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Researchers at the University of Waterloo are combining Nobel Prize-winning concepts to achieve a scientific breakthrough. Researchers at the University of Waterloo’s Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) have
Researchers at the University of Waterloo are combining Nobel Prize-winning concepts to achieve a scientific breakthrough. Researchers at the University of Waterloo’s Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) have combined two Nobel Prize-winning research concepts to improve quantum communications. Scientists can now efficiently create near-perfect entangled photon pairs from quantum dot sources.
Entangled photons are particles of light that remain connected even over great distances, and experiments on this subject were awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics. By combining entanglement with quantum dots, a technology recognized by the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the IQC research team aimed to optimize the process of creating entangled photons with a wide range of applications, including secure communications.
“The combination of high entanglement and high efficiency is required for exciting applications such as quantum key distribution or quantum repeaters, which are expected to extend the secure quantum communication distance to a global scale or interconnect distant quantum computers,” the doctor said. Michael Reimer, IQC Professor and Waterloo Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “Previous experiments had only measured near-perfect entanglement or high efficiency, but we are the first to meet both requirements with a quantum dot.”
By placing semiconductor quantum dots inside a nanowire, the researchers created a source that produces near-perfect entangled photons 65 times more efficiently than previous studies. This new source, developed in collaboration with the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa, can be excited by lasers to create entangled pairs on command. The researchers then used high-resolution single photon detectors provided by Single Quantum in the Netherlands to increase the degree of entanglement.
“Historically, quantum dot systems have suffered from a problem called fine structure fission, which causes the entangled state to oscillate over time. This meant that measurements made with a slow detection system could not measure entanglement,” said Matteo Pennacchietti, a doctoral student at IQC and Waterloo’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “We got around this by combining our quantum dots with a very fast and sensitive detection system. Essentially, we can get a timestamp of what the state of entanglement looks like at each point during the oscillation, and that’s where we have perfect entanglement.”
To illustrate future communication applications, Reimer and Pennacchietti, Dr. Norbert Lutkenhaus and Dr. Thomas Yennewein worked with IQC faculty and professors and their teams in the Waterloo Department of Physics and Astronomy. Using a new quantum dot entanglement source, the researchers modeled a secure communication method known as quantum key distribution and demonstrated that the quantum dot source holds significant promise in the future of secure quantum communications.
Source: Port Altele
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