Quantum communication can provide information theoretical security communication based on the basic principle of quantum mechanics. Here, I would like to present the recent experimental progress in our group towards global quantum communication, including measurement device independent QKD over in the lab and metropolitan network, quantum teleprotation and entanglement swapping over metropolitan network, trust node based quantum main trunk line and free space quantum communication.

Quantum optics has become a key field of development for investigations of quantum physics principles, leading to novel quantum technologies. In this view Integrated Optics allows implementing complex quantum circuits that can give rise to significant outcomes, difficult to reach using traditional approaches based on discrete components. In this framework, a non-linear Mach-Zehnder Interferometer (MZI) was implemented by using two commercial 50:50 directional fibre couplers. One of the MZI arms was equipped with a single mode Er:LiNbO₃ optical waveguide, acting as non-linear component whereas the other MZI arm was provided with an undoped LiNbO₃ single mode optical waveguide, used to obtain a phase shift through the application of a controlled voltage ramp. The injection in the MZI of a 980nm wavelength laser radiation allowed to collect structured interferogrammes, that could be ascribed exclusively to the pump photons, as all frequency conversion events are localized only in one arm of the Interferometer. The Fourier Transform elaboration of such interferogrammes, produces multiple peak spectra that tightly match the typical transition spectrograms of Er:LiNbO₃ when excited by a 980nm radiation. Thus it is possible to perform a spectrometry of the noninterfering converted photons only by using the interfering pump photons. In this work, the experimental apparatus and the most interesting results, obtained in different experimental conditions, are described. Finally, a possible interpretation is outlined.

Single-photon sources are crucial components for the implementation of quantum communication protocols. However, photons emitted by some of the most popular types of realistic sources are spectrally broadband. Due to this drawback, the signal emitted from such sources is typically affected by the effect of temporal broadening during its propagation through telecommunication fibers which exhibit chromatic dispersion. Such problem can be observed e.g. when using sources based on the process of spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC). In the case of long-distance quantum communication temporal broadening can significantly limit the efficiency of temporal filtering. It is a popular method, which relies on the reduction of the duration time of the detection window, used for decreasing the number of registered errors. In this work we analyzed the impact of the type of spectral correlation within a pair of photons produced by the SPDC source on the temporal width of those photons during their propagation in dispersive media. We found out that in some situations this width can be decreased by changing the typical negative spectral correlation into positive one or by reducing its strength. This idea can be used to increase the efficiency of the temporal filtering method. Therefore, it can be applied in various implementations of quantum communication protocols. As an example of the application we subsequently analyzed the security of a quantum key distribution (QKD) scheme based on single photons. The investigation was performed for the configuration with the source of photons located in the middle between the legitimate participants of a QKD protocol (called typically Alice and Bob). We demonstrated that when the information about the emission time of the photons produced by the SPDC source is not distributed to Alice and Bob, the maximal security distance can be considerably extended by using positively correlated photons, while in the opposite case strongly (no matter positively or negatively) correlated photons are optimal. We also found out that the results of our calculation may be very sensitive to the spectral widths of the photons produced by the SPDC source. In addition, we concluded that in realistic situation Alice and Bob would have to optimize their source over both the spectral widths of the generated photons and the type of spectral correlation in order to maximally extend the security distance. The results of our work are, in particular, important for the QKD systems utilizing commercial telecom fibers populated by strong classical signals. In those systems temporal filtering method can be used to reduce not only the dark counts registered by the detection system, but also the channel noise originating from the process of Raman scattering, which is the main factor limiting their performance.

The concept of the Device-Independent Quantum Key Distribution (DI-QKD) constitutes the minimalist paradigm for quantum cryptography, in which the security of the distributed secret key is fully assured by the statistical properties of the data being shared between the parties that perform a quantum-based protocol. In particular, the secrecy of the distributed key is ultimately guaranteed not only thanks to the quantum nature of the underlying scheme, but also without making any assumptions about the operation of the devices being employed. Such a conservative approach is possible thanks to the non-local correlations exhibited within the shared data, i.e., the correlations of genuine quantum origin that, due to violation of a particular Bell inequality, cannot be explained by any form of common randomness pre-available to the parties. Such violation, however, must be revealed without performing any post-selection on the data, what would then open the so-called detection loophole and jeopardize the security of the protocol. In spite of the tremendous advances recently made to achieve higher detection efficiencies in Bell-violation experiments, DI-QKD remains a very experimentally difficult task due to the exponential increase of loss in the channel, e.g., implemented with optical fibres, with the distance separating the parties involved. Here, we describe a new and plausible solution to overcome the crucial problem of channel loss in the frame of DI-QKD optical implementations. In particular, we propose a novel protocol inspired by the entanglement swapping schemes, which by the usage of the state-of-the-art (e.g., quantum-dot-based or heralded) single-photon sources has potential, for the first time, to be implementable with current photonic and linear optics technologies. While allowing for any transmission losses that only decrease the rate of the key distribution without creating vulnerability, it tolerates overall detection efficiency at the 90% level even when requiring strict device-independence. We compare our scheme against protocols that involve sources based on spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC), in order to explicitly show and explain why such SPDC-based proposals—even when enhanced by the entanglement swapping or qubit amplification techniques—are then largely outperformed when physical imperfections are rigorously taken into account.

In the field of quantum information and quantum computing, entanglement plays an essential role. Entanglement preservation is an important issue as realistic quantum systems are affected by decoherence and entanglement losses due to the interaction with their environment. For example, in spite of an exponential decay of a single qubit, the entanglement between two qubits may completely disappear at a finite time; a phenomenon known as “entanglement sudden death” [1]. Recently, interest has been given in cases that qubits can be strongly coupled to plasmonic nanostructures, like, for example, an one-dimensional plasmonic waveguide [2] or a two-dimensional lattice of metal-coated dielectric nanoparticles [3]. In such systems the strong interaction with the surface plasmons leads to significant entanglement between the two qubits. Here, we consider the interaction of two initially entangled qubits interacting individually with a two-dimensional lattice of metal-coated dielectric nanoparticles. We consider two cases for the qubits, a pair of regular two-level systems and a pair of V-type systems where one transition is the qubit and the other level acts as an umbrella level [4]. We consider the entanglement dynamics for different initial conditions of the qubits. The specific plasmonic nanostructure leads to strongly modified spontaneous emission rates of individual quantum systems (strong suppression in certain cases) and, in addition, to strongly anisotropic Purcell effect for orthogonal dipoles, that in turn can be used for simulating quantum interference in spontaneous emission [5]. We use these effects for significantly prolonging entanglement dynamics near the plasmonic nanostructure in both cases, in comparison to the cases that the qubits are in free space. 1. T. Yu and J. H. Eberly, Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 140404 (2004). 2. A. Gonzalez-Tudela, D. Martin-Cano, E. Moreno, L. Martin-Moreno, C. Tejedor, and F. J. Garcia-Vidal, Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 020501 (2011). 3. N. Iliopoulos, A. F. Terzis, V. Yannopapas, and E. Paspalakis, Ann. Phys. 365, 38 (2016). 4. S. Das and G. S. Agarwal, Phys. Rev. A 81, 052341 (2010). 5. V. Yannopapas, E. Paspalakis, and N. V. Vitanov, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 063602 (2009).