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Ruifang Dong

Publications and source records attributed to Ruifang Dong.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Demonstration of 50 km Fiber-optic two-way quantum time transfer at femtosecond-scale precision

The two-way quantum time transfer method has been proposed and experimentally demonstrated for its potential enhancements in precision and better guarantee of security. To further testify its advantage in practical applications, the applicable direct transmission distance as well as the achievable synchronization precision between independent time scales is of great interest. In this paper, an experiment on two-way quantum time transfer has been carried out over a 50 km long fiber link. With the common clock reference, a short-term stability of 2.6 ps at an averaging time of 7 s and a long-term stability of 54.6 fs at 57300 s were obtained. With independent clock references, assisted by microwave frequency transfer technology, the achieved synchronization showed almost equal performance and reached a stability of 89.5 fs at 57300 s. Furthermore, the spectral consistency of the utilized entangled photon pair sources has been studied concerning its effect on the transfer accuracy and long-term stability. The results obtained have promised a bright future of the two-way quantum time transfer for realizing high-precision time synchronization on metropolitan area fiber links.

quant-ph↗

Implementation of quantum synchronization over a 20-km fiber distance based on frequency-correlated photon pairs and HOM interference

The quantum synchronization based on frequency-correlated photon pairs and HOM interference has shown femtosecond-level precision and great application prospect in numerous fields depending on high-precision timefrequency signals. Due to the difficulty of achieving stable HOM interference fringe after long-distance fiber transmission, this quantum synchronization is hampered from long-haul field application. Utilizing segmented fibers instead of a single long-length fiber, we successfully achieved the stable observation of the two-photon interference of the lab-developed broadband frequency-correlated photon pairs after 20 km-long fiber transmission, without employing auxiliary phase stabilization method. Referenced to this interference fringe, the balance of the two fiber arms is successfully achieved with a long-term stability of 20 fs. The HOM-interference-based synchronization over a 20-km fiber link is thus demonstrated and a minimum stability of 74 fs has been reached at 48,000 s. This result not only provides a simple way to stabilize the fiber-optic two-photon interferometer for long-distance quantum communication systems, but also makes a great stride forward in extending the quantum-interference-based synchronization scheme to the long-haul field applications.

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Robust optical frequency transfer in a noisy urban fiber network

Optical fibers have been recognized as one of the most promising host material for high phase coherence optical frequency transfer over thousands of kilometers. In the pioneering work, the active phase noise cancellation (ANC) technique has been widely used for suppressing the fiber phase noise introduced by the environmental perturbations, in which an ideal phase detector with high resolution and unlimited detection range is needed to extract the fiber phase noise, in particular for noisy fiber links. We demonstrate the passive phase noise cancellation (PNC) technique without the need of phase detector could be preferable for noisy fiber links. To avoid the effect of the radio frequency (RF) from the time base at the local site in the conventional active or passive phase noise cancellation techniques, here we introduce a fiber-pigtailed acousto-optic modulator (AOM) with two diffraction order outputs (0 and +1 order) with properly allocating the AOM-driving frequencies allowing to cancel the time base effect. Using this technique, we demonstrate transfer of coherent light through a 260 km noisy urban fiber link. The results show the effect of the RF reference can be successfully removed. After being passively compensated, {we demonstrate a fractional frequency instability of $4.9\times10^{-14}$ at the integration time of 1 s and scales down to $10^{-20}$ level at 10,000 s in terms of modified Allan deviation over the 260 km noisy urban fiber link}. The frequency uncertainty of the retrieved light after transferring through this noise-compensated fiber link relative to that of the input light achieves $(0.41\pm4.7)\times10^{-18}$. The proposed technique opens a way to a broad distribution of an ultrastable frequency reference with high coherence without any effects coming from the RF reference and enables a wide range of applications beyond metrology over fiber networks.

physics.ins-det↗

Quantum microwave photonics

By harnessing quantum superposition and entanglement, remarkable progress has sprouted over the past three decades from different areas of research in communication computation and simulation. To further improve the processing ability of microwave pho-tonics, here, we have demonstrated a quantum microwave photonic processing system using a low jitter superconducting nanowire single photon detector (SNSPD) and a time-correlated single-photon counting (TCSPC) module. This method uniquely combines extreme optical sensitivity, down to a single-photon level (below -100 dBm), and wide processing bandwidth, twice higher than the transmission bandwidth of the cable. Moreover, benefitted from the trigger, the system can selectively process the desired RF signal and attenuates the other in-tense noise and undesired RF components even the power is 15dB greater than the desired signal power. Using this method we show microwave phase shifting and frequency filtering for the desired RF signal on the single-photon level. Besides its applications in space and under-water communications and testing and qualification of pre-packaged photonic modulators and detectors. This RF signal processing capability at the single-photon level can lead to significant development in the high-speed quantum processing method.

physics.app-ph↗

Nonlocality test of energy-time entanglement via nonlocal dispersion cancellation with nonlocal detection

Energy-time entangled biphoton source plays a great role in quantum communication, quantum metrology and quantum cryptography due to its strong temporal correlation and capability of nonlocal dispersion cancellation. As a quantum effect, nonlocal dispersion cancellation is further proposed as an alternative way for nonlocality test of continuous variable entanglement via the violation of Bell-like inequality proposed by Wasak et al. [Phys. Rev. A, 82, 052120 (2010)]. However, to date there is no experimental report either on the inequality violation or on a nonlocal detection with single-photon detectors at long-distance transmission channel, which is key for a true nonlocality test. In this paper, we report an experimental realization of a violation of the inequality after 62km optical fiber transmission at telecom wavelength with a nonlocal detection based on event timers and cross-correlation algorithm, which indicates a successful nonlocal test of energy-time entanglement. This work provides a new feasibility for the strict test of the nonlocality for continuous variables in both long-distance communication fiber channel and free space.

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Fiber-Optic quantum two-way time transfer with frequency entangled pulses

High-precision time transfer is of fundamental interest in physics and metrology. Quantum time transfer technologies that use frequency-entangled pulses and their coincidence detection have been proposed, offering potential enhancements in precision and better guarantees of security. In this paper, we describe a fiber-optic two-way quantum time transfer experiment. Using quantum nonlocal dispersion cancellation, time transfer over a 20-km fiber link achieves a time deviation of 922 fs over 5 s and 45 fs over 40960 s. The time transfer accuracy as a function of fiber lengths from 15 m to 20 km is also investigated, and an uncertainty of 2.46 ps in standard deviation is observed. In comparison with its classical counterparts, the fiber-optic two-way quantum time transfer setup shows appreciable improvement, and further enhancements could be obtained by using new event timers with sub-picosecond precision and single-photon detectors with lower timing jitter for optimized coincidence detection. Combined with its security advantages, the femtosecond-scale two-way quantum time transfer is expected to have numerous applications in high-precision middle-haul synchronization systems.

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Quantum improved measurement of time transfer

Accurate time transfer has become a crucial issue for future space experiments which require increasing resolution over large distances. In 2008, a scheme combining homodyne detection and mode-locked femtosecond lasers was proposed that leads to a potential timing precision reaching the yoctosecond range; with a multimode quantum frequency comb as the input field, the sub-shot noise measurement for the time transfer can further improve the timing precision. Based on this scheme and applying the multimode squeezing frequency comb that was measured to have a phase quadrature quantum noise reduction of 1.5 dB at the analyzing frequency 2MHz, the measurable timing fluctuation was reduced from a shot-noise limited value of 8.9E-23s to 7.5E-23s. To our knowledge, this is the first experimental demonstration of the time transfer measurement that achieves a precision beyond the standard quantum limit (SQL).

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An efficient source of frequency anti-correlated entanglement at telecom wavelength

We demonstrate an efficient generation of frequency anti-correlated entangled photon pairs at telecom wavelength. The fundamental laser is a continuous-wave high-power fiber laser at 1560 nm, through an extracavity frequency doubling system, a 780-nm pump with a power as high as 742 mW is realized. After single passing through a periodically poled KTiOPO4 (PPKTP) crystal, degenerate down-converted photon pairs are generated. With an overall detection efficiency of 14.8 %, the count rates of the single photons and coincidence of the photon pairs are measured to be 370 kHz and 22 kHz, respectively. The spectra of the signal and idler photons are centered at 1560.23 and 1560.04 nm, while their 3-dB bandwidths being 3.22 nm both. The joint spectrum of the photon pair is observed to be frequency anti correlated and have a spectral bandwidth of 0.52 nm. According to the ratio of the single photon spectral bandwidth to the joint spectral bandwidth of the photon pairs, the degree of frequency entanglement is quantified to be 6.19. Based on a Hong Ou Mandel interferometric coincidence measurement, a frequency indistinguishability of 95 % is demonstrated. The good agreements with the theoretical estimations show that the inherent extra intensity noise in fiber lasers has little influence on frequency entanglement of the generated photon pairs.

quant-ph↗

Demonstration of quantum synchronization based on second-order quantum coherence of entangled photons

Based on the second-order quantum interference between frequency entangled photons that are generated by parametric down conversion, a quantum strategic algorithm for synchronizing two spatially separated clocks has been recently presented. In the reference frame of a Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) interferometer, photon correlations are used to define simultaneous events. Once the HOM interferometer is balanced by use of an adjustable optical delay in one arm, arrival times of simultaneously generated photons are recorded by each clock. The clock offset is determined by correlation measurement of the recorded arrival times. Utilizing this algorithm, we demonstrate a proof-of-principle experiment for synchronizing two clocks separated by 4km fiber link. A minimum timing stability of 0.4 ps at averaging time of 16000 s is achieved with an absolute time accuracy of 59.4 ps. The timing stability is verified to be limited by the correlation measurement device and ideally can be better than 10 fs. Such results shine a light to the application of quantum clock synchronization in the real high-accuracy timing system.

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Generation of picosecond pulsed coherent state superpositions

We present the generation of approximated coherent state superpositions - referred to as Schrödinger cat states - by the process of subtracting single photons from picosecond pulsed squeezed states of light at 830 nm. The squeezed vacuum states are produced by spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) in a periodically poled KTiOPO4 crystal while the single photons are probabilistically subtracted using a beamsplitter and a single photon detector. The resulting states are fully characterized with time-resolved homodyne quantum state tomography. Varying the pump power of the SPDC, we generated different states which exhibit non-Gaussian behavior.

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Experimental demonstration of a Hadamard gate for coherent state qubits

We discuss and experimentally demonstrate a probabilistic Hadamard gate for coherent state qubits. The scheme is based on linear optical components, non-classical resources and the joint projective action of a photon counter and a homodyne detector. We experimentally characterize the gate for the coherent states of the computational basis by full tomographic reconstruction of the transformed output states. Based on the parameters of the experiment we simulate the fidelity for all coherent state qubits on the Bloch sphere.

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Continuous variable entanglement distillation of Non-Gaussian Mixed States

Many different quantum information communication protocols such as teleportation, dense coding and entanglement based quantum key distribution are based on the faithful transmission of entanglement between distant location in an optical network. The distribution of entanglement in such a network is however hampered by loss and noise that is inherent in all practical quantum channels. Thus, to enable faithful transmission one must resort to the protocol of entanglement distillation. In this paper we present a detailed theoretical analysis and an experimental realization of continuous variable entanglement distillation in a channel that is inflicted by different kinds of non-Gaussian noise. The continuous variable entangled states are generated by exploiting the third order non-linearity in optical fibers, and the states are sent through a free-space laboratory channel in which the losses are altered to simulate a free-space atmospheric channel with varying losses. We use linear optical components, homodyne measurements and classical communication to distill the entanglement, and we find that by using this method the entanglement can be probabilistically increased for some specific non-Gaussian noise channels.

quant-ph↗

Triplet-like correlation symmetry of continuous variable entangled states

We report on a continuous variable analogue of the triplet two-qubit Bell states. We theoretically and experimentally demonstrate a remarkable similarity of two-mode continuous variable entangled states with triplet Bell states with respect to their correlation patterns. Borrowing from the two qubit language, we call these correlations triplet-like.

quant-ph↗

Correlation Measurement of Squeezed Light

We study the implementation of a correlation measurement technique for the characterization of squeezed light which is nearly free of electronic noise. With two different sources of squeezed light, we show that the sign of the covariance coefficient, revealed from the time resolved correlation data, is witnessing the presence of squeezing in the system. Furthermore, we estimate the degree of squeezing using the correlation method and compare it to the standard homodyne measurement scheme. We show that the role of electronic detector noise is minimized using the correlation approach as opposed to homodyning where it often becomes a crucial issue.

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Experimental entanglement distillation of mesoscopic quantum states

The distribution of entangled states between distant parties in an optical network is crucial for the successful implementation of various quantum communication protocols such as quantum cryptography, teleportation and dense coding [1-3]. However, owing to the unavoidable loss in any real optical channel, the distribution of loss-intolerant entangled states is inevitably inflicted by decoherence, which causes a degradation of the transmitted entanglement. To combat the decoherence, entanglement distillation, which is the process of extracting a small set of highly entangled states from a large set of less entangled states, can be used [4-14]. Here we report on the mesoscopic distillation of deterministically prepared entangled light pulses that have undergone non-Gaussian noise. The entangled light pulses [15-17] are sent through a lossy channel, where the transmission is varying in time similarly to light propagation in the atmosphere. By employing linear optical components and global classical communication, the entanglement is probabilistically increased.

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Simulations and Experiments on Polarisation Squeezing in Optical Fibre

We investigate polarisation squeezing of ultrashort pulses in optical fibre, over a wide range of input energies and fibre lengths. Comparisons are made between experimental data and quantum dynamical simulations, to find good quantitative agreement. The numerical calculations, performed using both truncated Wigner and exact $+P$ phase-space methods, include nonlinear and stochastic Raman effects, through coupling to phonons variables. The simulations reveal that excess phase noise, such as from depolarising GAWBS, affects squeezing at low input energies, while Raman effects cause a marked deterioration of squeezing at higher energies and longer fibre lengths. The optimum fibre length for maximum squeezing is also calculated.

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Electronic noise-free measurements of squeezed light

We study the implementation of a correlation measurement technique for the characterization of squeezed light. We show that the sign of the covariance coefficient revealed from the time resolved correlation data allow us to distinguish between squeezed, coherent and thermal states. In contrast to the traditional method of characterizing squeezed light, involving measurement of the variation of the difference photocurrent, the correlation measurement method allows to eliminate the contribution of the electronic noise, which becomes a crucial issue in experiments with dim sources of squeezed light.

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An efficient source of continuous variable polarisation entanglement

We have experimentally demonstrated the efficient creation of highly entangled bipartite continuous variable polarisation states. Exploiting an optimised scheme for the production of squeezing using the Kerr non-linearity of a glass fibre we generated polarisation squeezed pulses with a mean classical excitation in S3. Polarisation entanglement was generated by interfering two independent polarisation squeezed fields on a symmetric beam splitter. The resultant beams exhibit strong quantum noise correlations in the dark S1 - S2 polarisation plane. To verify entanglement generation, we characterised the quantum correlations of the system for two different sets of conjugate Stokes parameters. The quantum correlations along the squeezed and the anti-squeezed Stokes parameters were observed to be -4.1 +/- 0.3 dB and -2.6 +/- 0.3 dB below the shot noise level respectively. The degree of correlations was found to depend critically on the beam splitting ratio of the entangling beam splitter. Carrying out measurements on a different set of conjugate Stokes parameters, correlations of -3.6 +/- 0.3 dB and -3.4 +/- 0.3 dB have been observed. This result is more robust against asymmetries in the entangling beam splitter, even in the presence of excess noise.

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