Consequences of quantum noise control for the relaxation resonance frequency and phase noise in heterogeneous Silicon/III–V lasers

We have recently introduced a new semiconductor laser design which is based on an extreme, 99%, reduction of the laser mode absorption losses. In previous reports, we showed that this was achieved by a laser mode design which confines the great majority of the modal energy (> 99%) in a low-loss Silicon guiding layer rather than in highly-doped, thus lossy, III–V p$${}^+$$ + and n$${}^+$$ + layers, which is the case with traditional III–V lasers. The resulting reduced electron-field interaction was shown to lead to a commensurate reduction of the spontaneous emission rate by the excited conduction band electrons into the laser mode and thus to a reduction of the frequency noise spectral density of the laser field often characterized by the Schawlow–Townes linewidth. In this paper, we demonstrate theoretically and present experimental evidence of yet another major beneficial consequence of the new laser design: a near total elimination of the contribution of amplitude-phase coupling (the Henry $$\alpha $$ α parameter) to the frequency noise at “high” frequencies. This is due to an order of magnitude lowering of the relaxation resonance frequency of the laser. Here, we show that the practical elimination of this coupling enables yet another order of magnitude reduction of the frequency noise at high frequencies, resulting in a quantum-limited frequency noise spectral density of 130 Hz$$^2$$ 2 /Hz (linewidth of 0.4 kHz) for frequencies beyond the relaxation resonance frequency 680 MHz. This development is of key importance in the development of semiconductor lasers with higher coherence, particularly in the context of integrated photonics with a small laser footprint without requiring any sort of external cavity.

Introduction to Semi-Classical Analysis for Digital Errors of Qubit in Quantum Processor

In recent years, remarkable progress has been achieved in the development of quantum computers. For further development, it is important to clarify properties of errors by quantum noise and environment noise. However, when the system scale of quantum processors is expanded, it has been pointed out that a new type of quantum error, such as nonlinear error, appears. It is not clear how to handle such new effects in information theory. First of all, one should make the characteristics of the error probability of qubits clear as communication channel error models in information theory. The purpose of this paper is to survey the progress for modeling the quantum noise effects that information theorists are likely to face in the future, to cope with such nontrivial errors mentioned above. This paper explains a channel error model to represent strange properties of error probability due to new quantum noise. By this model, specific examples on the features of error probability caused by, for example, quantum recurrence effects, collective relaxation, and external force, are given. As a result, it is possible to understand the meaning of strange features of error probability that do not exist in classical information theory without going through complex physical phenomena.

The Jaynes–Cummings model of a two-level atom in a single-mode para-Bose cavity field

The coherent states in the parity deformed analog of standard boson Glauber coherent states are generated, which admit a resolution of unity with a positive measure. The quantum-mechanical nature of the light field of these para-Bose states is studied, and it is found that para-Bose order plays an important role in the nonclassical behaviors including photon antibunching, sub-Poissonian statistics, signal-to-quantum noise ratio, quadrature squeezing effect, and multi-peaked number distribution. Furthermore, we consider the Jaynes-Cummings model of a two-level atom in a para-Bose cavity field with the initial states of the excited and Glauber coherent ones when the atom makes one-photon transitions, and obtain exact energy spectrum and eigenstates of the deformed model. Nonclassical properties of the time-evolved para-Bose atom-field states are exhibited through evaluating the fidelity, evolution of atomic inversion, level damping, and von Neumann entropy. It is shown that the evolution time and the para-Bose order control these properties.

Intrinsic and induced quantum quenches for enhancing qubit-based quantum noise spectroscopy

Quantum sensing protocols that exploit the dephasing of a probe qubit are powerful and ubiquitous methods for interrogating an unknown environment. They have a variety of applications, ranging from noise mitigation in quantum processors, to the study of correlated electron states. Here, we discuss a simple strategy for enhancing these methods, based on the fact that they often give rise to an inadvertent quench of the probed system: there is an effective sudden change in the environmental Hamiltonian at the start of the sensing protocol. These quenches are extremely sensitive to the initial environmental state, and lead to observable changes in the sensor qubit evolution. We show how these new features give access to environmental response properties. This enables methods for direct measurement of bath temperature, and for detecting non-thermal equilibrium states. We also discuss how to deliberately control and modulate this quench physics, which enables reconstruction of the bath spectral function. Extensions to non-Gaussian quantum baths are also discussed, as is the application of our ideas to a range of sensing platforms (e.g., nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond, semiconductor quantum dots, and superconducting circuits).

Quantum Probes for the Characterization of Nonlinear Media

Active optical media leading to interaction Hamiltonians of the form H=λ˜(a+a†)ζ represent a crucial resource for quantum optical technology. In this paper, we address the characterization of those nonlinear media using quantum probes, as opposed to semiclassical ones. In particular, we investigate how squeezed probes may improve individual and joint estimation of the nonlinear coupling λ˜ and of the nonlinearity order ζ. Upon using tools from quantum estimation, we show that: (i) the two parameters are compatible, i.e., the may be jointly estimated without additional quantum noise; (ii) the use of squeezed probes improves precision at fixed overall energy of the probe; (iii) for low energy probes, squeezed vacuum represent the most convenient choice, whereas for increasing energy an optimal squeezing fraction may be determined; (iv) using optimized quantum probes, the scaling of the corresponding precision with energy improves, both for individual and joint estimation of the two parameters, compared to semiclassical coherent probes. We conclude that quantum probes represent a resource to enhance precision in the characterization of nonlinear media, and foresee potential applications with current technology.

Non-classical photonic spin texture of quantum structured light

Classical structured light with controlled polarization and orbital angular momentum (OAM) of electromagnetic waves has varied applications in optical trapping, bio-sensing, optical communications and quantum simulations. However, quantum noise and photon statistics of three-dimensional photonic angular momentum are relatively less explored. Here, we develop a quantum framework and put forth the concept of quantum structured light for space-time wavepackets at the single-photon level. Our work deals with three-dimensional angular momentum observables for twisted quantum pulses beyond scalar-field theory as well as the paraxial approximation. We show that the spin density generates modulated helical texture and exhibits distinct photon statistics for Fock-state vs. coherent-state twisted pulses. We introduce the quantum correlator of photon spin density to characterize nonlocal spin noise providing a rigorous parallel with electronic spin noise. Our work can lead to quantum spin-OAM physics in twisted single-photon pulses and opens explorations for phases of light with long-range spin order.