arXiv subjects

Wolfgang Löffler

Publications and source records attributed to Wolfgang Löffler.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

High-Fidelity Remote Graph State Preparation for Blind Quantum Computation

Measurement-based quantum computation (MBQC) relies on entangled graph states, yet existing remote state preparation (RSP) protocols prepare only separable states, requiring subsequent entangling gates on the remote server. Here, we introduce Remote Graph State Preparation (RGSP), a framework that prepares arbitrary graph states directly from a single high-dimensional photonic qudit. By encoding multiple qubits and their graph connectivity into the photon's structured phase profile, RGSP can reduce or, for small computations, completely eliminate the need for server-side entangling operations among qubits. We show that under a reasonable noise model the resulting state fidelity is independent of the graph topology. Under cumulative fiber phase drift, we demonstrate that this fidelity is significantly enhanced by a ``highest-weight-first'' mode reordering strategy. Finally, we show that RGSP enables reduced-SWAP universal blind quantum computing on arbitrary topologies, reducing qubit overhead e.g., for a six-qubit Quantum Fourier Transform from $420$ RSP qubits with a standard brickwork topology to $48$ RSP qubits. These results establish RGSP as a resource-efficient, topology-invariant primitive for quantum-secured cloud computing.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Pulsed to continuous-wave quantum dot cavity-QED

Resonant cavity-quantum system interactions are well understood in the pulsed coherent and continuous-wave steady-state limits, but not much in between. We investigate the intermediate regime, where pulse duration, coupling, decoherences, and decays occur on comparable timescales, and pulse bandwidth matches cavity splitting and detunings. We reveal an interplay of cavity-enhanced excitation and Purcell-enhanced emission leading to warped chevron patterns. We develop a quantum master-equation model that efficiently treats the excitation-light coherent states in photon number space and reproduces the experimental data. Using these results we identify how polarization-split cavities can optimize single-photon purity and emission probability.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Young's double-slit experiment with anisotropic GHz surface acoustic waves on gallium arsenide

We demonstrate Young's double-slit experiment with GHz surface acoustic waves (SAWs) on gallium arsenide (GaAs). This experiment differs from the well-known optical case due to the anisotropy of SAW propagation on GaAs. We generate SAWs using an interdigital transducer (IDT), and the double-slit is realized by focused ion beam milled grooves which block the SAWs. We measure the out-of-plane SAW displacement with an optical scanning interferometer and apply a spatial Fourier filtering technique, enabling the observation of the two-slit interference pattern, as well as higher order diffraction and near field interference effects. We find reasonable agreement between the measured far-field interference pattern and anisotropic Huygens-Fresnel simulations based on previously reported angle-dependent SAW velocities on GaAs.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2025

Optimizing the quantum interference between single photons and local oscillator with photon correlations

The quantum interference between a coherent state and a single photon is an important tool in continuous variable optical quantum technologies to characterize and engineer non-Gaussian quantum states. Semiconductor quantum dots, which have recently emerged as a key platform for efficient single-photon generation, could become interesting assets in this context. An essential parameter for interfering single photons and classical fields is the mean wavepacket overlap between both fields. Here, we report on two homodyne photon-correlation techniques enabling the precise measurement of the overlap between a single photon generated by a quantum dot-cavity device and pulsed laser light. The different statistics of interfering fields lead to specific signatures of the quantum interference on the photon correlations at the output of the interfering beam splitter. We compare the behavior of maximized overlap, measuring either the Hong-Ou-Mandel visibility between both outputs or the photon bunching at a single output. Through careful tailoring of the laser light in various degrees of freedom, we maximize the overlap to $76\,\%$, with limitations primarily due to mismatched spectral and temporal profiles and low-frequency charge noise in the single-photon source.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Demonstration of Plate Analysis, an algorithm for precise relative astrometry

Astrometry plays a crucial role in understanding the structure, dynamics, and evolution of celestial objects by providing precise measurements of their positions and motions. We propose a new approach to wide-field, relative astrometry, Plate Analysis. Plate Analysis is an innovative algorithm that estimates stellar coordinates and corrects geometric distortion based on precise reference sources, without relying on dedicated calibration fields. It is implemented as a probabilistic framework using Stochastic Variational Inference to efficiently optimize the numerous parameters involved in the model. The methodology was tested through a simplified simulation designed after the Galactic center survey of the JASMINE mission. This simulation, called the JASMINE mini-mock survey, covered three years of observation with 100 satellite orbits, providing a comprehensive dataset for evaluating the performance of Plate Analysis. Although the observation model incorporated more than 30,000 parameters, the parameters were efficiently optimized through Plate Analysis. The results showed that the estimated coordinates closely match the expected stellar motions, with an average positional error of about $70\,\mathrm{μas}$. These findings validate the potential of Plate Analysis for precise wide-field astrometric applications, offering significant insights into improving the accuracy of stellar dynamics measurements.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2025

Towards experimental demonstration of quantum position verification using true single photons

The geographical position can be a good credential for authentication of a party, this is the basis of position-based cryptography - but classically this cannot be done securely without physical exchange of a private key. However, recently, it has been shown that by combining quantum mechanics with the speed of light limit of special relativity, this might be possible: quantum position verification. Here we demonstrate experimentally a protocol that uses two-photon Hong-Ou-Mandel interference at a beamsplitter, which, in combination with two additional beam splitters and 4 detectors is rendering the protocol resilient to loss. With this we are able to show first results towards an experimental demonstration of quantum position verification.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

JASMINE image simulator for high-precision astrometry and photometry

JASMINE is a Japanese planned space mission that aims to reveal the formation history of our Galaxy and discover habitable exoEarths. For these objectives, the JASMINE satellite performs high-precision astrometric observations of the Galactic bulge and high-precision transit monitoring of M-dwarfs in the near-infrared (1.0-1.6 microns in wavelength). For feasibility studies, we develop an image simulation software named JASMINE-imagesim, which produces realistic observation images. This software takes into account various factors such as the optical point spread function (PSF), telescope jitter caused by the satellite's attitude control error (ACE), detector flat patterns, exposure timing differences between detector pixels, and various noise factors. As an example, we report a simulation for the feasibility study of astrometric observations using JASMINE-imagesim. The simulation confirms that the required position measurement accuracy of 4 mas for a single exposure of 12.5-mag objects is achievable if the telescope pointing jitter uniformly dilutes the PSF across all stars in the field of view. On the other hand, the simulation also demonstrates that the combination of realistic pointing jitter and exposure timing differences in the detector can significantly degrade accuracy and prevent achieving the requirement. This means that certain countermeasures against this issue must be developed. This result implies that this kind of simulation is important for mission planning and advanced developments to realize more realistic simulations help us to identify critical issues and also devise effective solutions.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2024

Picosecond laser pulses for quantum dot-microcavity based single photon generation by cascaded electro-optic modulation of a narrow-linewidth laser

Recent developments in integrated optics have made it possible to fabricate high-bandwidth electro-optic modulators (EOMs). Here we show cascaded operation of two of such modulators driven by custom-built electronics delivering on-demand picosecond pulses and application to a quantum dot cavity-QED single photon source. We implement an EOM-based correlation technique and demonstrate light pulses as short as 24$\pm$2 ps with a single EOM. The EOMs can be synchronized and operated in series, we then produce optical pulses down to 17 ps. To optimize the pulse contrast, we analyze for two different EOM devices the transmission as a function of EOM bias, wavelength and temperature, and we show that by temperature tuning and stabilization, a pulse contrast above 25 dB can be obtained at the targeted wavelength. With this high contrast we demonstrate resonant excitation of an InGaAs quantum dot - microcavity based single photon source, demonstrating a crucial technology for scalability and synchronization of large scale photonic quantum applications.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2024

JASMINE: Near-Infrared Astrometry and Time Series Photometry Science

Japan Astrometry Satellite Mission for INfrared Exploration (JASMINE) is a planned M-class science space mission by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. JASMINE has two main science goals. One is the Galactic archaeology with Galactic Center Survey, which aims to reveal the Milky Way's central core structure and formation history from Gaia-level (~25 $μ$as) astrometry in the Near-Infrared (NIR) Hw-band (1.0-1.6 $μ$m). The other is the Exoplanet Survey, which aims to discover transiting Earth-like exoplanets in the habitable zone from NIR time-series photometry of M dwarfs when the Galactic center is not accessible. We introduce the mission, review many science objectives, and present the instrument concept. JASMINE will be the first dedicated NIR astrometry space mission and provide precise astrometric information of the stars in the Galactic center, taking advantage of the significantly lower extinction in the NIR. The precise astrometry is obtained by taking many short-exposure images. Hence, the JASMINE Galactic center survey data will be valuable for studies of exoplanet transits, asteroseismology, variable stars and microlensing studies, including discovery of (intermediate mass) black holes. We highlight a swath of such potential science, and also describe synergies with other missions.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2023

Realignment-free cryogenic macroscopic optical cavity coupled to an optical fiber

We present a cryogenic setup where an optical Fabry-Perot resonator is coupled to a single-mode optical fiber with coupling efficiency above 90% at mK temperatures without realignment during cooling down. The setup is prealigned at room temperature to compensate for the thermal contraction and change of the refractive index of the optical components during cooling down. The high coupling efficiency is achieved by keeping the setup rotation-symmetric around the optical axis. The majority of the setup components are made of Invar (FeNi36) which minimizes the thermal contraction. High coupling efficiency is essential in quantum optomechanical experiments.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2022

Pixel super-resolution interference pattern sensing via the aliasing effect for laser frequency metrology

The superposition of several optical beams with large mutual angles results in sub-micrometer periodic patterns with a complex intensity, phase and polarization structure. For high-resolution imaging thereof, one often employs optical super-resolution methods such as scanning nano-particle imaging. Here, we report that by using a conventional arrayed image sensor in combination with 2D Fourier analysis, the periodicities of light fields much smaller than the pixel size can be resolved in a simple and compact setup, with a resolution far beyond the Nyquist limit set by the pixel size. We demonstrate the ability to resolve periodicities with spatial frequencies of ~3/$μ$m, 15 times higher than the pixel sampling frequency of 0.188/$μ$m. This is possible by analyzing high-quality Fourier aliases in the first Brillouin zone. In order to obtain the absolute spatial frequencies of the interference patterns, we show that simple rotation of the image sensor is sufficient, which modulates the effective pixel size and allows determination of the original Brillouin zone. Based on this method, we demonstrate wavelength sensing with a resolving power beyond 100,000 without any special equipment

physics.optics↗

arXiv2021

Stimulated Raman adiabatic passage in optomechanics

Stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) describes adiabatic population transfer between two states coherently coupled via a mediating state that remains unoccupied. This renders STIRAP robust against loss in the mediating state, leading to profound applications in atomic- and molecular-beam research, trapped-ion physics, superconducting circuits, other solid-state systems, optics, in entanglement generation and qubit operations. STIRAP in optomechanics has been considered for optical frequency conversion where a mechanical mode provides the mediating state. Given the advances of optomechanical devices with exceptionally high mechanical-quality factors, STIRAP between mechanical modes has the prospect of generating macroscopic quantum superposition and of supporting quantum information protocols. An optical cavity mode can mediate the coupling between mechanical modes, without detrimental effects of optical losses. We demonstrate STIRAP between two mechanical modes of a phononic membrane-in-the-middle system with an efficiency of 86% and immune against photon loss through the mediating optical cavity.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2020

Optimal Optomechanical Coupling Strength in Multi-Membrane Systems

We calculate the optomechanical coupling strength for a multi-membrane in a cavity system. The optimal configuration for an array of $N$ membranes placed near the center of a cavity is identified. This results in a coupling strength much greater than previously proposed multi-membrane configurations. We find that the coupling strength scales exponentially with the number of membranes until saturating due to complete localization of the field within the array. Furthermore we explore two sources of loss, those due to light absorption within the membrane(s) and leakage through the cavity's end-mirrors, and evaluate how they affect the possibility of achieving strong coupling.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Probing interacting two-level systems with rare-earth ions

Two-level systems (TLS) in amorphous materials limit coherence times of a number of solid-state quantum devices. Interactions between TLS become prominent below 100 mK, but the coupling mechanism and statistical properties are still unclear. Here we determine the homogeneous linewidth of ytterbium ions (Yb$ ^{3+} $) in silica glass at 10-80 mK by using photon echo techniques as a probe of TLS. First, the homogeneous linewidth can be reduced by applying a magnetic field of 0.3 T. This effect is due to reduced magnetic interactions between adjacent Yb$ ^{3+} $. Secondly, we observe saturation of the linewidth below 50 mK to a level of approximately 30 kHz, which is much larger than the lifetime-limited value of 0.2 kHz. This saturation behavior is in conflict with the coupling to independent TLS. We show that this effect can be explained by coherently coupled TLS.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2018

Strong Thermo-mechanical Squeezing in a far detuned Membrane-in-the-middle System

We demonstrate 8.5 dB thermal squeezing of a membrane oscillator using the dynamical backaction effect and electrostatic feedback in an optomechanical membrane-in-the-middle setup. We show that strong squeezing can be obtained even in the far detuning regime of a sideband-resolved system. By using the dielectrophoretic force of a metallic needle kept in close proximity to the membrane, we implement the one-quadrature active feedback scheme to prevent the divergence of the amplified quadrature and surpass the 3 dB limit of mechanical squeezing. We also discuss different regions of the sideband spectrum where strong squeezing can be obtained. Although the demonstration here is classical, this technique is equally applicable to prepare the mechanical oscillator in a quantum squeezed state.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2018

Phonon Interferometry for Measuring Quantum Decoherence

Experimental observation of the decoherence of macroscopic objects is of fundamental importance to the study of quantum collapse models and the quantum to classical transition. Optomechanics is a promising field for the study of such models because of its fine control and readout of mechanical motion. Nevertheless, it is challenging to monitor a mechanical superposition state for long enough to investigate this transition. We present a scheme for entangling two mechanical resonators in spatial superposition states such that all quantum information is stored in the mechanical resonators. The scheme is general and applies to any optomechanical system with multiple mechanical modes. By analytic and numeric modeling, we show that the scheme is resilient to experimental imperfections such as incomplete pre-cooling, faulty postselection and inefficient optomechanical coupling. This proposed procedure overcomes limitations of previously proposed schemes that have so far hindered the study of macroscopic quantum dynamics.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Eigenpolarizations for Giant Transverse Optical Beam Shifts

We show how careful control of the incident polarization of a light beam close to the Brewster angle gives a giant transverse spatial shift on reflection. This resolves the long-standing puzzle of why such beam shifts transverse to the incident plane [Imbert-Fedorov (IF) shifts] tend to be an order of magnitude smaller than the related Goos-Hänchen (GH) shifts in the longitudinal direction, which are largest close to critical incidence. We demonstrate that with the proper initial polarization the transverse displacements can be equally large, which we confirm experimentally near Brewster incidence. In contrast to the established understanding these polarizations are elliptical and angle-dependent. We explain the magnitude of the IF shift by an analogous change of the symmetry properties for the reflection operators as compared to the GH shift.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2013

Mutually Unbiased Bases and Bound Entanglement

In this contribution we relate two different key concepts: mutually unbiased bases (MUBs) and entanglement; in particular we focus on bound entanglement, i.e. highly mixed states which cannot be distilled by local operations and classical communications. For a certain class of states --for which the state-space forms a "magic" simplex-- we analyze the set of bound entangled states detected by the MUB criterion for different dimensions d and number of particles n. We find that the geometry is similar for different d and n, consequently, the MUB criterion opens possibilities to investigate the typicality of PPT-bound and multipartite bound entanglement deeper and provides a simple experimentally feasible tool to detect bound entanglement.

quant-ph↗