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Remote creation of hybrid entanglement between particle-like and wave-like optical qubits

Nature Photonics volume 8, pages 570–574 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

The wave–particle duality of light has led to two different encodings for optical quantum information processing. Several approaches have emerged based either on particle-like discrete-variable states (that is, finite-dimensional quantum systems) or on wave-like continuous-variable states (that is, infinite-dimensional systems). Here, we demonstrate the generation of entanglement between optical qubits of these different types, located at distant places and connected by a lossy channel. Such hybrid entanglement, which is a key resource for a variety of recently proposed schemes, including quantum cryptography and computing, enables information to be converted from one Hilbert space to the other via teleportation and therefore the connection of remote quantum processors based upon different encodings. Beyond its fundamental significance for the exploration of entanglement and its possible instantiations, our optical circuit holds promise for implementations of heterogeneous network, where discrete- and continuous-variable operations and techniques can be efficiently combined.

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Figure 1: Measurement-induced hybrid entanglement.
Figure 2: Experimental quantum state tomography.
Figure 3: Experimental quantum states from separable to maximally entangled.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank N. Sangouard for discussions and V. D'Auria and F. A. S. Barbosa for their valuable contributions in the early stage of the experiment. This work is supported by the ERA-Net CHIST-ERA (QScale) and by the European Research Council (ERC) starting grant HybridNet. K.H. acknowledges support from the Foundation for the Author of National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation of China (PY2012004) and the China Scholarship Council. C.F. and J.L. are members of the Institut Universitaire de France.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Ecole Normale Supérieure, CNRS, 4 place Jussieu, Paris Cedex 05, 75252, France

    Olivier Morin, Kun Huang, Jianli Liu, Hanna Le Jeannic, Claude Fabre & Julien Laurat

  2. State Key Laboratory of Precision Spectroscopy, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062, China

    Kun Huang

Authors
  1. Olivier Morin
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  5. Claude Fabre
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  6. Julien Laurat
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Contributions

J.L. and O.M. conceived the experiment. O.M., K.H., J.Liu and H.L.J. carried out the experiment and analysed the data, under the supervision of J.L. O.M, K.H., H.L.J., C.F. and J.L. contributed to discussing the implementation and the results. O.M., K.H. and J.L. wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Julien Laurat.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Morin, O., Huang, K., Liu, J. et al. Remote creation of hybrid entanglement between particle-like and wave-like optical qubits. Nature Photon 8, 570–574 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2014.137

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