The identification of nonclassical features of multiphoton quantum states represents a crucial task in the development of many quantum photonic technologies. Under realistic experimental conditions, a photonic quantum state gets affected by its interaction with several nonideal optoelectronic devices, including those used to guide, detect, or characterize it. The result of such noisy interaction is that the nonclassical features of the original quantum state get considerably reduced or are completely absent in the detected, final state. In this work, the self-learning features of artificial neural networks are exploited to experimentally show that the nonclassicality of multiphoton quantum states can be assessed and fully characterized, even in the cases in which the nonclassical features are concealed by the measuring devices. Our work paves the way toward artificial-intelligence-assisted experimental-setup characterization, as well as smart quantum state nonclassicality identification.

This paper presents a theoretical and experimental demonstration of a security analysis of a Trojan-horse attack (THA) on a real-world quantum key distribution (QKD) system. We show that the upper bound on the information leakage depends solely on the fidelity between the states of the adversary. We find the lower bound for fidelity between THA states in both the polarization- and phase-coding BB84 protocols, considering both pure and mixed states. Our bounds depend only on the mean photon number per pulse available to an adversary. We also present an experimental analysis of a QKD system, including optical time-domain reflectometry measurements with centimeter resolution and spectral transmittance measurements for optical defense elements ranging from 1100 to 1800 nm with a noise floor lower than $-100$ dB. Finally, by considering the optimal attack, we obtain the value of the mean photon number per pulse available to an adversary and calculate the key leakage that needs to be eliminated during the privacy amplification procedure.

We derive from first principles a general circuit model for open, frequency dispersive electromagnetic resonators in the full-wave regime. This model extends the concepts of radiation impedance to the polarization current-density modes induced in open resonators by an arbitrary external excitation. Its physics-based elements offer physical insights into the scattering problem and enable efficient modeling of the resonance frequency and associated bandwidth for arbitrary scattering resonances, establishing a powerful platform for the design and optimization of nanophotonic circuits. Our findings offer compelling prospects for electromagnetic scattering and ultrafast nanophotonics, streamlining the analysis and design of nanoresonators with enhanced operational speeds, and outlining a physics-based model of their temporal dynamics.

Photonics has been a promising platform for implementing quantum technologies owing to its scalability and robustness. In this paper, we demonstrate the encoding of information in 32 time bins or dimensions of a single photon. A practical scheme for manipulating the single photon in high dimensions is experimentally realized to implement a compiled version of Shor’s algorithm on a single photon. Our work demonstrates the powerful information-processing capacity of a high-dimensional quantum system for complex quantum information tasks.

We extend Babinet’s relations, which were originally derived for transmissive metasurfaces, to reflective metasurfaces embedding planar metallic structures in a substrate containing a mirror. To verify the extended Babinet’s relations, we investigate two types of reflective metasurface embedding self-complementary structures, which produce a $\pi$ phase difference between two orthogonal linear polarizations under specific conditions required for the extended Babinet’s relations. Both theoretical and experimental studies demonstrate a metasurface-based half-wave plate with a reflective metasurface including single self-complementary structures in the terahertz regions. In addition, we study a reflective metasurface with embedded self-complementary structures with a phase gradient in reflection, and demonstrate simultaneous implementation of anomalous reflection and polarization conversion with high efficiency.

For many photonic devices, crosstalk between densely packed waveguides poses a major problem leading to unreliable or inefficient operation of the device. In this work, a general method for modeling the crosstalk, not only in straight waveguide arrays but also in curved ones, is introduced. The method is based on a matrix analysis of electromagnetic field coupling between closely spaced waveguides. As an example, we show how bending of waveguides in an array reduces the crosstalk. The approach can help overcome the crosstalk problem in a variety of photonic integrated devices, including phased waveguide arrays, arrayed waveguide gratings, optical multiplexers, and high-density interconnects between optical and electronic components.

Quantum key distribution (QKD) could help to share a secure key between two distant peers. In recent years, twin-field (TF) QKD has been widely investigated because of its long transmission distance. One of the popular variants of TF QKD is sending-or-not-sending (SNS) QKD, which has been experimentally verified to realize 1000-km level fiber key distribution. In this article, we introduce phase postselection into the SNS protocol. With this modification, the probability of selecting “sending” can be substantially improved. The numerical simulation shows that the transmission distance can be improved both with and without the actively odd-parity pairing method. The case of discrete phase randomization is also analyzed, a similar improvement on distance can be seen.

Continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD) with plug-and-play design offers a promising route in simplifying the system implementation and shows intriguing prospects for quantum access network applications. However, such a scheme makes it possible for the eavesdropper (Eve) to completely control the source, helping her to gain more information since the laser travels through the unsecured channel before being modulated, which will severely compromise the performance of the system and limit its potential application. To fight against the security loophole, we propose a passive source monitoring scheme based on a combination of beam splitter and homodyne detector, as well as source noise suppression. The corresponding entanglement-based model is established to estimate the secret key rate for the proposed scheme. We show that the performance of the plug-and-play CV-QKD system can be significantly improved by using the source monitoring scheme compared with the untrusted source model. With typical parameters, the maximum transmission distance can be promoted by more than 50%, and the secret key rate can be increased by more than 25% when the transmission distance is longer than 50 km. This study provides a feasible approach for improving the security and performance of the plug-and-play CV-QKD and holds positive potential for practical applications.

High-precision remote clock synchronization is crucial for many classical and quantum network applications. Evaluating options for space-Earth links, we find that traditional solutions may not produce the desired synchronization for low Earth orbits and unnecessarily complicate quantum networking architectures. Demonstrating an alternative, we use commercial off-the-shelf quantum photon sources and detection equipment to synchronize two remote clocks across our free-space testbed utilizing a method called two-way quantum time transfer (QTT). We reach picosecond-scale timing precision under very lossy and noisy channel conditions representative of daytime space-Earth links and software-emulated satellite motion. This work demonstrates how QTT is potentially relevant for daytime space-Earth quantum networking and/or providing high-precision timing in GPS-denied environments.

To derive the best oscillator phase noise when implementing a high-$Q$ resonator, the resonant spectral line shape must have high contrast and symmetry. Ideally, this line shape is second order and Lorentzian; however, in a high-mode-density spectral region, low-$Q$ background spurious modes interact and distort the resonance. For a sapphire-loaded cavity resonator operating with whispering-gallery modes confined within the sapphire crystal, we show that this high contrast and symmetry can be achieved by meticulously changing the dimensions of the surrounding metallic cavity shield to tune the background low-$Q$ structures into antiresonance. This works because the high-$Q$ resonances are primarily defined by the sapphire, while the background modes are defined by the cavity shield. Alternatively, it has been shown that a similar result can be achieved by exciting the high-$Q$ resonator with a balanced microwave dipole probe in a Mach-Zehnder interferometric configuration. The probe has been constructed from two separate coaxial electric field probes symmetrically inserted into a cylindrical-cavity resonator, from opposite sides with a small gap between them, so they can behave like an active wire-dipole antenna. The power into the two separate probes may be matched with an external variable attenuator in one of the arms of the interferometer. Conversely, the phase between the two electric field probes may be changed with an external variable phase shifter, which changes the nature of the field components to which the probe couples. The probe couples to the high-$Q$ resonant modes as well as low-$Q$ background modes, which can be made resonant or antiresonant with respect to the high-$Q$ modes by changing this external phase. When the background modes are in antiresonance, the line shape of the high-$Q$ mode can be made symmetric and with higher contrast. This technique has been applied to both whispering-gallery sapphire modes, as well as hollow-cavity resonators, without changing the dimensions of the cavity.

Scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscope (s-SNOM) has become an essential tool to study polaritons—quasiparticles of light coupled to collective charge oscillations—via direct probing of their near field with a spatial resolution far beyond the diffraction limit. However, extraction of the polariton’s complex propagation constant from the near-field images requires subtle considerations that have not received the necessary attention so far. In this study, we discuss important yet overlooked aspects of the near-field analysis. First, we experimentally demonstrate that the sample orientation inside the s-SNOM may significantly affect the near-field interference pattern of mid-infrared polaritons, leading to an error in momentum measurement up to 7.7%, even for the modes with an effective index of 12.5. Second, we establish a methodology to correctly extract the polariton damping rate from the interference fringes depending on their origin—i.e., the s-SNOM nanotip or the material edge. Overall, our work provides a unified framework for the accurate extraction of the polariton momentum and damping from the near-field interference fringes.

We report on $\mathrm{Mo}$-$\mathrm{Si}$-based superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors on a gallium arsenide substrate. $\mathrm{Mo}$-$\mathrm{Si}$ deposited on a passivated $\mathrm{Ga}\mathrm{As}$ surface has the same critical temperature as $\mathrm{Mo}$-$\mathrm{Si}$ deposited on silicon. The critical temperature decreases slightly on depositing $\mathrm{Mo}$-$\mathrm{Si}$ directly on the native oxide of $\mathrm{Ga}\mathrm{As}$. Hence, $\mathrm{Mo}$-$\mathrm{Si}$ works well as a thin-film superconductor on $\mathrm{Ga}\mathrm{As}$. We propose that the amorphous structure of $\mathrm{Mo}$-$\mathrm{Si}$ ensures compatibility with the $\mathrm{Ga}\mathrm{As}$ matrix. Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) are fabricated with $\mathrm{Mo}$-$\mathrm{Si}$ on $\mathrm{Ga}\mathrm{As}$ using a meander-wire design. The SNSPD metrics are very similar to those of devices fabricated with the same procedure on a silicon substrate. We observe a plateau in the response-versus-bias curve, signaling a saturated internal quantum efficiency. The plateau remains even at an elevated temperature, 2.2 K, at a wavelength of 980 nm. We achieve a timing jitter of 50 ps and a recovery time of 29 ns. These results point to the promise of integrating $\mathrm{Mo}$-$\mathrm{Si}$ SNSPDs with $\mathrm{Ga}\mathrm{As}$ photonic circuits.

We propose silicon nitride ($\mathrm{S}{\mathrm{i}}_3{\mathrm{N}}_4$) nanowaveguide-based CMOS-compatible integrated sources of spectrally pure visible-telecom photon pairs. Our designs are intrinsically devoid of spectral correlations, eradicating the need for narrow-band filtering that reduces the source brightness. Further, the signal photons lie in the visible–near-infrared (vis-NIR) band, which can provide increased heralding efficiency of the idler photon in the telecom band using high-efficiency single-photon detectors. For example, a rectangular-cross-section silica-clad $\mathrm{S}{\mathrm{i}}_3{\mathrm{N}}_4$ nanowaveguide with dimensions $680\text{~nm}\times 840\text{~nm}$ and length 7 cm provides a heralded single-photon purity of approximately $91\mathrm{\%}$ for a pump wavelength of 956.8 nm and a pump bandwidth of 1200 GHz, with the signal and idler lying in the visible and telecom bands at approximately $701$ nm and approximately $1505$ nm, respectively, demonstrating a peak spectral brightness of approximately $1.2\times {10}^4$ photon $\mathrm{pairs}/\mathrm{s}/\mathrm{nm}/{\mathrm{mW}}^2$ for a linear propagation loss of 0.5 dB/cm. The effect of propagation losses on the purity is also studied for such source designs. We also propose some designs capable of generating high-purity photon pairs to address various specific vis-NIR quantum memory transitions with telecom-band interfacing for long-distance hybrid quantum networks. Such compact on-chip sources could have potential applications in various quantum technologies, such as sensing, simulation, computing, communication, and networking.

With an explosive increase in demand for efficient luminescent materials in integrated optical systems, research on lanthanide ion-doped cubic sesquioxide ceramics has become important and attractive. Because of the large doping capability of lanthanide atoms and a low preparation temperature that is much lower than the melting point, sesquioxides have demonstrated promising potential as a host matrix in solid-state laser gain media. Here, for the first time, we demonstrate that two types of cation sites with different symmetries in cubic sesquioxides could empower effective manipulation of the luminescence properties of lanthanide dopants, leading to either magnetic dipole (MD) or electrical dipole (ED) emission, respectively. Using rigorous first-principle calculations, the luminescence properties of $\mathrm{Eu}$-doped sesquioxide $M_2{\mathrm{O}}_3$ ($M$ = $\mathrm{Sc},\mathrm{Y},\mathrm{La}$) are systematically investigated, unveiling the underlying competition mechanisms between MD and ED spontaneous emission. Through analyzing the formation energies of $\mathrm{Eu}$ dopants and intrinsic defects, the impact of strain and temperature on the doping concentration and dopant sites of $\mathrm{Eu}$ in sesquioxide is unambiguously elucidated, facilitating effective and selective manipulation of MD and ED emission.

Recently, great progress has been made in the entanglement of multiple photons at various wavelengths and with different degrees of freedom for optical quantum information applied in diverse scenarios. However, multiphoton entanglement in the transmission window of green light under water has not yet been reported. Here, by combining femtosecond-laser-based multiphoton entanglement and entanglement-maintaining frequency up-conversion techniques, we successfully generate a green two-photon polarization-entangled Bell state and a green three-photon Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state, whose state fidelities are $0.893\pm 0.002$ and $0.595\pm 0.023$, respectively. Our result provides a scalable method to prepare green multiphoton entanglement, which may have wide applications in underwater quantum information.