Creating, detecting and exploiting quantum states of light

在过去的十到十五年里，对光的量子态的研究在世界范围内得到了扩展。1984年首次提出的量子密码学或量子密钥分配(QKD)/提供了由量子力学定律保证的无条件安全的信息共享，这在很大程度上促进了这一学科领域的扩展。虽然量子密钥分发仍然是一个令人兴奋的实验室和野外研究的肥沃主题，但自由空间和光纤传输介质的实验进展已经将量子密码学带到了商业开发和现实世界应用的边缘。与此同时，量子信息研究的其他一些发展也具有非常重要的意义，例如量子计算算法，如果实现，将使今天基于公钥的数据安全系统过时。这些基于量子的系统的构件或量子组件需要大量的研究工作，这是这项提议的主要主题。重要的是，也许是以更短期的方式，这些组件中的一些将被用于量子信息处理领域之外的其他应用；这些应用包括微光通信(例如，在NASA火星通信计划中提出的)、遥感、微光成像、量子或幽灵成像以及基于量子的计量学。Heriot-Watt小组的这一平台授予应用集中于对光的量子态的创建、检测和利用的前沿研究。这个项目将被用来对这些快速发展的领域的研究做出战略决策。在申请时，已经突出了几个令人兴奋的项目以供调查，尽管这些项目并不意味着代表一个全面和排他性的研究主题清单。一些值得立即研究的领域包括新的固态不可分辨的单光子源、光子数分辨探测器、自旋纠缠的光学产生、具有‘波导-QED’的少量光子非线性以及大字母QKD。虽然这笔赠款不会为所有这些领域的长期调查提供全部资源，但这个项目将允许快速启动，并使该小组能够更有效地与其他小组合作，包括海外研究人员。

In the last ten to fifteen years there has been a world-wide expansion in investigation into quantum states of light. Much of the expansion in this subject area has been stimulated by the emergence of quantum cryptography or quantum key distribution (QKD) / first proposed in 1984 - which offers unconditionally secure information sharing guaranteed by quantum-mechanical laws. Whilst QKD still remains a fertile subject of exciting laboratory and field research, experimental progress in free-space and optical fibre transmission media have taken quantum cryptography to the fringes of commercial exploitation and real-world application. Concurrently, a number of other developments in quantum information research have also been highly significant, such as quantum computing algorithms that, if realised, would make today's public-key based data security system obsolete. The building blocks, or quantum components, of these quantum-based systems require considerable research effort and this is the main subject matter of this proposal. Significantly and perhaps in a more short-term manner, a number of these components will be utilised in other applications outside the quantum information processing sphere; these applications include including low-light level communications (eg as proposed in the NASA Mars Communications Programme), in remote sensing, low light level imaging, quantum or ghost imaging, and quantum-based metrology.This Platform Grant application from the Heriot-Watt group centres on leading edge research into the creation, detection and exploitation of the quantum states of light. This project will be used to make strategic decisions regarding research in these fast-moving fields. At the time of application, several exciting projects have been highlighted for investigation, although these projects are not meant to represent a comprehensive and exclusive list of research topics. Some areas worth immediate investigation include novel solid-state indistinguishable single photon sources, photon-number resolving detectors, optical generation of spin entanglement, few photon non-linearities with 'waveguide-QED', and large alphabet QKD. Whilst this grant will not provide the full resources for long-term investigations into all these areas, this project will permit rapid start-up and allow the group to collaborate more effectively with other groups, including overseas researchers.