QUROPE Quantum Information Processing and Communication in Europe

In this paper, we report on the performance of the SwissQuantum quantum key distribution (QKD) network. The network was installed in the Geneva metropolitan area and ran for more than one-and-a-half years, from the end of March 2009 to the beginning of January 2011. The main goal of this experiment was to test the reliability of the quantum layer over a long period of time in a production environment. A key management layer has been developed to manage the key between the three nodes of the network.

We demonstrate the in-plane emission of highly-polarized single photons from an InAs quantum dot embedded into a photonic crystal waveguide. The spontaneous emission rates are Purcell-enhanced by the coupling of the quantum dot to a slow-light mode of the waveguide. Photon-correlation measurements confirm the sub-Poissonian statistics of the in-plane emission. Under optical pulse excitation, single photon emission rates of up to 19 MHz into the guided mode are demonstrated, which corresponds to a device efficiency of 24%.

The monolithic integration of single-photon sources, passive optical circuits and single-photon detectors enables complex and scalable quantum photonic integrated circuits, for application in linear-optics quantum computing and quantum communications. Here we demonstrate a key component of such a circuit, a waveguide single-photon detector.

Room-temperature, easy-to-operate quantum memories are essential building blocks for future long distance quantum information networks operating on an intercontinental scale, because devices like quantum repeaters, based on quantum memories, will have to be deployed in potentially remote, inaccessible locations. Here we demonstrate controllable, broadband and efficient storage and retrieval of weak coherent light pulses at the single-photon level in warm atomic cesium vapor using the robust far off-resonant Raman memory scheme.

Engineering and controlling well defined states of light for quantum information applications is of increasing importance as the complexity of quantum systems grows. For example, in quantum networks high multi-photon interference visibility requires properly devised single mode sources. In this paper we propose a spontaneous parametric down conversion source based on an integrated cavity-waveguide, where single narrow-band, possibly distinct, spectral modes for the idler and the signal fields can be generated.

Multi-photon interference reveals strictly non-classical phenomena. Its applications range from fundamental tests of quantum mechanics to photonic quantum information processing, where a significant fraction of key experiments achieved so far comes from multi-photon state manipulation. We review the progress, both theoretical and experimental, of this rapidly advancing research.

We present a quantum repeater scheme based on the recently proposed qubit amplifier [N. Gisin, S. Pironio and N. Sangouard, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 070501 (2010)]. It relies on a on-demand entangled-photon pair source which uses on-demand single-photon sources, linear optical elements and atomic ensembles. Interestingly, the imperfections affecting the states created from this source, caused e.g. by detectors with non-unit efficiencies, are systematically purified from an entanglement swapping operation based on a two-photon detection.

In analogy with the usual quantum state-estimation problem, we introduce the problem of state estimation for a pre- and postselected ensemble. The problem has fundamental physical significance since, as argued by Y. Aharonov and collaborators, pre- and postselected ensembles are the most basic quantum ensembles. Two new features are shown to appear: (1) information is flowing to the measuring device both from the past and from the future; (2) because of the postselection, certain measurement outcomes can be forced never to occur.

Quantum simulators are controllable quantum systems that can reproduce the dynamics of the system of interest in situations that are not amenable to classical computers. Recent developments in quantum technology enable the precise control of individual quantum particles as required for studying complex quantum systems. In particular, quantum simulators capable of simulating frustrated Heisenberg spin systems provide platforms for understanding exotic matter such as high-temperature superconductors.

Quantum entanglement in the motion of macroscopic solid bodies has implications both for quantum technologies and foundational studies of the boundary between the quantum and classical worlds. Entanglement is usually fragile in room-temperature solids, owing to strong interactions both internally and with the noisy environment. We generated motional entanglement between vibrational states of two spatially separated, millimeter-sized diamonds at room temperature.