Multiparty quantum communication provides delightful applications, including quantum cryptographic communication and quantum secret sharing. Quantum communication based on the Greenberg-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state measurement provides a practical way to implement multiparty quantum communication. With the standard spatially localized GHZ state measurement, however, information can be imbalanced among the communication parties that can cause significant problems in some applications of multiparty cryptographic communication, e.g., secret sharing. Here, we propose an equitable multiparty quantum communication where information balance among the communication parties is achieved without a trusted third party. Our scheme is based on the GHZ state measurement that is not spatially localized but implemented in a way that all the distant communication parties symmetrically participate. We also verify the feasibility of our scheme by presenting the proof-of-principle experimental demonstration of informationally balanced three-party quantum communication using weak coherent pulses.

We report the realization of coupling-independent, robust wireless sensing of fully passive resistive sensors. $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$-symmetric operation obviates sweeping, permitting real-time, single-point sensing. Self-oscillation is achieved through a fast-settling nonlinearity whose voltage amplitude is proportional to the sensor’s resistance. These advances markedly simplify the reader. A dual time-scale theoretical framework generalizes system analysis to arbitrary operating conditions and a correction strategy reduces errors due to detuning from $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$-symmetric conditions by an order of magnitude.

This paper reports on the experimental diagnostics of an entanglement-swapping protocol by means of collective entanglement witness. Our approach is suitable to detect disturbances occurring in the preparation of quantum states, quantum-communication channels, and imperfect Bell-state projections. More specifically, we demonstrate that our method can distinguish disturbances such as depolarization, phase damping, amplitude damping, and imperfect Bell-state measurement by observing four probabilities and estimating collective entanglement witness. Since entanglement swapping is a key procedure for quantum repeaters, quantum relays, device-independent quantum communications, and entanglement-assisted error correction, this can aid in faster and practical resolutions of quality of transmission related problems as our approach requires fewer measurements than other means of diagnostics.

Due to the single-photon interference at a third untrusted party, the twin-field quantum key distribution (TF-QKD) protocol and its variants can beat the well-known rate-loss bound without quantum repeaters and related experiments have recently been implemented. In general, quantum states in these schemes should be randomly switched between the code mode and the test mode. To adopt the standard decoy-state method, the phases of coherent-state sources in the test mode are assumed to be continuously randomized. However, such a crucial assumption cannot be satisfied well in experimental implementations. In this paper, to bridge the gap between theory and practice, we propose a TF-QKD variant with discrete-phase-randomized sources both in the code mode and the test mode and prove its security against collective attacks. Our simulation results indicate that, with only a small number of discrete phases, the performance of discrete-phase-randomized sources can overcome the rate-loss bound and approach that of continuous-phase-randomized sources.

We propose a detector of microwave photons that can distinguish the vacuum state, one-photon state, and the states with two or more photons. Its operation is based on the two-photon transition in a biased Josephson junction and detection occurs when it switches from a superconducting to a normal state. We model the detector theoretically. The detector performs with more than 90% success probability in several microseconds. The working frequency can be set at the design stage in the range from about 1 to 20 GHz.

Ensembles of bismuth-donor spins in silicon are promising storage elements for microwave quantum memories due to their long coherence times, which exceed seconds. The operation of an efficient quantum memory requires the achievement of critical coupling between the spin ensemble and a suitable high-quality factor resonator—this in turn requires a thorough understanding of the line shapes for the relevant spin-resonance transitions, particularly considering the influence of the resonator itself on line broadening. Here, we present pulsed electron-spin-resonance measurements of ensembles of bismuth donors in natural silicon, above which niobium superconducting resonators have been patterned. By studying spin transitions across a range of frequencies and fields, we identify distinct line-broadening mechanisms and, in particular, those that can be suppressed by operating at magnetic-field-insensitive “clock transitions.” Given the donor concentrations and resonator used here, we measure a cooperativity $C\sim 0.2$ and based on our findings we discuss a route to achieve unit cooperativity, as required for a quantum memory.

We propose a postselection technique, based on quantum error detection, for quantum key distribution (QKD) systems that run over quantum repeaters with encoding. In such repeaters, quantum error-correction techniques are used for entanglement distillation. By developing an analytical approach to study such quantum repeaters, we show that, in the context of QKD, it is often more efficient to use the error-detection, rather than the error-correction, capability of the underlying code to sift out cases where an error has been detected. We implement our technique for three-qubit repetition codes by modeling different sources of error in crucial components of the system. We then investigate in detail the impact of such imperfections on the secret key generation rate of the QKD system, and how one can use the information obtained during entanglement swapping and decoding stages to maximize the rate. For benchmarking purposes, we specify the maximum allowed error rates in different components of the setup below which positive key rates can be obtained.

Metamaterial resonant structures made from arrays of superconducting lumped-circuit elements can exhibit microwave-mode spectra with left-handed dispersion for the standing-wave resonances, resulting in a high density of modes in the same frequency range where superconducting qubits are typically operated, as well as a bandgap at lower frequencies that extends down to dc. Using this regime for multimode circuit quantum electrodynamics, we perform a series of measurements of such a superconducting metamaterial resonator coupled to a flux-tunable transmon qubit. Through microwave measurements of the metamaterial, we observe the coupling of the qubit to each of the modes that it passes through. Using a separate readout resonator, we probe the qubit dispersively and characterize the qubit energy relaxation as a function of frequency, which is strongly affected by the Purcell effect in the presence of the dense mode spectrum. Additionally, we investigate the ac Stark shift of the qubit as the photon number in the various metamaterial modes is varied. Through numerical simulations, we explore designs based on this scheme with enhanced coupling so that the coupling energy between the qubit and the metamaterial modes can exceed the intermode spacing in future devices with achievable circuit parameters. The ability to tailor the dense mode spectrum through the choice of circuit parameters and manipulate the photonic state of the metamaterial through interactions with qubits makes this a promising platform for analog quantum simulation with microwave photons and quantum memories.

In this work, we explore the feasibility of performing satellite-to-earth quantum key distribution (QKD) using the orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light. Because of the fragility of OAM states the conventional wisdom is that turbulence would render OAM QKD nonviable in a satellite-to-earth channel. However, based on detailed phase screen simulations of the anticipated atmospheric turbulence we find that OAM QKD is viable in some system configurations, especially if quantum channel information is utilized in the processing of postselected states. More specifically, using classically entangled light as a probe of the quantum channel, and reasonably sized transmitter-receiver apertures, we find that nonzero QKD key rates are achievable on sea-level ground stations. We also determine the turbulence conditions under which the QKD key rate becomes effectively zero. Without using classical light probes, OAM QKD is relegated to high-altitude ground stations with large receiver apertures. Our work uses a quantitative assessment of the performance of OAM QKD from satellites to determine under what circumstances the much-touted higher dimensionality of OAM can be utilized in the context of secure communications.

Discrete-modulated continuous-variable quantum key distribution protocols are promising candidates for large-scale deployment due to the large technological overlap with deployed modern optical communication devices. The security of discrete modulation schemes has previously been analyzed in the ideal detector scenario in the asymptotic limit. In this work, we calculate asymptotic key rates against collective attacks in the trusted detector noise scenario. Our results show that we can thus cut out most of the effect of detector noise and obtain asymptotic key rates similar to those had we access to ideal detectors.

Quantum hypothesis testing is one of the most fundamental problems in quantum information theory, with crucial implications in areas like quantum sensing, where it has been used to prove quantum advantage in a series of binary photonic protocols, e.g., for target detection or memory cell readout. In this work, we generalize this theoretical model to the multipartite setting of barcode decoding and pattern recognition. We start by defining a digital image as an array or grid of pixels, each pixel corresponding to an ensemble of quantum channels. Specializing each pixel to a black and white alphabet, we naturally define an optical model of a barcode. In this scenario, we show that the use of quantum entangled sources, combined with suitable measurements and data processing, greatly outperforms classical coherent-state strategies for the tasks of barcode data decoding and classification of black and white patterns. Moreover, introducing relevant bounds, we show that the problem of pattern recognition is significantly simpler than barcode decoding, as long as the minimum Hamming distance between images from different classes is large enough. Finally, we theoretically demonstrate the advantage of using quantum sensors for pattern recognition with the nearest-neighbor classifier, a supervised learning algorithm, and numerically verify this prediction for handwritten digit classification.

Solid-state qubits incorporating quantum dots can be read out dispersively. Here, we theoretically describe physical mechanisms that render such reflectometry-based readout schemes imperfect. We discuss charge qubits, singlet-triplet spin qubits, and Majorana qubits. In our model, we account for readout errors due to slow charge noise, and due to overdriving, when the large amplitude of the probe field generates errors. A key result is that for charge and spin qubits, the readout fidelity saturates at large probe strengths, whereas for Majorana qubits, there is an optimal probe strength which provides a maximized readout fidelity. We also point out the existence of severe readout errors appearing in a resonancelike fashion as the pulse strength is increased, and show that these errors are related to probe-induced multiphoton transitions. Besides providing practical guidelines toward optimized readout, our study might also inspire ways to use gate reflectometry for device characterization.

An atom-light hybrid quantum gyroscope (ALHQG) is proposed due to its high rotation sensitivity. It consists of an optical Sagnac loop to couple rotation rate and an atomic ensemble as quantum beam splitter (recombiner) [QBS(C)] based on atomic Raman-amplification process to realize the splitting and recombination of the optical wave and the atomic spin wave. The rotation sensitivity can be enhanced by the quantum correlation between Sagnac loop and QBS(C). The optimal working condition is investigated to achieve the best sensitivity. The numerical results show that the rotation sensitivity can beat the standard quantum limit (SQL) in ideal condition. Even in the presence of the attenuation under practical condition, the best sensitivity of the ALHQG can still beat the SQL and is better than that of a classical fiber optic gyroscope. Such an ALHQG could be practically applied for modern inertial navigation system.

The readout technique of dispersive gate sensing (DGS) uses an electrode embedded in a microwave resonator to detect the quantum capacitance of a mesoscopic device arising from single-electron tunneling. Here, we extend DGS from the detection of discrete tunnel events to the open regime, observing jumps in the capacitance of a quantum point contact (QPC) that arise when the one-dimensional sub-bands populate. We compare the signal from DGS to transport measurements for various QPC geometries, including measurements at finite bias. Unlike traditional charge sensing, which is limited by screening at high density, our results suggest that DGS can also probe the charge configuration of open quantum devices, where electrons are delocalized and multiple sub-bands are occupied.

To achieve quantum machine learning on imperfect noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) processors, the entire physical implementation should include as few as possible hand-designed modules with only a few ad hoc parameters to be determined. This work presents such a hardware-friendly end-to-end quantum-machine-learning scheme that can be implemented with imperfect NISQ processors. The proposal transforms the machine-learning task to the optimization of controlled quantum dynamics, in which the learning model is parameterized by experimentally tunable control variables. Our design also enables automated feature selection by encoding the raw input to quantum states through agent control variables. Comparing with the gate-based parameterized quantum circuits, the proposed end-to-end quantum-learning model is easy to implement as there are only a few ad hoc parameters to be determined. Numerical simulations on the benchmarking MNIST (Mixed National Institute of Standards and Technology) dataset of handwritten digits demonstrate that the model can achieve high performance using only 3–5 qubits without downsizing the dataset, which shows great potential for accomplishing large-scale real-world learning tasks on NISQ processors.

Geometric phase is a promising element to induce high-fidelity and robust quantum operations due to its built-in noise-resilience feature. Unfortunately, its practical applications are usually circumscribed by requiring complex interactions among multiple levels or qubits and a longer gate time than the corresponding dynamical ones. Here, we propose a general framework of geometric quantum computation with the integration of the time-optimal control technique, where the shortest smooth geometric path is found to realize accelerated geometric quantum gates and thus greatly decreases the gate errors induced by both the decoherence effect and operational imperfections. Meanwhile, we faithfully implement our idea on a scalable platform of a two-dimensional superconducting transmon-qubit lattice, with simple and experimentally accessible interactions. In addition, numerical simulations show that our implemented geometric gates possess higher fidelities and stronger robustness, which outperform the best performance of the corresponding dynamical ones. Therefore, our scheme provides a promising alternative route toward scalable fault-tolerant solid-state quantum computation.

Transmon qubits are ubiquitous in the pursuit of quantum computing using superconducting circuits. However, they have some drawbacks that still need to be addressed. Most importantly, the scalability of transmons is limited by the large device footprint needed to reduce the participation of the lossy capacitive parts of the circuit. In this work, we investigate and evaluate losses in an alternative device geometry, namely, the merged-element transmon (mergemon). To this end, we replace the large external shunt capacitor of a traditional transmon with the intrinsic capacitance of a Josephson junction and achieve an approximately 100 times reduction in qubit dimensions. We report the implementation of the mergemon using a sputtered $\mathrm{Nb}$–amorphous-$\mathrm{Si}$–$\mathrm{Nb}$ trilayer film. In an experiment below 10 mK, the frequency of the readout resonator, capacitively coupled to the mergemon, exhibits a qubit-state-dependent shift in the low-power regime. The device also demonstrates the single-photon and multiphoton transitions that represent a weakly anharmonic system in two-tone spectroscopy. The transition spectra are explained well with master-equation simulations. A participation-ratio analysis identifies the dielectric loss of the amorphous-$\mathrm{Si}$ tunnel barrier and its interfaces as the dominant source for qubit relaxation. We expect the mergemon to achieve high coherence for relatively small device dimensions when implemented with a low-loss, epitaxially grown, and lattice-matched trilayer.