arXiv subjects

Thomas McDermott

Publications and source records attributed to Thomas McDermott.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2024

CHSH Bell Tests For Optical Hybrid Entanglement

Optical hybrid entanglement can be created between two qubits, one encoded in a single photon and another one in coherent states with opposite phases. It opens the path to a variety of quantum technologies, such as heterogeneous quantum networks, merging continuous and discrete variable encoding, and enabling the transport and interconversion of information. However, reliable characterization of the nature of this entanglement is limited so far to full quantum state tomography. Here, we perform a thorough study of Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (CHSH) Bell inequality tests, enabling practical verification of quantum correlations for optical hybrid entanglement. We show that a practical violation of this inequality is possible with simple photon number on/off measurements if detection efficiencies stay above 82%. Another approach, based on photon-number parity measurements, requires 94% efficiency but works well in the limit of higher photon populations. Both tests use no postselection of the measurement outcomes and they are free of the fair-sampling hypothesis. Our proposal paves the way to performing loophole-free tests using feasible experimental tasks such as coherent state interference and photon counting, and to verification of hybrid entanglement in real-world applications.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Tunable mechanically-induced hysteresis in suspended Josephson junctions

The coupling of superconducting systems to mechanical resonators is an emerging field, with wide reaching implications including high precision sensing and metrology. Experimental signatures of this coupling have so far been small, seldom and often reliant on high frequency AC electronics. To overcome this limitation, in this work we consider a mechanical resonator suspended between two superconducting contacts to form a suspended Josephson junction in which the electronic normal- and super-currents can be coupled to mechanical motion via the Lorentz force due to an external magnetic field. We show both analytically and numerically that this electro-mechanical coupling produces unprecedented mechanically-induced hysteresis loops in the junction's DC I-V characteristic. Firstly, we unveil how this new hysteresis may be exploited to access a huge mechanically-induced Shapiro-like voltage plateau, extending over a current range comparable with the junction's critical current. We then investigate a sudden mechanically-induced retrapping that occurs at strong coupling. Our analytical treatment provides a clear explanation for the effects above and allows us to derive simple relationships between the features in the DC I-V characteristic and the resonance frequency and quality factor of the mechanical resonator. We stress that our setup requires only DC current bias and voltage measurements, allowing the activation and detection of high-frequency mechanical oscillations in state of the art devices and without the need of any AC equipment.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2022

Eberhard limit for photon-counting Bell tests and its utility in quantum key distribution

Loophole-free Bell tests are essential if one wishes to perform device-independent quantum key distribution (QKD), since any loophole could be used by a potential adversary to undermine the security of the protocol. Crucial work by Eberhard demonstrated that weakly entangled two-qubit states have a far greater resistance to the detection loophole than maximally entangled states, allowing one to close the loophole with detection efficiency greater than 2/3. Here we demonstrate that this same limit holds for photon-counting CHSH Bell tests which can demonstrate non-locality for higher dimensional multiphoton states such as two-mode squeezed vacuum and generalized Holland-Burnett states. In fact, we show evidence that these tests are in some sense universal, allowing feasible detection loophole-free tests for any multiphoton bipartite state, as long as the two modes are well correlated in photon number. Additionally, by going beyond the typical two-input two-output Bell scenario, we show that there are also photon-counting CGLMP inequalities which can also match the Eberhard limit, paving the way for more exotic loophole-free Bell tests. Finally we show that by exploiting this increased loss tolerance of non maximally entangled states, one can increase the key rates and loss tolerances of QKD protocols based on photon-counting tests.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Proposal for distribution of multi-photon entanglement with optimal rate-distance scaling

We propose a protocol to perform long-range distribution of near-maximally entangled multiphoton states, allowing versatile applications such as quantum key distribution (QKD) and quantum metrology which can provide alternatives to state-of-the-art protocols. Our scheme uses resources available within the current integrated quantum photonic technology: squeezed vacuum states and photon-number-resolving detectors. The distributed entanglement can be certified by Bell tests which have the potential to be loophole free, and may be directly used in well established QKD protocols. Generally, this provides measurement-device-independent (MDI) levels of security, which may be upgraded to fully device-independent (DI) security if the Bell test is loophole-free. In both cases, the protocol is robust to extremely high transmission losses, matching the optimal $O(\sqrtη)$ scaling of key rate with channel transmittance.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2017

Strong mechanically-induced effects in DC current-biased suspended Josephson junctions

Superconductivity is a result of quantum coherence at macroscopic scales. Two superconductors separated by a metallic or insulating weak link exhibit the AC Josephson effect - the conversion of a DC voltage bias into an AC supercurrent. This current may be used to activate mechanical oscillations in a suspended weak link. As the DC voltage bias condition is remarkably difficult to achieve in experiments, here we analyse theoretically how the Josephson effect can be exploited to activate and detect mechanical oscillations in the experimentally relevant condition with purely DC current bias. We unveil for the first time how changing the strength of the electromechanical coupling results in two qualitatively different regimes showing dramatic effects of the oscillations on the DC current-voltage characteristic of the device. These include the apperance of Shapiro-like plateaux for weak coupling and a sudden mechanically-induced retrapping for strong coupling. Our predictions, measurable in state of the art experimental setups, allow the determination of the frequency and quality factor of the resonator using DC only techniques.

cond-mat.supr-con↗