommunication wavelengths based on a single superconducting nanowire with an integrated impedance-matching taper. The prototyping device was able to resolve up to five absorbed photons and had 16.1 ps timing jitter, <2 c.p.s. device dark count rate, $\sim$86 ns reset time, and 5.6% system detection efficiency (without cavity) at 1550 nm. Its exceptional distinction between single- and two-photon responses is ideal for coincidence counting and allowed us to directly observe bunching of photon pairs from a single output port of a Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer. This detector architecture may provide a practical solution to applications that require high timing resolution and few-photon discrimination.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2019

Variational Quantum Unsampling on a Quantum Photonic Processor

Quantum algorithms for Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) machines have recently emerged as new promising routes towards demonstrating near-term quantum advantage (or supremacy) over classical systems. In these systems samples are typically drawn from probability distributions which --- under plausible complexity-theoretic conjectures --- cannot be efficiently generated classically. Rather than first define a physical system and then determine computational features of the output state, we ask the converse question: given direct access to the quantum state, what features of the generating system can we efficiently learn? In this work we introduce the Variational Quantum Unsampling (VQU) protocol, a nonlinear quantum neural network approach for verification and inference of near-term quantum circuits outputs. In our approach one can variationally train a quantum operation to unravel the action of an unknown unitary on a known input state; essentially learning the inverse of the black-box quantum dynamics. While the principle of our approach is platform independent, its implementation will depend on the unique architecture of a specific quantum processor. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the VQU protocol on a quantum photonic processor. Alongside quantum verification, our protocol has broad applications; including optimal quantum measurement and tomography, quantum sensing and imaging, and ansatz validation.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2017

Experimental Quantum Key Distribution at 1.3 Gbit/s Secret-Key Rate over a 10-dB-Loss Channel

Quantum key distribution (QKD) enables unconditionally secure communication ensured by the laws of physics, opening a promising route to security infrastructure for the coming age of quantum computers. QKD's demonstrated secret-key rates (SKRs), however, fall far short of the gigabit-per-second rates of classical communication, hindering QKD's widespread deployment. QKD's low SKRs are largely due to existing single-photon-based protocols' vulnerability to channel loss. Floodlight QKD (FL-QKD) boosts SKR by transmitting many photons per encoding, while offering security against collective attacks. Here, we report an FL-QKD experiment operating at a 1.3 Gbit/s SKR over a 10-dB-loss channel. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first QKD demonstration that achieves a gigabit-per-second-class SKR, representing a critical advance toward high-rate QKD at metropolitan-area distances.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2017

Metropolitan quantum key distribution with silicon photonics

Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) provide a compact and stable platform for quantum photonics. Here we demonstrate a silicon photonics quantum key distribution (QKD) transmitter in the first high-speed polarization-based QKD field tests. The systems reach composable secret key rates of 950 kbps in a local test (on a 103.6-m fiber with a total emulated loss of 9.2 dB) and 106 kbps in an intercity metropolitan test (on a 43-km fiber with 16.4 dB loss). Our results represent the highest secret key generation rate for polarization-based QKD experiments at a standard telecom wavelength and demonstrate PICs as a promising, scalable resource for future formation of metropolitan quantum-secure communications networks.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2017

Efficient generation and spectral characterization of spectrally factorable biphotons

Spectrally unentangled biphotons with high single-spatiotemporal-mode purity are highly desirable for many quantum information processing tasks. We generate biphotons with an inferred heralded-state spectral purity of 99%, the highest to date without any spectral filtering, by pulsed spontaneous parametric downconversion in a custom-fabricated periodically-poled KTiOPO$_4$ crystal under extended Gaussian phase-matching conditions. To efficiently characterize the joint spectral intensity of the generated biphotons at high spectral resolution, we employ a commercially available dispersion compensation module (DCM) with a dispersion equivalent to 100 km of standard optical fiber and with an insertion loss of only 2.8 dB. Compared with the typical method of using two temperature-stabilized equal-length fibers that incurs an insertion loss of 20 dB per fiber, the DCM approach achieves high spectral resolution in a much shorter measurement time. Because the dispersion amount and center wavelengths of DCMs can be easily customized, spectral characterization in a wide range of quantum photonic applications should benefit significantly from this technique.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Multiplexing Free-Space Channels using Twisted Light

We experimentally demonstrate an interferometric protocol for multiplexing optical states of light, with potential to become a standard element in free-space communication schemes that utilize light endowed with orbital angular momentum (OAM). We demonstrate multiplexing for odd and even OAM superpositions generated using different sources. In addition, our technique permits one to prepare either coherent superpositions or statistical mixtures of OAM states. We employ state tomography to study the performance of this protocol, and we demonstrate fidelities greater than 0.98.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Wigner distribution of twisted photons

We present the first experimental characterization of the azimuthal Wigner distribution of a photon. Our protocol fully characterizes the transverse structure of a photon in conjugate bases of orbital angular momentum (OAM) and azimuthal angle (ANG). We provide a test of our protocol by characterizing pure superpositions and incoherent mixtures of OAM modes in a seven-dimensional space. The time required for performing measurements in our scheme scales only linearly with the dimension size of the state under investigation. This time scaling makes our technique suitable for quantum information applications involving a large number of OAM states.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2013

Rapid Generation of Light Beams Carrying Orbital Angular Momentum

We report a technique for encoding both amplitude and phase variations onto a laser beam using a single digital micro-mirror device (DMD). Using this technique, we generate Laguerre-Gaussian and vortex orbital-angular-momentum (OAM) modes, along with modes in a set that is mutually unbiased with respect to the OAM basis. Additionally, we have demonstrated rapid switching among the generated modes at a speed of 4 kHz, which is much faster than the speed regularly achieved by spatial light modulators (SLMs). The dynamic control of both phase and amplitude of a laser beam is an enabling technology for classical communication and quantum key distribution (QKD) systems that employ spatial mode encoding.

quant-ph↗