0000000000019317
AUTHOR
Luca Innocenti
Six-dimensional measurements of trains of high brightness electron bunches
Trains of ultrashort electron pulses with THz repetition rate, so-called comblike beams, are assuming an ever growing interest in plasma-based acceleration. In particle-driven plasma wakefield acceleration (PWFA), a train of driver bunches with separation of the order of plasma wavelength, i.e., 300 μm, resonantly excites a plasma wake, which accelerates a trailing witness bunch, injected at the accelerating phase. Comblike beams have great potentialities in different fields of applications. In particular, radiation sources, such as free-electron lasers and THz radiation, take advantage from the possibility to tailor electron beams modulated both in time and energy, to customize emission ba…
Supervised learning of time-independent Hamiltonians for gate design
We present a general framework to tackle the problem of finding time-independent dynamics generating target unitary evolutions. We show that this problem is equivalently stated as a set of conditions over the spectrum of the time-independent gate generator, thus transforming the task to an inverse eigenvalue problem. We illustrate our methodology by identifying suitable time-independent generators implementing Toffoli and Fredkin gates without the need for ancillae or effective evolutions. We show how the same conditions can be used to solve the problem numerically, via supervised learning techniques. In turn, this allows us to solve problems that are not amenable, in general, to direct ana…
Ultrafast critical ground state preparation via bang-bang protocols
The fast and faithful preparation of the ground state of quantum systems is a challenging task but crucial for several applications in the realm of quantum-based technologies. Decoherence poses a limit to the maximum time-window allowed to an experiment to faithfully achieve such desired states. This is of particular significance in critical systems, where the vanishing energy gap challenges an adiabatic ground state preparation. We show that a bang-bang protocol, consisting of a time evolution under two different values of an externally tunable parameter, allows for a high-fidelity ground state preparation in evolution times no longer than those required by the application of standard opti…
Experimental Engineering of Arbitrary Qudit States with Discrete-Time Quantum Walks
The capability to generate and manipulate quantum states in high-dimensional Hilbert spaces is a crucial step for the development of quantum technologies, from quantum communication to quantum computation. One-dimensional quantum walk dynamics represents a valid tool in the task of engineering arbitrary quantum states. Here we affirm such potential in a linear-optics platform that realizes discrete-time quantum walks in the orbital angular momentum degree of freedom of photons. Different classes of relevant qudit states in a six-dimensional space are prepared and measured, confirming the feasibility of the protocol. Our results represent a further investigation of quantum walk dynamics in p…
Quantum state engineering using one-dimensional discrete-time quantum walks
Quantum state preparation in high-dimensional systems is an essential requirement for many quantum-technology applications. The engineering of an arbitrary quantum state is, however, typically strongly dependent on the experimental platform chosen for implementation, and a general framework is still missing. Here we show that coined quantum walks on a line, which represent a framework general enough to encompass a variety of different platforms, can be used for quantum state engineering of arbitrary superpositions of the walker's sites. We achieve this goal by identifying a set of conditions that fully characterize the reachable states in the space comprising walker and coin, and providing …
Quantum scrambling via accessible tripartite information
Quantum information scrambling (QIS), from the perspective of quantum information theory, is generally understood as local non-retrievability of information evolved through some dynamical process, and is often quantified via entropic quantities such as the tripartite information. We argue that this approach comes with a number of issues, in large part due to its reliance on quantum mutual informations, which do not faithfully quantify correlations directly retrievable via measurements, and in part due to the specific methodology used to compute tripartite informations of the studied dynamics. We show that these issues can be overcome by using accessible mutual informations, defining corresp…
Nonclassicality detection from few Fock-state probabilities
We devise a new class of criteria to certify the nonclassicality of photon- and phonon-number statistics. Our criteria extend and strengthen the broadly used Klyshko's criteria, which require knowledge of only a finite set of Fock-state probabilities. This makes the criteria well-suited to experimental implementation in realistic conditions. Moreover, we prove the completeness of our method in some scenarios, showing that, when only two or three Fock-state probabilities are known, it detects all finite distributions incompatible with classical states. In particular, we show that our criteria detect a broad class of noisy Fock states as nonclassical, even when Klyshko's do not. The method is…
Experimental generalized quantum suppression law in Sylvester interferometers
Photonic interference is a key quantum resource for optical quantum computation, and in particular for so-called boson sampling machines. In interferometers with certain symmetries, genuine multiphoton quantum interference effectively suppresses certain sets of events, as in the original Hong-Ou-Mandel effect. Recently, it was shown that some classical and semi-classical models could be ruled out by identifying such suppressions in Fourier interferometers. Here we propose a suppression law suitable for random-input experiments in multimode Sylvester interferometers, and verify it experimentally using 4- and 8-mode integrated interferometers. The observed suppression is stronger than what is…
Entanglement transfer, accumulation and retrieval via quantum-walk-based qubit-qudit dynamics
The generation and control of quantum correlations in high-dimensional systems is a major challenge in the present landscape of quantum technologies. Achieving such non-classical high-dimensional resources will potentially unlock enhanced capabilities for quantum cryptography, communication and computation. We propose a protocol that is able to attain entangled states of $d$-dimensional systems through a quantum-walk-based {\it transfer \& accumulate} mechanism involving coin and walker degrees of freedom. The choice of investigating quantum walks is motivated by their generality and versatility, complemented by their successful implementation in several physical systems. Hence, given t…
Suppression law of quantum states in a 3D photonic fast Fourier transform chip
The identification of phenomena able to pinpoint quantum interference is attracting large interest. Indeed, a generalization of the Hong–Ou–Mandel effect valid for any number of photons and optical modes would represent an important leap ahead both from a fundamental perspective and for practical applications, such as certification of photonic quantum devices, whose computational speedup is expected to depend critically on multi-particle interference. Quantum distinctive features have been predicted for many particles injected into multimode interferometers implementing the Fourier transform over the optical modes. Here we develop a scalable approach for the implementation of the fast Fouri…
Machine Learning-Based Classification of Vector Vortex Beams.
Structured light is attracting significant attention for its diverse applications in both classical and quantum optics. The so-called vector vortex beams display peculiar properties in both contexts due to the non-trivial correlations between optical polarization and orbital angular momentum. Here we demonstrate a new, flexible experimental approach to the classification of vortex vector beams. We first describe a platform for generating arbitrary complex vector vortex beams inspired to photonic quantum walks. We then exploit recent machine learning methods -- namely convolutional neural networks and principal component analysis -- to recognize and classify specific polarization patterns. O…
Dynamical learning of a photonics quantum-state engineering process
Abstract. Experimental engineering of high-dimensional quantum states is a crucial task for several quantum information protocols. However, a high degree of precision in the characterization of the noisy experimental apparatus is required to apply existing quantum-state engineering protocols. This is often lacking in practical scenarios, affecting the quality of the engineered states. We implement, experimentally, an automated adaptive optimization protocol to engineer photonic orbital angular momentum (OAM) states. The protocol, given a target output state, performs an online estimation of the quality of the currently produced states, relying on output measurement statistics, and determine…
Desktop X-ray tomography for low contrast samples
Abstract Based on the experience in the use of polycapillary optical systems, recently XLab Frascati LNF and IM CNR have been strongly involved in studying the techniques for high resolution X-ray Imaging and micro-tomography that intends in the development of a new imaging instrument to examine low contrast samples complicated by fast developing processes. In order to get the reliable signal to noise ratio, typically available via synchrotron radiation (SR) dedicated X-ray optical devices, for the desktop solutions we have to increase the radiation fluxes from conventional sources. As known, manipulated through polycapillary optics beams result in getting higher fluxes with respect to a pi…
Approximate supervised learning of quantum gates via ancillary qubits
We present strategies for the training of a qubit network aimed at the ancilla-assisted synthesis of multi-qubit gates based on a set of restricted resources. By assuming the availability of only time-independent single and two-qubit interactions, we introduce and describe a supervised learning strategy implemented through momentum-stochastic gradient descent with automatic differentiation methods. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the scheme by discussing the implementation of non-trivial three qubit operations, including a Quantum Fourier Transform (QFT) and a half-adder gate.
Two-Color Radiation Generated in a Seeded Free-Electron Laser with Two Electron Beams.
We present the experimental evidence of the generation of coherent and statistically stable two-color free-electron laser radiation obtained by seeding an electron beam double peaked in energy with a laser pulse single spiked in frequency. The radiation presents two neat spectral lines, with time delay, frequency separation, and relative intensity that can be accurately controlled. The analysis of the emitted radiation shows a temporal coherence and a shot-to-shot regularity in frequency significantly enhanced with respect to the self-amplified spontaneous emission. © 2015 American Physical Society. © 2015 American Physical Society.
Regression of high-dimensional angular momentum states of light
The Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) of light is an infinite-dimensional degree of freedom of light with several applications in both classical and quantum optics. However, to fully take advantage of the potential of OAM states, reliable detection platforms to characterize generated states in experimental conditions are needed. Here, we present an approach to reconstruct input OAM states from measurements of the spatial intensity distributions they produce. To obviate issues arising from intrinsic symmetry of Laguerre-Gauss modes, we employ a pair of intensity profiles per state projecting it only on two distinct bases, showing how this allows to uniquely recover input states from the collect…
Enhanced detection techniques of orbital angular momentum states in the classical and quantum regimes
Abstract The orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light has been at the center of several classical and quantum applications for imaging, information processing and communication. However, the complex structure inherent in OAM states makes their detection and classification nontrivial in many circumstances. Most of the current detection schemes are based on models of the OAM states built upon the use of Laguerre–Gauss (LG) modes. However, this may not in general be sufficient to capture full information on the generated states. In this paper, we go beyond the LG assumption, and employ hypergeometric-Gaussian (HyGG) modes as the basis states of a refined model that can be used—in certain scenar…
Programmable linear quantum networks with a multimode fibre
Reconfigurable quantum circuits are fundamental building blocks for the implementation of scalable quantum technologies. Their implementation has been pursued in linear optics through the engineering of sophisticated interferometers. While such optical networks have been successful in demonstrating the control of small-scale quantum circuits, scaling up to larger dimensions poses significant challenges. Here, we demonstrate a potentially scalable route towards reconfigurable optical networks based on the use of a multimode fibre and advanced wavefront-shaping techniques. We program networks involving spatial and polarisation modes of the fibre and experimentally validate the accuracy and ro…