NTT Basic Research Laboratories

We have confirmed that a spin-orbit interaction in an inverted I${\mathrm{n}}_{0.53}$G${\mathrm{a}}_{0.47}$As/I${\mathrm{n}}_{0.52}$A${\mathrm{l}}_{0.48}$As quantum well can be controlled by applying a gate voltage. This result shows that the spin-orbit interaction of a two-dimensional electron gas depends on the surface electric field. The dominant mechanism for the change in the spin-orbit interaction parameter can be attributed to the Rashba term. This inverted I${\mathrm{n}}_{0.53}$G${\mathrm{a}}_{0.47}$As/I${\mathrm{n}}_{0.52}$A${\mathrm{l}}_{0.48}$As heterostructure is one of the promising materials for the spin-polarized field effect transistor which is proposed by Datta and Das [Appl. Phys. Lett. 56, 665 (1990)].

Electron transport experiments on two lateral quantum dots coupled in series are reviewed. An introduction to the charge stability diagram is given in terms of the electrochemical potentials of both dots. Resonant tunneling experiments show that the double dot geometry allows for an accurate determination of the intrinsic lifetime of discrete energy states in quantum dots. The evolution of discrete energy levels in magnetic field is studied. The resolution allows one to resolve avoided crossings in the spectrum of a quantum dot. With microwave spectroscopy it is possible to probe the transition from ionic bonding (for weak interdot tunnel coupling) to covalent bonding (for strong interdot tunnel coupling) in a double dot artificial molecule. This review is motivated by the relevance of double quantum dot studies for realizing solid state quantum bits.

Although light propagation in weakly modulated photonic crystals is basically similar to propagation in a diffraction grating in which conventional refractive index loses its meaning, we demonstrate that light propagation in strongly modulated two-dimensional (2D)/3D photonic crystals becomes refractionlike in the vicinity of the photonic bandgap. Such a crystal behaves as a material having an effective refractive index controllable by the band structure. This situation is analogous to the effective-mass approximation in electron-band theory. By utilizing this phenomenon, negatively refractive material can be realized, which has interesting optical properties such as mirror-image refraction.

We study atomiclike properties of artificial atoms by measuring Coulomb oscillations in vertical quantum dots containing a tunable number of electrons starting from zero. At zero magnetic field the energy needed to add electrons to a dot reveals a shell structure for a two-dimensional harmonic potential. As a function of magnetic field the current peaks shift in pairs, due to the filling of electrons into spin-degenerate single-particle states. When the magnetic field is sufficiently small, however, the pairing is modified, as predicted by Hund's rule, to favor the filling of parallel spins.

An overview is given of the state-of-the-art research into secure communication based on quantum cryptography. The present security model together with its assumptions, strengths and weaknesses is discussed. Recent experimental progress and remaining challenges are surveyed as are the latest developments in quantum hacking and countermeasures. Secure communication is crucial in the Internet Age, and quantum mechanics stands poised to revolutionize cryptography as we know it today. In this Review, we introduce the motivation and the current state of the art of research in quantum cryptography. In particular, we discuss the present security model together with its assumptions, strengths and weaknesses. After briefly introducing recent experimental progress and challenges, we survey the latest developments in quantum hacking and countermeasures against it.

A secure communication network with quantum key distribution in a metropolitan area is reported. Six different QKD systems are integrated into a mesh-type network. GHz-clocked QKD links enable us to demonstrate the world-first secure TV conferencing over a distance of 45km. The network includes a commercial QKD product for long-term stable operation, and application interface to secure mobile phones. Detection of an eavesdropper, rerouting into a secure path, and key relay via trusted nodes are demonstrated in this network.

1-V power supply high-speed low-power digital circuit technology with 0.5-/spl mu/m multithreshold-voltage CMOS (MTCMOS) is proposed. This technology features both low-threshold voltage and high-threshold voltage MOSFET's in a single LSI. The low-threshold voltage MOSFET's enhance speed performance at a low supply voltage of 1 V or less, while the high-threshold voltage MOSFET's suppress the stand-by leakage current during the sleep period. This technology has brought about logic gate characteristics of a 1.7-ns propagation delay time and 0.3-/spl mu/W/MHz/gate power dissipation with a standard load. In addition, an MTCMOS standard cell library has been developed so that conventional CAD tools can be used to lay out low-voltage LSI's. To demonstrate MTCMOS's effectiveness, a PLL LSI based on standard cells was designed as a carrying vehicle. 18-MHz operation at 1 V was achieved using a 0.5-/spl mu/m CMOS process.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

The quantum confinement effect on excitons in quantum dots of indirect-gap materials is investigated and a mechanism that induces an indirect-to-direct conversion of the character of the optical transition is clarified. The exciton transition energy and the exciton binding energy are calculated and found to be in good agreement with experimental results on Si and Ge nanostructures. The large exciton binding energy in Si and Ge quantum dots suggests that the photoluminescence from these nanostructures is of excitonic origin even at room temperature. The estimated radiative lifetime of excitons is strongly size dependent and varies from nanosecond to millisecond corresponding to the diameter from \ensuremath{\sim}10 to \ensuremath{\sim}30 \AA{}. These theoretical results suggest strongly the importance of the quantum confinement effect in the luminescence processes of porous Si.

NRC publication: Yes

Linear optics underpins fundamental tests of quantum mechanics and quantum technologies. We demonstrate a single reprogrammable optical circuit that is sufficient to implement all possible linear optical protocols up to the size of that circuit. Our six-mode universal system consists of a cascade of 15 Mach-Zehnder interferometers with 30 thermo-optic phase shifters integrated into a single photonic chip that is electrically and optically interfaced for arbitrary setting of all phase shifters, input of up to six photons, and their measurement with a 12-single-photon detector system. We programmed this system to implement heralded quantum logic and entangling gates, boson sampling with verification tests, and six-dimensional complex Hadamards. We implemented 100 Haar random unitaries with an average fidelity of 0.999 ± 0.001. Our system can be rapidly reprogrammed to implement these and any other linear optical protocol, pointing the way to applications across fundamental science and quantum technologies.

The planarity of the aromatic stage of two-dimensional Si and Ge layers are theoretically investigated by first-principles total-energy calculations. While a C atom prefers to form the flat aromatic stage, i.e., graphite, Si and Ge prefer to form the corrugated aromatic stage. Si can be said to be the critical element by which the corrugated stage is formed.

We reveal experimentally waveguiding characteristics and group-velocity dispersion of line defects in photonic crystal slabs as a function of defect widths. The defects have waveguiding modes with two types of cutoff within the photonic band gap. Interference measurements show that they exhibit extraordinarily large group dispersion, and we found waveguiding modes whose traveling speed is 2 orders of magnitude slower than that in air. These characteristics can be tuned by controlling the defect width, and the results agree well with theoretical calculations, indicating that we can design light paths with made-to-order dispersion.

We show how a quantum secret sharing protocol, similar to that of Hillery, Buzek, and Berthiaume (Los Alamos e-print archive quant-ph/9806063), can be implemented using two-particle quantum entanglement, as available experimentally today. We also discuss in some detail how both two- and three-particle protocols must be carefully designed in order to detect eavesdropping or a dishonest participant. We also discuss the extension of a multiparticle entanglement secret sharing and splitting scheme toward a protocol so that m of n persons with $m&lt;~n$ can retrieve the secret.

A shape representation technique suitable for tasks that call for recognition of a noisy curve of arbitrary shape at an arbitrary scale or orientation is presented. The method rests on the describing a curve at varying levels of detail using features that are invariant with respect to transformations that do not change the shape of the curve. Three different ways of computing the representation are described. They result in three different representations: the curvature scale space image, the renormalized curvature scale space image, and the resampled curvature scale space image. The process of describing a curve at increasing levels of abstraction is referred to as the evolution or arc length evolution of that curve. Several evolution and arc length evolution properties of planar curves are discussed.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

A phase transition from a classical thermal mixed state to a quantum-mechanical pure state of exciton polaritons is observed in a GaAs multiple quantum-well microcavity from the decrease of the second-order coherence function. Supporting evidence is obtained from the observation of a nonlinear threshold behavior in the pump-intensity dependence of the emission, a polariton-like dispersion relation above threshold, and a decrease of the relaxation time into the lower polariton state. The condensation of microcavity exciton polaritons is confirmed.

The analysis and optimization of complex systems can be reduced to mathematical problems collectively known as combinatorial optimization. Many such problems can be mapped onto ground-state search problems of the Ising model, and various artificial spin systems are now emerging as promising approaches. However, physical Ising machines have suffered from limited numbers of spin-spin couplings because of implementations based on localized spins, resulting in severe scalability problems. We report a 2000-spin network with all-to-all spin-spin couplings. Using a measurement and feedback scheme, we coupled time-multiplexed degenerate optical parametric oscillators to implement maximum cut problems on arbitrary graph topologies with up to 2000 nodes. Our coherent Ising machine outperformed simulated annealing in terms of accuracy and computation time for a 2000-node complete graph.

We investigate coherent time evolution of charge states (pseudospin qubit) in a semiconductor double quantum dot. This fully tunable qubit is manipulated with a high-speed voltage pulse that controls the energy and decoherence of the system. Coherent oscillations of the qubit are observed for several combinations of many-body ground and excited states of the quantum dots. Possible decoherence mechanisms in the present device are also discussed.

We present the first report on the optical properties of dilute GaAS 1- x N x alloys (0&lt; x &lt;0.015). The layers have been grown by plasma-assisted metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The grown layers show a systematic red shift of the band-edge luminescence with increasing N content. The assignement of the photoluminescence to band-edge transitions and not to isolated N-N pair emission is verified by the characteristics of the optical absorption.

Quantum error correction (QEC) and fault-tolerant quantum computation represent one of the most vital theoretical aspects of quantum information processing. It was well known from the early developments of this exciting field that the fragility of coherent quantum systems would be a catastrophic obstacle to the development of large-scale quantum computers. The introduction of quantum error correction in 1995 showed that active techniques could be employed to mitigate this fatal problem. However, quantum error correction and fault-tolerant computation is now a much larger field and many new codes, techniques, and methodologies have been developed to implement error correction for large-scale quantum algorithms. In response, we have attempted to summarize the basic aspects of quantum error correction and fault-tolerance, not as a detailed guide, but rather as a basic introduction. The development in this area has been so pronounced that many in the field of quantum information, specifically researchers who are new to quantum information or people focused on the many other important issues in quantum computation, have found it difficult to keep up with the general formalisms and methodologies employed in this area. Rather than introducing these concepts from a rigorous mathematical and computer science framework, we instead examine error correction and fault-tolerance largely through detailed examples, which are more relevant to experimentalists today and in the near future.

We observe a strong Kondo effect in a semiconductor quantum dot when a small magnetic field is applied. The Coulomb blockade for electron tunneling is overcome completely by the Kondo effect, and the conductance reaches the unitary limit value. We compare the experimental Kondo temperature with the theoretical predictions for the spin- 12 Anderson impurity model. Excellent agreement is found throughout the Kondo regime. Phase coherence is preserved when a Kondo quantum dot is included in one of the arms of an Aharonov-Bohm ring structure, and the phase behavior differs from previous results on a non-Kondo dot.