Dynamic generation of photonic spatial quantum states with an all-fiber platform

Area of Science:

• Quantum Information Science
• Photonics
• Optical Engineering

Background:

• Photonic spatial quantum states are crucial for quantum communication.
• Dynamically generating these states using only fiber-optical components remains a significant challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and experimentally demonstrate an all-fiber system for dynamic switching between general transverse spatial qubit states.
• To showcase the system's applicability in quantum technologies, specifically a measurement-device-independent quantum random number generator.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a fast optical switch based on a Sagnac interferometer.
• Integrated a photonic lantern and few-mode optical fibers for spatial mode manipulation.
• Demonstrated dynamic switching between spatial modes with switching times of approximately 5 ns.

Main Results:

• Achieved dynamic switching between spatial qubit states using an all-fiber system.
• Successfully implemented a measurement-device-independent quantum random number generator (MDI-QRNG).
• The MDI-QRNG operated continuously for 15 hours, generating over 13.46 Gbits of random numbers with at least 60.52% privacy.

Conclusions:

• Photonic lanterns enable dynamic creation of spatial modes within all-fiber systems.
• The developed platform offers robust and integrable solutions for photonic classical and quantum information processing.
• This work paves the way for advanced fiber-based quantum communication and computation applications.