Microstructured Fibre for Quantum Information

该项目的重点是基于光子晶体光纤（PCF）的量子信息应用的单光子和多光子源的开发。它汇集了两个国际知名的英国研究团队，以设计，建造和测试最适合此应用的设备。量子光学的最新发展为我们看待信息，通信和计算的方式提供了新的视角。我们不再局限于经典操作，但我们也可以利用光的基本量子性质来实现现实世界的用途。这方面最发达的例子是量子密码学;一种交换具有可证明安全性的加密密钥的方式。包括我们在内的各个研究小组现在都在寻求超越量子密码学的方法来进行多光子量子逻辑和量子通信实验。这些实验的关键资源是预示着单光子，对光子和纠缠对光子，最终多光子的来源。目前有一个驱动器在光纤实验，因为固有的单一空间模式，易于对齐和长传输长度可能的通信和隐形传态实验。最近，通过巴斯和布里斯托小组之间的讨论，我们意识到光子晶体光纤可以用作有效的单模对光子源。我们对光子晶体光纤和量子信息“工具箱”的综合知识导致了这一提议的发展。我们已经进行了突破性的初步实验，使用最初为其他应用设计的现成光纤产生成对光子。在这里，我们有兴趣工程的最终性能从光纤光源的光子对，并希望生产世界上第一个三光子源。这将使我们能够在考虑量子信息应用的情况下进行世界领先的多光子实验。

This project focuses on the development of single- and multi-photon sources for quantum information applications based on photonic crystal fibres (PCFs). It brings together two internationally renowned UK research teams in order to design, build and test devices which are optimally tailored to this application.Recent developments in quantum optics have shed new light on the way we see information, communication and computation. No-longer are we limited to classical operations, but we can also harness the fundamental quantum nature of light to real-world uses. The most developed example of this is quantum cryptography; a way of exchanging cryptographic keys with provable security. Various groups, including ours, are now looking to go beyond quantum cryptography to perform multi-photon quantum logic and quantum communication experiments. Key resources for these experiments are sources of heralded single photons, pair photons and entangled pair photons and eventually multiple photons. There is currently a drive towards experiments in optical fibre, because of the inherent single spatial mode, ease of alignment and long transmission lengths possible for communication and teleportation experiments. Recently through discussions between the Bath and Bristol groups we realised that PCFs could be used as efficient single mode pair photon sources. Our combined knowledge of PCFs and the quantum information 'toolbox' has then led to the development of this proposal. We have already performed ground breaking preliminary experiments generating pair photons using off-the-shelf fibre originally designed for other applications. Here we are interested in engineering the ultimate performance from fibre sources of photon pairs and hope to produce the worlds first three photon source. This will allow us to perform world leading multiphoton experiments with quantum information applications in mind.