MRI-R2 Consortium: Development of a Photon-Number-Resolving Detector System for Universal Quantum Computing

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。该奖项是为了表彰用于通用量子计算的光子数分辨探测器的开发。这是弗吉尼亚大学的Olivier Pfster教授、阿尔比恩学院的Aaron Miller教授和美国国家标准与技术研究院的Sae Woo Nam博士的合作成果。目标是开发高性能过渡边缘传感器（TES）超导光电探测器，该探测器最近在NIST由Nam博士和Miller教授演示，将安装在弗吉尼亚大学，用于量子光学和量子信息实验。这种探测器具有单光子灵敏度、多光子分辨率和接近统一的量子效率，这使它们成为探索光的量子性质的理想工具，提供了对其粒子性质的完整测量。重点将放在具有非高斯维格纳准概率分布的光量子态的创造和操纵上。这种状态对于实现具有连续变量的通用量子计算至关重要。这项工作的广泛影响是多方面的。首先也是最重要的是，这是前沿探测器科学和实验量子信息之间的跨学科努力。这项跨学科的努力将包括来自弗吉尼亚的学生参与和学习TES技术、设计、开发和制造，以及NIST和Albion人员参与弗吉尼亚的量子光学和量子信息实验。其次，考虑到设计的集成能力，预计弗吉尼亚实验室将提供许多独立的光纤耦合TES探测器，并且可以在相邻的桌子或相邻的房间进行远程实验，包括量子光学的新型教学实验室。这些实验室将通过光子数分辨的Hanbury Brown和Twiss实验以及广义Hong-Ou-Mandel干涉测量法来探索经典光的量子本质。此外，量子计算研究与基础物理学、国防和国家安全都有利害关系。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).This award is for development of a photon-number-resolving detector for universal quantum computing. This is a collaboration between Prof. Olivier Pfster at the University of Virginia, Prof. Aaron Miller at Albion College, and Dr. Sae Woo Nam at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The goal is the development of high performance transition-edge sensor (TES) superconducting photodetectors, recently demonstrated at NIST by Dr. Nam and by Prof. Miller, to be installed at the University of Virginia and used in quantum optics and quantum information experiments. Such detectors possess single-photon sensitivity, multiphoton resolution, and near-unity quantum efficiency, which makes them the ideal tool to explore the quantum nature of light by providing a complete measurement of its particle nature. The main emphasis will be placed on the creation and manipulation of quantum states of light possessing non-Gaussian Wigner quasiprobability distributions. Such states are essential to the implementation of universal quantum computing with continuous variables.The broader impacts of the work are multifaceted. First and foremost is that this is an interdisciplinary effort between cutting-edge detector science and experimental quantum information. This interdisciplinary effort will involve students from Virginia participating in and learning TES technology, design, development, and fabrication, as well as NIST and Albion personnel participating in quantum optics and quantum information experiments at Virginia. Second, given the integration capabilities of the design, it is expected that a number of independent, fiber-coupled TES detectors will be available in the Virginia laboratory and usable remotely by experiments on adjacent tables or in neighboring rooms including novel teaching laboratories in quantum optics. These laboratories would explore the quantum nature of classical light via photon-number-resolved Hanbury Brown and Twiss experiments and generalized Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometry. Also, quantum computing research has stakes in fundamental physics, as well as Defense and National Security.