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Hybrid discrete- and continuous-variable quantum information

Andersen, Ulrik Lund; Neergaard-Nielsen, Jonas Schou; van Loock, Peter; Furusawa, Akira

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Nature Physics

Link to article, DOI:

10.1038/nphys3410

Publication date:
2015

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Peer reviewed version

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Citation (APA):
Andersen, U. L., Neergaard-Nielsen, J. S., van Loock, P., & Furusawa, A. (2015). Hybrid discrete- and
continuous-variable quantum information. Nature Physics, 11(9), 713-719. https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3410

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 Hybrid discrete and continuous-variable quantum information

Ulrik L. Andersen,1, ∗ Jonas S. Neergaard-Nielsen,1 Peter van Loock,2 and Akira Furusawa3
1
Department of Physics, Technical University of Denmark, Fysikvej, 2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
2
Institute of Physics, Johannes-Gutenberg Universität Mainz, Staudingerweg 7, 55128 Mainz, Germany
3
Department of Applied Physics, School of Engineering,
The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan

Research in quantum information processing II. GENERATION OF NON-GAUSSIAN STATES

has followed two different directions: the use
of discrete variables (qubits) and that of high-
dimensional, continuous-variable Gaussian states A prerequisite for universal QIP is the generation of
(coherent and squeezed states). Recently, these a restricted set of quantum states. Some systems pos-
two approaches have been converging in poten- sess only a DV description of their quantum state which
tially more powerful hybrid protocols. is for instance the case for the spin of a single parti-
cle. However, for most systems, including the broad
category of harmonic oscillators, a CV description ex-
ists. Among them there are two classes of pure quantum
states that play a pivotal role in QIP: Gaussian and non-
I. INTRODUCTION Gaussian states, referring to the statistics of the state’s
wavefunction or Wigner function. Gaussian states are
relatively easy to produce and manipulate using standard
By harnessing quantum superposition and entangle-
optical technology such as lasers, parametric amplifiers
ment, it is possible to design new, and potentially more
(or squeezers), beam splitters and homodyne detectors.
powerful, types of communication and computation. But
This enables linear transformations of continuous quan-
despite the significant experimental progress in control-
tum quadratures, thereby mapping Gaussian states onto
ling the quantum states of various microscopic systems,
other Gaussian states.
the implementation of a fully fault-tolerant and scalable
quantum computer is still a major challenge.
In recent years, this technology has been extended to
Many physical platforms, including photons, ions, the microwave regime. Using superconducting degener-
atoms, solid state and superconducting devices and nu- ate [6] and non-degenerate [7] parametric amplifiers, mi-
clear magnetic resonance [1], are being explored in the crowave squeezed and CV entangled states have been
view of constructing a quantum computer. But, irre- generated and characterized with homodyne detection
spective of the physical implementation, quantum infor- for state tomography. In addition to the generation of
mation processing (QIP) comes in two different types de- squeezing of the field quadratures, demonstrations of the
pending on the degree of freedom, or observable, used squeezing of the CV collective spin observables of an
to encode information. If the observable is discrete in atomic ensemble [8] have been reported and similar pro-
nature (that is, its eigenvalues are discretized), we talk posals exist for solid state materials [9, 10]. In the last
about discrete-variable (DV) QIP [2], see Box 1. And if decade, there has been significant interest in the gener-
the observable has a continuum of eigenvalues, we refer ation and manipulation of the position and momentum
to continuous-variable (CV) QIP [3–5], see Box 2. This is CV states of mechanical oscillators. This has lead to
in a way similar to classical information processing where numerous proposals and a single experiment on generat-
the two types of encoding are known as digital and analog ing mechanically squeezed and entangled states exploit-
information processing. ing the Gaussian coupling between a field mode and the
Recently, progress has been made towards bridging the mechanics [11, 12].
two approaches with the aim of realizing protocols that
overcome the intrinsic individual limitations. The inte- To produce a pure non-Gaussian state or, in general,
gration of DV and CV technologies in unified hybrid sys- an arbitrary quantum state, the standard CV toolbox
tems (by which we mean the simultaneous use of discrete consisting of linear Gaussian transformation and homo-
and continuous variables as opposed to hybrid physical dyne detection is insufficient. It is however possible to
systems) has advanced both theoretically and experimen- enter the non-Gaussian regime by hybridizing DV and
tally and the aim of this Progress Article is to highlight CV technologies. There are basically two approaches to
some of these results. the formation of non-Gaussian states of an oscillator: 1)
by enabling a strong, deterministic coupling to a finite-
level (discretized) matter system or 2) by a probabilistic
measurement-induced interaction using a finite-level dis-
∗ Corresponding author:[email protected] cretized energy detector (photon counter).
 2

Box 1 Discrete variables Box 2 Continuous variables

Binary digits of information can be represented by or- As an alternative to the standard finite-level encoding,
thogonal eigenstates of observables of a single quantum one can use the eigenstates {|xi} of a continuous-valued
system such as the polarization of a photon ((a) in the operator x̂. This operator and its conjugate, p̂, could be
figure below), the spin of an electron (b) or the current represented by the amplitude and phase quadratures of
of a superconducting loop (c). In QIP, one can also use a field mode ((a) in the figure below), the collective spin
superpositions of eigenstates: variables of an atomic ensemble (b) or the position and
momentum of a mechanical oscillator (c). An arbitrary
|ψi = c0 |0i + c1 |1i (1) quantum state in this basis is
Z ∞
The information encoded in this quantum state is given
by the complex amplitudes c0 and c1 , and it can be rep- |ψi = ψ(x)|xidx (2)
−∞
resented and visualized on the Bloch sphere (d). The
computational basis set {|0i, |1i} is discrete. A projective where the information is now encoded in the wavefunc-
measurement is described by a two-component projector tion ψ(x) or, more generally, in a quasi-distribution over
such that in each measurement the number of outcomes phase space known as the Wigner function W (x, p) (d).
(eigenvalues) is two. Physically such measurements are Traditional CV QIP uses Gaussian states such as coherent,
realized for example by a Stokes parameter (polarization) squeezed and Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen entangled states
measurement (e) or a Stern-Gerlach apparatus, both of (also known as two-mode squeezed states) – these have
which ideally project along any orthogonal basis. A uni- Gaussian wavefunctions and Wigner functions.
versal two-component projector can be used to implement A measurement of the basis states is done with a contin-
a measurement-induced non-linearity and it can be used uous projector which for optical and microwave fields can
to fully characterize a state in the two-dimensional Hilbert be implemented with a homodyne detector (e) and for an
space. atomic ensemble by the Faraday polarization rotation of
Universal quantum computation requires the implemen- light that is proportional to the collective spin. With a set
tation of a finite set of gates comprising single qubit and of such measurements, it is possible to perform a complete
two-qubit operations. One example of a complete set tomography of any quantum state.
is {ÛH , ÛP G , ÛCN OT } where ÛH and ÛP G are the sin- One universal set of gates for CV computation is
gle qubit Hadamard and rotation gates, respectively, and {ÛF , ÛZ , ÛP G , ÛSU M } with the single-mode Gaussian
ÛCN OT is the two qubit controlled NOT gate. For some gates ÛF (Fourier transform) and ÛZ (displacement), the
physical systems, these gates are relatively simple to im- single-mode non-Gaussian cubic phase gate ÛP G , and the
plement. For others, such as optics, particularly the two- two-mode Gaussian SUM gate ÛSU M . Whereas the Gaus-
mode gate is challenging. sian transformations typically are easy to implement in a
CV system, universality is only attained by including the
1 technically challenging non-Gaussian transformations.
0
1 p
p
x p
0 x
1
0 x

a) photon polarization b) electron spin c) loop current

1
waveplates PBS a) EM field b) spin ensemble c) mechanical oscillator

photon
counters

p
0

d) qubit Bloch sphere e) Stokes parameter detection x

d) Wigner function e) homodyne detector

Deterministic generation of non-Gaussian states

system – usually enabled by placing the systems inside
The interaction between a CV oscillator and a DV two- a high Q cavity – the photon will be harvested by that
level system can be described by the Jaynes-Cummings mode with high probability. It has been demonstrated
interaction. The simplest non-Gaussian state produced in a number of experiments [13], but a complete state
by this interaction is the single photon state; each time characterization via Wigner function reconstruction has
the two-level system is excited, it will decay and emit been realized only in a few experiments, mainly in the
a single flying photon into a travelling field mode. If microwave regime [14–16], but recently also in the optical
a single field mode is strongly coupled to the two-level regime with atomic ensembles [17].
 3

In the microwave domain, extremely high coupling modifications at the individual quantum level of the state
strength can be reached using a superconducting phase of a harmonic oscillator. Such transformations, which are
qubit near a microstrip cavity. Furthermore, the cou- in general non-Gaussian, can be implemented through
pling can be controlled by detuning the cavity in and projective measurements of a discrete spectrum opera-
out of resonance with the field [18]. Using such a strong tor. This approach is very common, particularly in the
and controlled coupling, higher order Fock states [19] as optical domain where low-noise single photon detectors
well as Fock state superpositions of several photons [20] are readily available.
have been deterministically generated and characterized Negative Wigner functions of an optical field mode
by quantum state tomography on a chip in a cryogenic were first observed for a single photon conditionally pre-
environment. Similar multi-photon Fock states have been pared by the detection its twin from a photon pair created
generated via quantum non-demolition measurement of a in a spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC)
stationary microwave field employing the strong coupling process in a nonlinear crystal [33]. The same method
and subsequent measurements of flying Rydberg atoms was used to implement the addition of a photon to a
[14], see Fig. 1a. coherent state that was seeded into one mode of the
Another non-Gaussian state of the harmonic oscilla- SPDC [34]. The reverse of this photon addition process,
tor is the so-called Schrödinger cat state which is defined photon subtraction, can be easily implemented by detec-
as superpositions of coherent states with opposite phase, tion of a photon after a weakly reflecting beamsplitter
|αi ± | − αi [21] where α is the coherent state ampli- as was demonstrated in several experiments where the
tude. Such states have been deterministically realized in subtraction was applied to an initial squeezed vacuum
the motional state of a trapped ion through the applica- state [35–38]. Interest in this particular state arose from
tion of a sequence of Raman laser pulses and the inter- the recognition [39] that such states are close-to-ideal ap-
action with its spin degree of freedom [22]. Cat states proximations to Schrödinger cat states with small ampli-
have also been generated by entangling a standing CV tudes α, also known as kitten states.
microwave field to a flying Rydberg atom followed by
a projective DV measurement of the atom [14, 23] and The range of possible conditional operations can be ex-
through a strong, dispersive interaction with a supercon- panded by detecting additional photons (with either mul-
ducting transmon qubit [24]. In the latter experiment, tiple or photon-number-resolving detectors) as shown for
impressive cat sizes of up to 111 photons were created, higher-number Fock states [40, 41] and kitten states [42–
and the complexity was further enhanced by producing 44]. It can be expanded even further by preceding the
three- and four-component cat states, see Fig. 1b. photon detection by a phase space displacement. This
In addition to the coupling of two-level systems to the changes the simple Fock state projection into a projection
CVs of the electro-magnetic field and the vibrational consisting of a superposition of multiple photon num-
mode of ions, recently there has also been significant ber components whose coefficients are controlled by the
progress in understanding and implementing the coupling amplitude and phase of the displacement, see Fig. 1d.
of a two-level system to the continuous position and mo- Applications include generation of arbitrary superposi-
mentum variables of a solid mechanical oscillator. In tions of vacuum and a single [45–47] or multiple pho-
a pioneering experiment it was shown that by strongly tons [48, 49] and kitten state superpositions [50]. Com-
coupling a superconducting phase qubit to a ground state plex quantum states can alternatively be created by a dif-
cooled mechanical oscillator, it was possible to coherently ferent probabilistic hybrid technique, namely conditional
read out the state of the oscillator and, furthermore, to homodyne detection on already prepared non-Gaussian
generate a single excitation (single phonon Fock state) of states [51, 52], see Fig. 1e.
the oscillator [25], see Fig. 1c. Various other approaches The application of these operations are not limited to
enabling a strong coupling of a two-level system (e.g. a single mode light fields. By using phase-space displace-
quantum dot [26], an NV center in diamond [27], an atom ment or non-local photon subtraction or addition on var-
[28] and a two-level defect [29]) to a mechanical oscil- ious initial two-mode states, different kinds of entangled,
lator have been proposed and some recent preliminary non-Gaussian states such as nonlocal kittens [53] and hy-
steps have been realized [30, 31]. These schemes promise brid CV/DV entangled states [54–56] have also been gen-
the creation of arbitrary superposition states including erated.
the cat state, which in principle can be mapped onto the
Finally, projective photon number measurements can
electromagnetic field [32]. This might well be the future
also induce non-Gaussian states of CV material systems
route to determinisitic generation of non-Gaussian states
when applied to scattered light. This has been proposed
for QIP.
for massive mechanical oscillators [57, 58] and experimen-
tally demonstrated for atomic spin ensembles [59, 60],
even with negative Wigner functions [61], see Fig. 1f.
Probabilistic generation of non-Gaussian states Many of the techniques outlined above that have been de-
veloped for purely optical implementations could equiv-
Even without a deterministic coupling to a discrete alently be applied to prepare highly interesting states of
level system, it is possible to probabilistically do intricate material systems.
 4

FIG. 1: Examples of non-Gaussian state generation in various systems. a) Schrödinger cat and Fock states of a microwave
cavity field induced by the detection of dispersively coupled Rydberg atoms [14], b) 3- and 4-component cat states of a
microwave cavity field coupled to a superconducting transmon qubit [24], c) population exchange of a single excitation between
a superconducting phase qubit and a piezoelectric mechanical oscillator cooled to its ground state [25], d) arbitrary Fock
state superpositions of an optical mode through spontaneous parametric down-conversion and coherent-state injected photon
detectors [48], e) squeezed Schrödinger cat state of an optical mode induced by conditional homodyne detection on a 2-photon
Fock state [52], f ) a single excitation of the collective spin state of 3000 atoms heralded by detection of a single photon that
has interacted with the atomic ensemble [61].

III. HYBRID PROTOCOLS [63] of DV states or DV quantum teleportation of CV

states. In the optical domain, the former can be, in
Let us discuss a few examples of ways in which QIP principle, straightforwardly applied upon any quantum
could make use of these hybrid techniques. Applications states including single-photon-based qubits. This tele-
include the fundamental tasks such as quantum telepor- porter possesses the great advantage of being determin-
tation, entanglement distillation, error correction or test- istic while using solely linear components. However, the
ing Bell inequalities. Ultimately, these techniques could price to pay is the intrinsically limited performance: per-
enable the realization of scalable quantum communica- fectly faithful and deterministic teleportation of an arbi-
tion and universal, fault-tolerant quantum computation. trary state can only be attained in the limit of an un-
physical, infinite degree of Gaussian entanglement. De-
terministic CV teleportation of DV states has recently
been demonstrated on photonic qubits [64] and also for
Hybrid quantum teleportation
a cat state [65].

The elementary quantum communication protocol is The converse quantum teleporter, using DV entangle-
quantum teleportation [62] – the transfer of arbitrary ment and DV operations to transfer a CV state, requires
quantum states using shared entanglement and classical breaking up a high-dimensional CV state into states of
communication; and the most obvious hybrid approach smaller dimension and performing correspondingly many
to quantum teleportation is CV quantum teleportation individual DV teleportations [66]. In contrast to the
 5

standard CV teleporter, the optical DV teleporter can glement between a pair of atoms: Exploiting a dispersive
reach fidelities of 100%. However, its efficiency is funda- Jaynes-Cummings type of interaction, a bright coherent
mentally limited by the probabilistic nature of qubit Bell state can get entangled with two atoms at two different
measurements with linear transformations [67]. Only by locations, which in turn can be measured with a homo-
the use of nonlinear, non-Gaussian transformations or ad- dyne detector to herald an atom-atom entangled state at
ditional non-Gaussian ancillary states can the teleporter a distance with a relatively high rate [92]. An alternative
become (near-)deterministic. We note that the efficiency approach to the formation of atom-atom entanglement,
of the Bell measurement can however be made more effi- but also using homodyne detection, is to employ a CV
cient using – once again – a hybrid approach where the Bell measurement and continuous feedback to perform
states undergo a CV squeezing transformation prior to an entanglement swap experiment of DV atomic qubits
DV photon counting measurements [68]. [93].
Quantum teleportation nicely illustrates what an op-
tical hybrid approach does: it can exchange an other-
wise probabilistic, linear-optical qubit teleporter with a Hybrid quantum computing
fully deterministic device, possibly at the expense of the
transfer fidelity; and it can make use of a potentially high-
Examples of gates leading to universal quantum com-
fidelity transfer of a CV state, at the expense of a non-
puting for DV and CV logical encoding are given in Box
unit success probability. This new level of versatility is,
1 and 2, and these approaches might benefit from hy-
of course, even greater when matter systems are included,
bridization. E.g. the non-Gaussian single mode cubic
as the light-matter interactions offer an alternative way
phase gate required for CV computing can be realized by
of performing efficient Bell measurements. In fact, us-
introducing DV projectors and conditional squeezing op-
ing atomic ensembles or two-level emitters, such hybrid
erations [94–96]. The alternative to circuit based quan-
light-matter teleportations have been already proposed
tum computing is the measurement-based approach ex-
for long-distance quantum communication [69] and, on a
ploiting entangled cluster states [97, 98]. This also bene-
small scale, experimentally demonstrated [70, 71].
fits from hybridization where Gaussian cluster states per-
form the computation via DV non-Gaussian projectors
(see Fig. 2). In contrast to CV quantum computing, the
Hybrid entanglement distillation two-mode gate for DV quantum computing based on light
is difficult to realize deterministically. Measurement in-
For quantum communication based upon the distribu- duced approaches to the CNOT gate tend to suffer from
tion of entangled states, like in a quantum repeater, it is the massive overhead requirements, and the deterministic
desirable to initially prepare and distribute optical entan- schemes based on giant material nonlinearities are very
glement with high efficiency. Since the CV Gaussian en- challenging although important progress are being made
tangled states can be produced in an unconditional fash- [99]. However, it has been shown theoretically that by
ion, they may serve as a deterministic source of shared combining a relatively weak cross-Kerr nonlinearity with
entanglement. However, Gaussian entanglement is very a CV homodyne measurement, it is possible to realize a
sensitive to photon losses and hence entanglement dis- quantum non-demolition measurement which in turn can
tillation will be absolutely necessary. Solely using CV be used to implement a near-deterministic DV CNOT
Gaussian operations does not allow for distilling high- gate with much fewer resources than would be otherwise
quality Gaussian entanglement from low-quality, noisy possible [100, 101].
Gaussian entanglement [72–74], but by introducing local There is yet another approach to hybrid quantum com-
non-Gaussian elements such as photon subtraction (via puting in which the quantum information itself is a hy-
photon counting) the entanglement of the state can be brid between DV and CV. Here the information is en-
effectively enhanced [75–78] and the process can be fur- coded in a macroscopic qubit consisting of a discrete
ther improved using squeezing, displacements and atomic superposition of CV coherent states - a cat state as
memories [79–82]. Another prominent method for CV introduced in Section II. Universal quantum computa-
entanglement distillation and error correction is the her- tion can be executed using a measurement induced ap-
alded, noiseless linear amplifier (NLA) [83, 84] which has proach where gates are implemented through teleporta-
been realized in different settings [85–88]. tion [102, 103] and different gates are realized by the us-
All these methods involve the distillation of CV Gaus- age of different types of entangled states [104, 105]. Such
sian entanglement using DV measurements. The reverse a teleportation circuit operating on a set of binary coher-
scenario, that is detecting errors of DV states using CV ent states was recently demonstrated [106]. A simplified
homodyne measurements has been proposed in the case but highly probabilistic approach has also been put for-
of cat state purification [89, 90] and distillation of lossy ward [107] and proof-of-principle implementations of the
DV Bell states [91]. The latter scheme is effectively im- Hadamard [108] as well as the phase-shift gate [109] have
plementing the NLA by means of homodyne measure- been realized. All these experiments on cat state com-
ments and classical data filtering. Moreover, homodyne puting were performed in the optical regime but could
detection can also facilitate the production of DV entan- potentially also be realized in the microwave regime with
 6

high fidelity or on phononic modes of mechanical oscilla-

tors or ions. Some of the complications of the cat state
protocol can be circumvented by encoding the informa-
tion in a hybrid DV/CV entangled cat state [110]. More-
over, by extending the cat qubit to include four different
coherent state phases, the qubit becomes more robust
against losses [111, 112]; and a universal set of gates can
be realized by tailoring a specific Hamiltonian using cir-
cuit QED [113].

Hybrid Bell tests

odes
ic al m
phys
The falsification of hidden local variable theories [114] quantum
/classical
informat
through the violation of Bell’s inequality has so far been ion

hampered by the difficulty in measuring entangled states

distributed over large distances with high efficiency. A
solution could be the use of a hybrid detection strategy
alternating between a DV photon counting measurement
and a CV homodyne measurement [115]. The benefit
would arise from the near-ideal detection efficiency of the
homodyne detector which reduces the requirement on the
transmission and photon counting efficiencies. However,
there seems to be a trade-off between the required effi- Gaussian
detector
ciencies and the complexity of the entangled state gen-
eration. For instance, the photon counting efficiency can non-Gaussian
detector
be very low for a highly complex state [116] while be-
ing challengingly high for an easily produceable W state Gaussian
[117, 118]. As an alternative, it is possible to a make an state
asymmetric Bell test that involves atom-photon entan- non-Gaussian
glement and hybrid photonic measurements [119, 120]. state

As the atom can be detected with near-ideal efficiency, arbitrary

state
the efficiency-threshold for the DV photonic measure-
ment can be fairly low and can again be traded against FIG. 2: Measurement-based quantum computation using two-
a higher complexity in state generation. Finally we note dimensional lattices corresponding to offline-prepared, multi-
that by using an entangled cat state it is possible to vi- mode cluster states. The lattices are built from single-mode
olate Bell’s inequality with purely CV homodyne mea- states through Gaussian two-mode interactions (squeezers
surements albeit under some experimentally challenging and beam splitter-like operations; thick red lines). Arbitrary
conditions [121]. multi-mode states (figure: three modes; vertically oriented
input and output modes in gold) can be processed by in-
dividually measuring all the modes (thin grey lines) except
for the output and feedforwarding the measurement results.
Quantum and classical (feedforward) information evolve from
IV. OUTLOOK left to right. Top: some of the Gaussian squeezed single-mode
states (red) of the cluster are replaced by non-Gaussian single-
mode states (blue); all measurements are Gaussian homodyne
Until recently, the boundary between DV and CV QIP
detections (red). Bottom: some of the Gaussian detectors
platforms has been quite sharp. This is no longer the (red) are replaced by non-Gaussian detectors (e.g. photon
case thanks to recent advances in combining the tech- counters; blue); all initial single-mode states are Gaussian
nologies of the two approaches which has led to theoret- squeezed states (red), and hence the entire cluster state is
ical proposals and experimental implementations of new Gaussian. Universal operations, i.e., arbitrary output states,
promising QIP protocols. Most of the demonstrations can be achieved either way, through CV measurements on
to date are proof-of-principle experiments lacking high- non-Gaussian states or arbitrary measurements on Gaussian
fidelity operation, efficiency and scalability. To advance states. For arbitrarily long computations, the accumulation
the field a deeper understanding of the present limita- of errors caused e.g. by finite squeezing must be suppressed
tions is needed. Still, the field is very young, and we via some form of quantum error correction.
might have only scratched the surface of a much larger
and richer field.
 7

V. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS (Hipercom), the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports,

Science and Technology of Japan (PDIS - Project for
The authors gratefully acknowledge support from the Developing Innovation Systems, GIA - Grant-in-Aid for
Danish Council for Independent Research (Sapere Aude Scientific Research, and APSA - Advanced Photon Sci-
programmes under FTP and FNU), the Lundbeck Foun- ence Alliance), Universities Denmark, and Japan Society
dation, the Villum Foundation Young Investigator Pro- for the Promotion of Science.
gramme, the Federal Ministry for Education and Re- Additional information The authors declare no com-
search in Germany (Q.com), ERA-NET CHISTERA peting financial interests.

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