Entanglement and teleportation between polarization and wave-like encodings of an optical qubit

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates entanglement and teleportation between polarization-encoded and wave-like continuous-variable optical qubits, enabling interconversion of quantum information across different physical encodings.

Contribution

It introduces a method to generate and characterize entanglement between discrete and continuous optical qubits and applies it to teleport quantum states between these encodings.

Findings

Successful generation of entangled states between polarization and wave-like qubits

Demonstration of teleportation of a polarization qubit onto a continuous-variable qubit

Potential for interconnecting diverse quantum information processing devices

Abstract

Light is an irreplaceable means of communication among various quantum information processing and storage devices. Due to their different physical nature, some of these devices couple more strongly to discrete, and some to continuous degrees of freedom of a quantum optical wave. It is therefore desirable to develop a technological capability to interconvert quantum information encoded in these degrees of freedom. Here we generate and characterize an entangled state between a dual-rail (polarization-encoded) single-photon qubit and a qubit encoded as a superposition of opposite-amplitude coherent states. We furthermore demonstrate the application of this state as a resource for the interfacing of quantum information between these encodings. In particular, we show teleportation of a polarization qubit onto a freely propagating continuous-variable qubit.