Resolution of 100 photons and quantum generation of unbiased random numbers
Resolution of 100 photons and quantum generation of unbiased random numbers
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DOI：
10.1038/s41566-022-01105-9
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发表时间：
2022-12-19
期刊：
影响因子：
35
通讯作者：
Pfister, Olivier
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Eaton, Miller;Hossameldin, Amr;Pfister, Olivier
宏观量子现象，如在超流体和超导体中观察到的，已经导致了有希望的技术进步和一些最重要的基础物理学测试。目前，光的量子探测主要局限于微观尺度，雪崩光电二极管对区分单光子事件和真空事件非常敏感，但不能区分更大光子数的事件。除此之外，执行测量以解析光子数的能力对于各种量子信息应用（包括计算，传感和密码学）是非常理想的。真正的光子数分辨探测器确实存在，但它们目前仅限于分辨10个光子的能力，这对于基于预示探测的几种量子态生成方法来说太小了。在这里，我们通过实现一种基于多路高量子效率过渡边缘传感器的检测方案，将光子测量扩展到介观范围，以准确地分辨0到100之间的光子数。然后，我们通过实现一个没有固有偏差的量子随机数生成器来演示我们系统的使用。该方法基于在光子数的基础上对相干态进行采样，对环境噪声、激光的相位和幅度波动、损耗和探测器的低效率以及窃听具有较强的鲁棒性。除了真正的随机数生成之外，我们的检测方案还可以作为实现量子测量和光子量子信息处理有价值的工程技术的手段。
Macroscopic quantum phenomena, such as observed in superfluids and superconductors, have led to promising technological advancements and some of the most important tests of fundamental physics. At present, quantum detection of light is mostly relegated to the microscale, where avalanche photodiodes are very sensitive to distinguishing single-photon events from vacuum but cannot differentiate between larger photon-number events. Beyond this, the ability to perform measurements to resolve photon numbers is highly desirable for a variety of quantum information applications, including computation, sensing and cryptography. True photon-number resolving detectors do exist, but they are currently limited to the ability to resolve on the order of 10 photons, which is too small for several quantum-state generation methods based on heralded detection. Here we extend photon measurement into the mesoscopic regime by implementing a detection scheme based on multiplexing highly quantum-efficient transition-edge sensors to accurately resolve photon numbers between 0 and 100. We then demonstrate the use of our system by implementing a quantum random-number generator with no inherent bias. This method is based on sampling a coherent state in the photon-number basis and is robust against environmental noise, phase and amplitude fluctuations in the laser, loss and detector inefficiency as well as eavesdropping. Beyond true random-number generation, our detection scheme serves as a means to implement quantum measurement and engineering techniques valuable for photonic quantum information processing.