Final Report Summary - ATOMPHOTONLOQIP (Experimental Linear Optics Quantum Information Processing with Atoms and Photons)
Based on the basic principles of quantum mechanics, quantum information processing (QIP) offers unprecedented security for communication, ever highest efficiency for computation and largest capacity for quantum storage. It will be from many aspects superior to classical information processing which is based on the state-of-the-art silicon or carbon technologies. Now the most critical problem in QIP is how to make these quantum systems scalable, say, long distances to the global scale for communication and high complexities up to hundred qubits for computation.
In the present project, we made a lot of efforts to exploit possible implementations for scalable quantum networks based on linear optics and light-matter quantum interfaces. We have demonstrated in experiment the feasibility of achieving building blocks, quantum repeaters for the quantum network. The quality of quantum memories, elements in quantum network, has been boosted a few orders better within five years of the framework of the ERC grant. We, with a couple of competing groups from the US are still keeping the record of a largest hybrid entangled system composed of two atomic qubits and two photonic qubits. From the aspect of manipulating photonic qubits, we are the best for controlling as many as possible photonic qubits, the ten photonic cat state. Various schemes for quantum computation and simulation have been verified in our experiment which shows the bright future of QIP. Our efforts have been pushing continuously the progress of quantum information processing with linear optics and photonic/atomic qubits.
Nowadays, quantum key distribution comes to more practical which can works even in the urban environment. It is very reasonable for us to expect quantum computation/simulation comes much more realistic in the near future.