RAISE-TAQS: Quantum Advantage of Broadband Entangled Photon Pairs in Spectroscopy and Metrology

该奖项由跨学科科学与工程研究推进（RAISE）在量子系统转型进展（TAQS）项目中获得，支持俄勒冈大学迈克尔·雷默教授、安德鲁·马库斯教授和布莱恩·史密斯教授的合作工作，他们利用光的量子力学状态，通过实验证明了远程物体传感和电子耦合分子光谱的性能改进。非线性光谱学和计量学的发展本质上依赖于量子力学效应，这是化学、物理和工程界广泛关注的科学问题。如此发展的方法和研究将创造新的机会，可用于不断扩大的量子信息科学跨学科领域。得到支持的研究将促进在国际会议和讲习班上传播结果，开发的工具将随时提供给科学界。这三位pi将在拟议工作的各个方面进行合作，并将共同指导从事项目的博士生。因此，参与的学生将享受独特而广泛的研究培训，涵盖量子光学，超快分子光谱学和生物物理学。俄勒冈光学、分子和量子科学中心的一个跨越化学、物理和工程的跨学科团队将进行实验，证明爱因斯坦-波多尔斯基-罗森（EPR）式时频域光子纠缠可以在光谱学和计量学中提供显著的量子优势。时频纠缠光子对（EPP）在时间上紧密相关，而在频率上反相关，使得光子对的能量和有明确的定义。这种光的量子态提供了在使用光子巧合事件时规避经典傅立叶时间带宽限制的能力，无论是在检测中，如标准量子光学，还是在分子复合物的双光子激发中，如非线性光谱学。该研究将探讨计量学和非线性光谱学中四种相关光学方案的潜在量子优势：1)量子照明（感知物体的存在或不存在）；2)互补参数的多参数估计（如反射物体的距离和速度估计）；3)双光子干涉非线性光谱学；4)纠缠光子对二维荧光光谱。统一这四种方案的共同点是使用由自发参数下转换（SPDC）产生的宽带（多光谱模式）时频EPP，以及利用量子干涉的干涉仪配置。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award in the Research Advanced by Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering (RAISE) on Transformational Advances in Quantum Systems (TAQS) program supports collaborative work by Professors Michael Raymer, Andrew Marcus and Brian Smith at the University of Oregon to demonstrate experimentally improved performance in the sensing of remote objects and the spectroscopy of electronically coupled molecules using quantum mechanical states of light. Advancements in nonlinear optical spectroscopy and metrology that rely on intrinsically quantum mechanical effects are of broad scientific interest to the chemistry, physics and engineering communities. The methods and research so developed will create new opportunities that may be utilized in the expanding interdisciplinary field of quantum information science. The supported research will facilitate the dissemination of results at international meetings and workshops, and the tools developed will be made readily available to the scientific community. The three PIs will collaborate on all aspects of the proposed work, and will co-advise the PhD students working on the projects. The students involved will thus enjoy a unique and broad exposure to research training that spans quantum optics, ultrafast molecular spectroscopy, and biophysics.An interdisciplinary team spanning chemistry, physics, and engineering in the Oregon Center for Optical, Molecular, and Quantum Science, will carry out experiments to demonstrate that Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR)-like entanglement of photons in the time-frequency domain can provide a significant quantum advantage in spectroscopy and metrology. Time-frequency entangled photon pairs (EPP) are tightly correlated in time while being anti-correlated in frequency, such that the sum of the energies of the photon pair is sharply defined. Such quantum states of light offer the ability to circumvent classical Fourier time-bandwidth limits when employing photon coincidence events, either in detection, as in standard quantum optics, or in two-photon excitation of molecular complexes, as in nonlinear spectroscopy. The research will investigate potential quantum advantages in the context of four related optical schemes in metrology and nonlinear spectroscopy: 1) Quantum illumination (sensing of an object's presence or absence); 2) Multi-parameter estimation of complementary parameters (e.g., estimating the distance and velocity of a reflecting object); 3) Two-photon interferometric nonlinear spectroscopy; and 4) Entangled photon-pair 2D fluorescence spectroscopy. The commonality that unifies the four schemes is the use of broad-band (multi-spectral-mode), time-frequency EPP produced by spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC), coupled with interferometer configurations that exploit quantum interference.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.