Entanglement and teleportation between polarization and wave-like encodings of an optical qubit

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 3672 - 7
• Main Authors: Sychev, Demid V, Ulanov, Alexander E, Tiunov, Egor S, Pushkina, Anastasia A, Kuzhamuratov, A, Novikov, Valery, Lvovsky, A I
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Nature Publishing Group 10.09.2018; Nature Publishing Group UK; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: Coding; Continuity (mathematics); Data processing; Degrees of freedom; Information processing; Polarization; Quantum entanglement; Quantum phenomena; Quantum teleportation; Quantum theory; Qubits (quantum computing); Superconductors; Superposition (mathematics); Teleportation
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-06055-x

Light is an irreplaceable means of communication among various quantum information processing and storage devices. Due to their different physical nature, some of these devices couple more strongly to discrete, and some to continuous degrees of freedom of a quantum optical wave. It is therefore desirable to develop a technological capability to interconvert quantum information encoded in these degrees of freedom. Here we generate and characterize an entangled state between a dual-rail (polarization-encoded) single-photon qubit and a qubit encoded as a superposition of opposite-amplitude coherent states. We furthermore demonstrate the application of this state as a resource for the interfacing of quantum information between these encodings. In particular, we show teleportation of a polarization qubit onto a freely propagating continuous-variable qubit.