Nowadays quantum key distribution (QKD) represents the most mature quantum technology, and multiple countries as well as private institutions are building their quantum network. However, QKD devices are still far from representing a product within everyone’s reach. Indeed, limitations in terms of compatibility with existing telecom infrastructure and limited performances in terms of secret key rate, using noncryogenic detection systems, are still critical. In this work, we implemented a quantum key distribution link between Sicily (Italy) and Malta utilizing two different single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) detectors. The performances of a standard commercial SPAD have been compared with the results achieved with an alternative prototype of fast-gated system in a package (SIP) SPAD; the SIP detector has shown to be able to accomplish a 14 times higher key rate compared with the commercial device over the channel showing 20 dB of losses.

We demonstrate a transmon-qubit readout based on the nonlinear response to a drive of polaritonic meters in situ coupled to the qubit. Inside a three-dimensional readout cavity, we place a transmon molecule consisting of a transmon qubit and an ancilla mode interacting via nonperturbative cross-Kerr-coupling. The cavity couples strongly only to the ancilla mode, leading to hybridized lower and upper polaritonic meters. Both polaritons are anharmonic and dissipative, as they inherit a self-Kerr nonlinearity $U$ from the ancilla and effective decay $\kappa$ from the open cavity. Via the ancilla, the polariton meters also inherit the nonperturbative cross-Kerr-coupling to the qubit. This results in a high qubit-dependent displacement $2\chi >\kappa ,U$ that can be read out via the cavity without causing Purcell decay. Moreover, the polariton meters, being nonlinear resonators, present bistability, and bifurcation behavior when the probing power increases. In this work, we focus on the bifurcation at low power in the few-photon regime, called the mesoscopic regime, which is accessible when the self-Kerr and decay rates of the polariton meter are similar, $U\sim \kappa$. Capitalizing on a latching mechanism by bifurcation, the readout is sensitive to transmon-qubit relaxation error only in the first tens of nanoseconds. We thus report a single-shot fidelity of 98.6% while having an integration time of 500 ns and no requirement for an external quantum-limited amplifier.

Fock states are quantized states of electromagnetic waves with diverse applications in quantum optics and quantum communication. However, the generation of arbitrary optical Fock states still remains elusive. Most Fock-state-generation proposals rely on precisely controlling the atom-cavity interactions and are experimentally challenging. We propose a scheme to distill an optical Fock state from a coherent state. A conditional phase flip with arbitrary phase is implemented between the atom and light. The conditional phase flip along with unitary rotations and measurements on the atoms enables us to distill the required Fock state. As an example, we show the distillation of Fock state $|100⟩$.

The ability to create phase-controlled pulses of light with wavelength tunability has applications spanning quantum and classical communications networks. Traditionally, optical transmitters are able to either produce phase-controlled pulses at a fixed wavelength or require a chain of bulky and expensive external modulators to convert wavelength tunable continuous-wave light into optical pulses. One technology of great interest is quantum key distribution (QKD), a technology for generating perfectly random keys at remote nodes to ensure secure communications. Environments such as data centers, where the user needs change regularly, will require adaptability in the deployment of QKD to integrate into classical optical networks. Here we propose and demonstrate an alternative quantum transmitter design consisting of a multimodal Fabry-Perot laser optically injection locked by a wavelength tunable laser. The transmitter is able to produce phase-controlled optical pulses at GHz speeds with a tunable wavelength range of $>65\mathrm{nm}$ centered at 1550 nm. With this transmitter, we perform proof-of-principle QKD with secure bit rates of order Mb/s.

Rare-earth (RE) atoms in solid-state materials are attractive components for photonic quantum information systems because of their coherence properties even in high-temperature environments. We have experimentally performed the single-site optical spectroscopy and optical addressing of a single RE atom in an amorphous silica optical fiber at room temperature. The single-site optical spectroscopy of the tapered RE-doped fiber shows nonresonant emission lines similar to those seen in the case of an unstructured fiber and the autocorrelation function of photons emitted from the fiber shows the antibunching effect due to the spatial isolation given by the tapered fiber structure. The ability to address single RE atoms at room temperature provides a very stable and cost-effective technical platform for the realization of a solid-state system for a large-scale quantum optical network and other quantum technologies based on a large number of spectral channels from visible to midinfrared wavelengths.

Quantum transduction between microwave and optical photons plays a key role in quantum communication among remote qubits. Although the quantum transduction schemes generating communication photons have been successfully demonstrated by using optomechanical interfaces, the low conversion efficiency remains an obstacle to the implementation of a quantum network consisting of multiple qubits. Here, we present an efficient quantum transduction scheme using a one-dimensional diamond optomechanical crystal cavity tuned at a color-center emission without optomechanical coupling. The optomechanical crystal cavity incorporates a thin aluminum nitride ($\mathrm{Al}\mathrm{N}$) pad piezoelectric coupler near the concentrator cavity region, while retaining ultrasmall mechanical and optical mode volumes of about $1.5\times {10}^{-4}({\mathrm{\Lambda }}_p{)}^3$ and $0.2(\lambda /n{)}^3$, respectively. The energy level of a coherent color-center electron is manipulated by a strong mechanical-mode–color-center electron-coupling rate up to 16.4 MHz. In our system, we theoretically predict that the population-conversion efficiency from a single microwave photon into an optical photon can reach 15% combined with current technologies. The coherent conversion efficiency is over 10% with a reasonably pure decay time of $T_2^{\ast }>10\mathrm{ns}$. Our results imply that an atomic color center strongly coupled to the optomechanical crystal cavity will offer a highly efficient quantum transduction platform.

Sophisticated positive-operator-valued measures (POVMs) are fundamental to obtain a quantum advantage in many informational problems but are difficult to implement. We design a universal measurement device composed of cascaded quantum-walk modules able to realize arbitrary entangled POVMs on two qubits. Only parameters in the modules need reprogramming for different POVMs. We apply our device to the task of direction guessing, realizing nine different five-outcome entangled measurements (fidelities above 0.9850) via nine-step photonic quantum walks, recovering optimal direction guessing from nonideal input states. Our work marks an important step toward building a universal versatile quantum measurement device able to implement optimal measurements for various quantum information tasks.

We propose an on-chip fiber-based quantum transducer to convert microwave photons into optical-telecommunication-band photons. The device consists of a coplanar-waveguide microwave resonator and a pair of coupled optical cavities integrated into a rare-earth-doped fiber. The microwave resonator is formed by two aluminum strips deposited onto the cladding of the fiber, whose diameter has been etched down to approximately $8\text{μ}\mathrm{m}$. We study the conversion process using the cavity electro-optic formalism for a system operating at liquid-helium temperature (around 4 K), as well as using a three-wave mixing approach for operation at millikelvin temperatures achievable in a dilution refrigerator. Both methods predict that unity conversion efficiency could be achievable with realistically achievable experimental parameters. The proposed device acts as a quantum transducer for coherent microwave-to-optical conversion, which has great promise for application in all-fiber integrated quantum devices for quantum information processing.

We present a scheme of quantum repeater that uses entangled multimode coherent states that are obtained by electro-optic modulation of symmetric and antisymmetric Schrödinger cat states. Part of the generated entangled frequency modes is sent to a symmetric beam splitter at the central node, while the remaining modes are stored locally in quantum memories. The entangled coherent states between remote quantum memories are conditionally prepared by photon-counting measurements at the output channels of the beam splitter. We study how the effects of decoherence in the quantum channel affect statistics of photocounts and, for the heralding outcomes determined by the parity of photocounts, evaluate the probability of success and the fidelity of the prepared entanglement depending on the symmetry of input cat states. It is demonstrated that the generated entanglement can be employed for teleportation of the phase information from the modulated states that are utilized in quantum key distributions with subcarrier wave encoding.

We have proposed and experimentally verified a tunable interqubit coupling scheme for large-scale integration of superconducting qubits. The key feature of the scheme is the insertion of connecting pads between the qubit and tunable coupling element. In such a way, the distance between two qubits can be increased considerably to a few millimeters, leaving enough space for arranging control lines, readout resonators, and other necessary structures. The increased interqubit distance provides more wiring space for the flip-chip process and reduces crosstalk between qubits and from control lines to qubits. We use the term tunable coupler with capacitively connecting pad (TCCP) to name the tunable coupling part that consists of a transmon coupler and capacitively connecting pads. With the different placement of connecting pads, different TCCP architectures can be realized. We have designed and fabricated a few multiqubit devices in which TCCP is used for coupling. The measured results show that the performance of the qubits coupled by TCCP, such as $T_1$ and $T_2$, was similar to that of traditional transmon qubits without TCCP. Meanwhile, our TCCP also exhibited a wide tunable range of the effective coupling strength and a low residual $ZZ$ interaction between the qubits by properly tuning parameters on the design. Finally, we successfully implemented an adiabatic controlled-$Z$ gate with TCCP. Furthermore, by introducing TCCP, we also discuss the realization of the flip-chip process and tunable coupling qubits between different chips.

Niobium nitride ($\mathrm{Nb}\mathrm{N}$) is a particularly promising material for quantum technology applications, as it shows the degree of reproducibility necessary for large-scale superconducting circuits. We demonstrate that resonators based on $\mathrm{Nb}\mathrm{N}$ thin films present a one-photon internal quality factor above ${10}^5$ maintaining a high impedance (larger than $2\mathrm{k}\mathrm{\Omega }$), with a footprint of approximately $50\times 100\text{μ}{\mathrm{m}}^2$ and a Kerr nonlinearity of few tenths of a hertz. These quality factors, mostly limited by losses induced by the coupling to two-level systems, have been maintained for kinetic inductances ranging from tenths to hundreds of picoHenry per square. We also demonstrate minimal variations in the performance of the resonators during multiple cooldowns over more than nine months. Our work proves the versatility of niobium nitride high-kinetic-inductance resonators, opening perspectives towards the fabrication of compact, high-impedance, and high-quality multimode circuits, with sizable interactions.

Remote implementation of quantum operation between two distant nodes is crucial for many quantum applications. Here we consider the implementation of an arbitrary single-photon operation upon a remote quantum system exploiting photon pairs simultaneously entangled in the polarization and temporal degrees of freedom, which is a fascinating resource in long-distance quantum communication with its outstanding merits. To improve the level of security for the above protocol, we also consider a controlled implementation of quantum operation scenario by adding a supervisor, which is necessary for distributed quantum computation in a quantum network. Both of the protocols can be fulfilled by bidirectional state teleportation with the aid of the effective cross-Kerr interaction. Furthermore, the simple construction circuits together with available existing optical elements and common single-photon detectors facilitate the realization of our protocols with current sufficient technologies.

We show how to generate Bell states and $N$-partite $W$ states of long-distance superconducting (SC) qubits in a SC waveguide QED system, where SC qubits are coupled to an open microwave transmission line. In the two-qubit case, the Bell state of two long-distance qubits can be a dark state of the system by choosing appropriate system parameters. If one proper microwave pulse drives one of two qubits, the two qubits will evolve from their ground states to a Bell state. Further, we extend this scheme to the multiqubit case. We show that $W$ states of $N$ long-distance qubits can also be generated. Because both the Bell and $W$ states are decoupled from the waveguide (i.e., dark states of the system), they are steady and have very long lifetimes in the ideal case without decoherence of qubits. In contrast to the ideal case, the presence of decoherence of qubits limits the lifetimes of the Bell and $W$ states. Our study provides an alternative scheme for generating Bell states and $N$-partite $W$ states in SC waveguide QED, which can be used to entangle long-distance nodes in waveguide quantum networks.

Quantum key distribution (QKD) based on the fundamental laws of quantum physics can allow the distribution of secure keys between distant users. However, imperfections in realistic devices may lead to potential security risks, which must be accurately characterized and considered in practical security analysis. High-speed optical modulators, being one of the core components of practical QKD systems, can be used to prepare the required quantum states. Here, we find that optical modulators based on $\mathrm{Li}\mathrm{Nb}\mathrm{O}$${}_3$, including phase modulators and intensity modulators, are vulnerable to photorefractive effects caused by external light injection. By changing the power of external light, eavesdroppers can control the intensities of the prepared states, posing a potential threat to the security of QKD. We have experimentally demonstrated the influence of light injection on $\mathrm{Li}\mathrm{Nb}\mathrm{O}$${}_3$-based optical modulators and analyzed the security risks caused by the potential light-injection attack, along with the corresponding countermeasures.

We describe the generation of entangling gates on superconductor-semiconductor hybrid qubits by ac voltage modulation of the Josephson energy. Our numerical simulations demonstrate that the unitary error can be below ${10}^{-5}$ in a variety of 75-ns-long two-qubit gates (CZ, $i\mathrm{SWAP}$, and $\sqrt{i\mathrm{SWAP}}$) implemented using parametric resonance. We analyze the conditional $ZZ$ phase and demonstrate that the CZ gate needs no further phase-correction steps, while the $ZZ$ phase error in swap-type gates can be compensated by choosing pulse parameters. With decoherence considered, we estimate that qubit relaxation time needs to exceed $70\text{μ}\mathrm{s}$ to achieve the 99.9% fidelity threshold.

Quantum digital signatures (QDSs), generating correlated bit strings among three remote parties for signatures through quantum law, can guarantee nonrepudiation, authenticity, and integrity of messages. Recently, a one-time universal-hashing QDS framework, exploiting the quantum asymmetric encryption and universal hash functions, has been proposed to significantly improve the signature rate and ensure unconditional security by directly signing the hash value of long messages. However, similar to quantum key distribution, this framework utilizes keys with perfect secrecy by performing privacy amplification that introduces cumbersome matrix operations, thereby consuming large computational resources, causing delays, and increasing failure probability. Here, we prove that, different from private communication, imperfect quantum keys with partial information leakage can be used for digital signatures and authentication without compromising the security while having eight orders of magnitude improvement on signature rate for signing a megabit message compared with conventional single-bit schemes. This study significantly reduces the delay for data postprocessing and is compatible with any quantum key generation protocols. In our simulation, taking two-photon twin-field key generation protocol as an example, QDS can be practically implemented over a fiber distance of 650 km between the signer and receiver. For the first time, this study offers a cryptographic application of quantum keys with imperfect secrecy and paves a way for the practical and agile implementation of digital signatures in a future quantum network.

We present a field-deployed quantum key distribution (QKD) link based on energy-time entanglement. Three nodes are connected, bridging the cities of Nice and Sophia Antipolis, by means of commercial grade optical fibers, spanning over a total distance of 50 km. We have built a packaged and resilient source of energy-time entangled photon pairs and implemented remote interferometer stabilization. Moreover, the clocks of the two end users are synchronized exploiting photon-counting techniques only, therefore requiring no dedicated channel. The system runs over the ITU 100-GHz standard telecom grid, through which a secure key rate of 7.0 kbit/s is extracted for one pair of channels. A homemade software performs all the necessary postprocessing procedures enabling to establish secret keys in real time. We present the first fully operational entanglement-based metropolitan QKD system being totally self-sufficient, i.e., requiring no additional overheads to be operated on a conventional metropolitan fiber network.

Quantum key distribution (QKD) enables private communications with information-theoretic security. To guarantee the practical security of QKD, it is essential that QKD systems are implemented in accordance with theoretical requirements and are robust with regard to side-channel attacks. Here we study a prominent attack on QKD transmitters known as the laser-seeding attack (LSA). It consists in injecting photons into the laser of the transmitter in an attempt to modify the outgoing light in some way that is beneficial to the eavesdropper. In this work we measure the response of a QKD transmitter to the LSA as a function of the optical power injected, allowing us to quantify the level of optical attenuation required to mitigate the attack. Further, we use a laser-rate-equation model to numerically simulate the effects of the LSA on a gain-switched laser. With this model we are able to reproduce previous experimental results, as well as generate new insight into the LSA by examining the effects of the LSA when the QKD transmitter is operated with different laser current driving parameters.