Apparatus and methods for locked quantum communication using photonic integrated circuits

• US 10,126,506 B2
• Filed: 04/12/2017
• Issued: 11/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Original Assignee: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Inventors: Mower, Jacob C., Notaros, Jelena, Heuck, Mikkel, Englund, Dirk Robert, Lupo, Cosmo, Lloyd, Seth
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Dzung
• Application Number:
  US15/486,088
• Publication Number:
  US 20170293082A1
• Time in Patent Office: 580 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 6/29343 Cascade of loop resonators
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 6/29395 configurable, e.g. tunable or reconfigurable switching G02B6/35
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/212 Mach-Zehnder type
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/2257 the optical waveguides being made of semiconducting material
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/40 Transceivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/70 Photonic quantum communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0858 Details about key distillation or coding, e.g. reconciliation, error correction, privacy amplification, polarisation coding or phase coding

Abstract

A large-scale tunable-coupling ring array includes an input waveguide coupled to multiple ring resonators, each of which has a distinct resonant wavelength. The collective effect of these multiple ring resonators is to impart a distinct time delay to a distinct wavelength component (or frequency component) in an input signal, thereby carrying out quantum scrambling of the input signal. The scrambled signal is received by a receiver also using a large-scale tunable-coupling ring array. This receiver-end ring resonator array recovers the input signal by imparting a compensatory time delay to each wavelength component. Each ring resonator can be coupled to the input waveguide via a corresponding Mach Zehnder interferometer (MZI). The MZI includes a phase shifter on at least one of its arms to increase the tunability of the ring array.

Claims

1. An apparatus for quantum communication, the apparatus comprising:

a light source to provide an input signal having a plurality of distinct spectral components, each photon in the input signal representing at least one photonic qubit encoded in a time domain basis;

an input waveguide, optically coupled to the light source, to guide the input signal; and

a plurality of ring resonators, optically coupled to the input waveguide, to receive the input signal via the input waveguide, each ring resonator in the plurality of ring resonators having a resonant wavelength matching a wavelength of a corresponding distinct spectral component in the plurality of distinct spectral components, such that the plurality of ring resonators delays each distinct spectral component in the plurality of distinct spectral components by a distinct time delay.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the light source comprises:

a pulsed laser to provide a light pulse; and

an encoder to coherently split each photon in the light pulse into a plurality of distinct time bins so as to encode the photon with the at least one photonic qubit.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the light pulse comprises p photons and the plurality of distinct time bins comprises d time bins so as to transmit information comprising n photonic qubits, where n=p log₂(d).

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality of ring resonators includes at least 10 ring resonators.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein each ring resonator in the plurality of ring resonators is overcoupled to the input waveguide.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein each ring resonator has a quality factor substantially equal to or greater than 10⁵.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein each ring resonator in the plurality of ring resonators has an optical path length of about 200 μ

m to about 600 μ

m.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the distinct time delay is about 50 ps to about 300 ps.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of first phase shifters, each first phase shifter in the plurality of phase shifters being coupled to a corresponding ring resonator in the plurality of ring resonators to change the resonant wavelength of the corresponding ring resonator; and

a plurality of Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZIs) to couple respective ring resonators in the plurality of ring resonators to the input waveguide, each MZI in the plurality of MZIs comprising;

a first arm optically coupled to the input waveguide and forming at least a portion of the corresponding ring resonator; and

a second arm optically coupled to the input waveguide, the second arm having a second phase shifter to change the distinct time delay to the distinct spectral component in the input signal.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein each MZI further comprises a third phase shifter operably coupled to the first arm to balance optical loss in the second phase shifter.

11. A system for quantum communication, the system comprising:

a transmitter comprising;

an input waveguide to guide an input signal having a plurality of spectral components, an ith spectral component in the plurality of spectral components having an input wavelength λ

_i, where i=1, 2, . . . , N and N is a positive integer; and

a first plurality of ring resonators, optically coupled to the input waveguide, to generate a scrambled optical signal from the input signal, an ith ring resonator in the first plurality of ring resonators having a resonant wavelength λ

_i such that the first plurality of ring resonators imparts a time delay τ

_i to the ith spectral component in the input signal so as to generate the scrambled optical signal;

a receiver, in optical communication with the transmitter, to receive the scrambled optical signal, the receiver comprising a second plurality of ring resonators to impart a time delay −

τ

_i to the ith spectral component in the scrambled optical signal so as to recover the input signal.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the first plurality of ring resonators includes at least 10 ring resonators.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein each ring resonator in the first plurality of ring resonators is overcoupled to the input waveguide.

14. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

a first plurality of phase shifters, an ith phase shifter in the first plurality of phase shifters being coupled to the ith ring resonator in the first plurality of ring resonators to change the resonant wavelength λ

_i; and

a plurality of Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZIs) to couple the first plurality of ring resonators to the input waveguide, an ith MZI comprising;

a first arm optically coupled to the input waveguide and forming at least a portion of the ith ring resonator; and

a second arm optically coupled to the input waveguide, the second arm having a coupling phase shifter to change the time delay z, to the ith spectral component in the input signal.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the ith MZI further comprises a balancing phase shifter operably coupled to the first arm to balance optical loss in the coupling phase shifter.

16. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

a pulsed laser to provide a light pulse comprising p photons; and

an encoder to coherently split each photon in the light pulse into d time bins so as to transmit information comprising n bits, where n=p log₂(d).

17. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

a single-photon detector, in optical communication with the receiver, to detect the input signal recovered by the receiver.

18. A method of quantum enigma, the method comprising:

transmitting an input signal through a first plurality of ring resonators to generate a scrambled optical signal, the input signal having a plurality of spectral components, an ith spectral component having an input wavelength λ

_i, where i=1, 2, . . . , N and N is a positive integer, an ith ring resonator in the first plurality of ring resonators having a resonant wavelength at λ

_i such that the first plurality of ring resonators imparts a time delay τ

_i to the ith spectral component in the input signal.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

transmitting the scrambled optical signal through a second plurality of ring resonators to recover the input signal, the second plurality of ring resonators causing a time delay −

τ

_i to the ith spectral component in the scrambled optical signal.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

changing the time delay τ

_i to the ith spectral component in the input signal using an ith coupling phase shifter in an ith MZI, the ith MZI coupling the ith ring resonator to an input waveguide and comprising;

a first arm optically coupled to the input waveguide and forming at least a portion of the ith ring resonator; and

a second arm optically coupled to the input waveguide, the second arm having the coupling phase shifter.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

compensating for optical loss in the coupling phase shifter using a balancing phase shifter operably coupled to the first arm of the ith MZI.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein:

the input signal comprises a plurality of light pulses,

transmitting the input signal comprises transmitting a jth light pulse in the plurality of light pulses into the first plurality of ring resonators using a jth input phase setting of the first plurality of ring resonators to generate a jth scrambled optical pulse, where j=1, 2, . . . M and M is a positive integer, and the method further comprising;

transmitting the jth scrambled optical pulse into a second plurality of ring resonators using a jth output phase setting of the second plurality of ring resonator so as to recover the jth light pulse.

23. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

providing a light pulse comprising p photons; and

coherently splitting each photon in the light pulse into d distinct time bins so as to transmit information comprising n bits, where n=p log₂(d).