Scalable and accessible photonics for next-generation quantum networks

用于下一代量子网络的可扩展且可访问的光子学

• 批准号: RGPIN-2020-06784
• 负责人: Morandotti, Roberto
• 金额: $ 3.35万
• 依托单位: Institut national de la recherche scientifique
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2021-01-01 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=741429
• 关键词: Scalable; accessible; photonics; next; generation

Technology based on quantum mechanics can enable high-performance information processing, future-proof secure communications, and highly sensitive metrology. Quantum optics, thanks to photons' robustness, versatility and long coherence times, provides the ideal platform for these realizations. However, photons are still not widely used in commercial applications as their detection probability (and thus their detection/processing rate) decreases exponentially with a growing number of photons in the quantum state. Thus, while information processing power for solid-state platforms improves with a larger number of qubits (two-level systems), it degrades in photonics, making realizations mostly lab-confined and expensive. Extending and commercializing quantum photonics also necessitates robust, yet scalable optical systems, as well as low-loss quantum information processing. This Discovery project aims to address these urgent needs by making use of well-established telecommunications and chip-based infrastructures, while expanding the extremely successful research lines I have developed at INRS-EMT in integrated nonlinear and quantum optics. Specifically, my team has demonstrated a route to overcome scaling issues by greatly increasing the information content stored in only a few photons through using high-dimensional (qudit, i.e. the d-level extension of a qubit) state encoding. For N photons, such qudits have an information capacity that scales as d^N, thus enabling high processing powers and detection efficiencies with a low photon number. The proposed project, comprised of two main parts, is a timely capitalization on the momentum of these recent achievements: (1) We will develop high-performance and low-footprint sources of complex photon states, investigating both well-established and newly-introduced materials. Quantum information processing implemented in scalable, low-loss, fiber-based components (e.g. interferometers, modulators) will be studied to achieve complex, yet accessible, photon-based operations. The development of these photon generation and manipulation blocks, targeted in practical and commercializable platforms, will be critical in enabling the deployment of these systems in out-of-the-lab applications (e.g. quantum secure communications). (2) In analogy to future quantum telecommunications networks, where photons propagate and interfere, the injection of photons into programmable fiber-loops (i.e. synthetic lattice structures) will be studied to gain new insights into how quantum states behave in commercial systems which feature much higher costs. Investigating specifically how e.g. quantum state information capacities change with complex propagation will establish important know-how for future network and quantum state design. Our Discovery program will reinforce the strong Canadian presence we helped establish in integrated nonlinear and non-classical photonics, towards commercializable and affordable quantum technologies.

基于量子力学的技术可以实现高性能信息处理、面向未来的安全通信和高灵敏度计量。量子光学凭借光子的鲁棒性、多功能性和长相干时间，为这些实现提供了理想的平台。然而，光子在商业应用中仍然没有广泛使用，因为它们的检测概率（以及因此它们的检测/处理速率）随着量子态光子数量的增加而呈指数下降。因此，虽然固态平台的信息处理能力随着更多数量的量子位（两级系统）而提高，但它在光子学方面却下降了，使得实现大多局限于实验室且昂贵。量子光子学的扩展和商业化还需要强大且可扩展的光学系统以及低损耗的量子信息处理。该 Discovery 项目旨在通过利用完善的电信和基于芯片的基础设施来满足这些迫切需求，同时扩展我在 INRS-EMT 在集成非线性和量子光学领域开发的极其成功的研究方向。具体来说，我的团队已经展示了一种克服缩放问题的方法，通过使用高维（qudit，即量子位的 d 级扩展）状态编码大大增加仅存储在几个光子中的信息内容。对于 N 个光子，此类量子的信息容量可按 d^N 缩放，从而以低光子数实现高处理能力和检测效率。拟议的项目由两个主要部分组成，是对这些近期成就势头的及时利用：（1）我们将开发高性能和低足迹的复杂光子态源，研究成熟的和新推出的光子态源。材料。将研究在可扩展、低损耗、基于光纤的组件（例如干涉仪、调制器）中实现的量子信息处理，以实现复杂但可访问的基于光子的操作。这些光子生成和操纵模块的开发针对实用和商业化平台，对于在实验室外应用（例如量子安全通信）中部署这些系统至关重要。 (2) 与光子传播和干涉的未来量子电信网络类似，将研究将光子注入可编程光纤环路（即合成晶格结构），以获得关于量子态在商业系统中如何表现的新见解，该系统具有很多特征成本较高。具体调查如何量子态信息容量随复杂传播的变化将为未来网络和量子态设计建立重要的专业知识。我们的发现计划将加强加拿大在集成非线性和非经典光子学方面的强大影响力，迈向可商业化且负担得起的量子技术。