arXiv subjects

Hou Ian

Publications and source records attributed to Hou Ian.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Displaced photon helicity states: a quantum realization of Arago-Fresnel interference

The laws of Arago and Fresnel relate the polarization of light to its capacity for interference. We investigate their quantum counterpart at the level of the fundamental helicity states of a single photon. To this end, we introduce displaced photon helicity states (DPHS), constructed by coherently displacing single-photon helicity eigenstates. The displacement bridges the microscopic spin degree of freedom and macroscopic polarization observables, enabling interference effects that would otherwise be inaccessible to isolated photons. We derive analytical expressions for the Stokes parameters associated with the interference between DPHS and coherent optical fields and show that opposite helicities generate distinct parameter dependences in the resulting fringe structure. The interference constitutes a quantum realization of Arago-Fresnel interference and permits the helicity of an unknown photon to be inferred from the Stokes response of the combined field. Beyond this application, DPHS generalize the framework of displaced nonclassical states from photon-number excitations to the helicity degree of freedom of light.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Phase-locked amplification enhanced by spin squeezing

Quantum lock-in amplification raises the detection sensitivity of magnetic fields to unprecedented levels by phase-locked pumping the Zeeman levels of a single trapped atom. However, random spin precessions limits the useful detection range of arming times for locking high-contrast signals. To extend this range imposed by the uncertainty limit, quadrature spin squeezing can be introduced, on top of the phase-locking mechanism. We propose a detection scheme using an atomic ensemble whose collected spin is pumped by two lasers for simultaneous squeezing and phase locking. We derive the optimal $π/2$-pulse and $π$-pulse schemes that accomplishes this concurrent action and prove that the resulting phase sensitivity is enhanced while the usable detection window for phase locking is widened.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Efficient Convex Optimization for Bosonic State Tomography

Quantum states encoded in electromagnetic fields, also known as bosonic states, have been widely applied in quantum sensing, quantum communication, and quantum error correction. Accurate characterization is therefore essential yet difficult when states cannot be reconstructed with sparse Pauli measurements. Tomography must work with dense measurement bases, high-dimensional Hilbert spaces, and often sample-based data. However, existing convex optimization-based techniques are not efficient enough and scale poorly when extended to large and multi-mode systems. In this work, we explore convex optimization as an effective framework to address problems in bosonic state tomography, introducing three techniques to enhance efficiency and scalability: efficient displacement operator computation, Hilbert space truncation, and stochastic convex optimization, which mitigate common limitations of existing approaches. Then we propose a sample-based, convex maximum-likelihood estimation (MLE) method specifically designed for flying mode tomography. Numerical simulations of flying four-mode and nine-mode problems demonstrate the accuracy and practicality of our methods. This method provides practical tools for reliable bosonic mode quantum state reconstruction in high-dimensional and multi-mode systems.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Thermalizing channel states for rapid qubit heating

Although known for negatively impacting the operation of superconducting qubits, thermal baths are shown to exert qubit control in a positive way, provided they are properly engineered. We demonstrate an experimental method to engineer the transduction of microwave driving into heat flow through a leaky resonator. Given the precise conversion, a qubit receiving the heat flow obtains a quasi-thermal equilibrium with arbitrary target temperature in hundreds of nanoseconds. We show that the dynamics of the quantum transducing process is described by thermalizing channel states, generated from the double dressings of the resonator by the semi-classical driving and the qubit-resonator coupling. Their spectrum, coupling, and driving strength determine the channel rate of energy flow, along with the relaxation rates of photon leakage into the bath. The analytical prediction is shown to match well with the experimental measurements on an Xmon qubit circuit.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Dynamic phases induced by two-level system defects on driven qubits

Recent experimental evidences point to two-level defects, located in the oxides and on the interfaces of the Josephson junctions, as the major constituents of decoherence in superconducting qubits. How these defects affect the qubit evolution with the presence of external driving is less well understood since the semiclassical qubit-field coupling renders the Jaynes-Cummings model for qubit-defect coupling undiagonalizable. We analyze the decoherence dynamics in the continuous coherent state space induced by the driving and solve the master equation endowed with an extra decay-cladded driving term via a Fokker-Planck equation. The solutions for diffusion propagators as Gaussian distributions show four distinct dynamic phases: four types of convergence paths to limit cycles of varying radius by the distribution mean, which are determined by the competing external driving and the defect decays. The qubit trajectory resulted from these solutions is a super-Poissonian over displac ed Fock states, which reduces to a Gibbs state of effective temperature decided by the defect at zero driving limit. Further, the Poincare map shows the dependence of the rate of convergence on the initial state. In other words, the qubit evolution can serve as an indicator of the defect coupling strength through the variation of the driving strength as a parameter.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Entanglement and classical nonseparability convertible from orthogonal polarizations

The nonclassicality of a macroscopic single-mode optical superposition state is potentially convertible into entanglement, when the state is mixed with the vacuum on a beam splitter. Considering light beams with polarization degree of freedom in Euclidean space as coherent product states in a bipartite Hilbert space, we propose a method to convert the two orthogonal polarizations into simultaneous entanglement and classical nonseparability through nonclassicality in the superpositions of coherent and displaced Fock states. Equivalent Bell state emerges from the resulted superpositions and the proportion of mixed entanglement and nonseparablity is determined by the displacement amplitudes along the polarization directions. We characterize the state nonclassicality via features in Wigner distributions and propose an experimental method for generating these states and measuring them via homodyne tomography.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Neural network based time-resolved state tomography of superconducting qubits

Superconducting qubits have emerged as a premier platform for large-scale quantum computation, yet the fidelity of state readout is often hindered by random noise and crosstalk, especially in multi-qubit systems. While neural networks trained on labeled data have shown promise in reducing crosstalk effects during readout, their current capabilities are limited to binary discrimination of joint-qubit states due to architectural constraints. Here we introduce a time-resolved modulated neural network capable of full-state tomography for individual qubits, enabling detailed time-resolved measurements like Rabi oscillations. This scalable approach, with a dedicated module per qubit, mitigated readout error by an order of magnitude under low signal-to-noise ratios and substantially reduced variance in Rabi oscillation measurements. This advancement bolsters quantum state discrimination with neural networks, and propels the development of next-generation quantum processors with enhanced performance and scalability.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Computing Shor's algorithmic steps with classical light beams

When considered as orthogonal bases in distinct vector spaces, the unit vectors of polarization directions and the Laguerre-Gaussian modes of polarization amplitude are inseparable, constituting a so-called classical entangled light beam. Equating this classical entanglement to quantum entanglement necessary for computing purpose, we show that the parallelism featured in Shor's factoring algorithm is equivalent to the concurrent light-path propagation of an entangled beam or pulse train. A gedanken experiment is proposed for executing the key algorithmic steps of modular exponentiation and Fourier transform on a target integer $N$ using only classical manipulations on the amplitudes and polarization directions. The multiplicative order associated with the sought-after integer factors is identified through a four-hole diffraction interference from sources obtained from the entangled beam profile. The unique mapping from the fringe patterns to the computed order is demonstrated through simulations for the case $N=15$.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

A quantum algorithm for finding collision-inducing disturbance vectors in SHA-1

Modern cryptographic protocols rely on sophisticated hash functions to generate quasi-unique numbers that serve as signatures for user authentication and other security verifications. The security could be compromised by finding texts hash-mappable to identical numbers, forming so-called collision attack. Seeding a disturbance vector in the hash mapping to obtain a successful collision is that a major focus of cryptography study in the past two decades to improve hash protocols. We propose an algorithm that takes advantage of entangled quantum states for concurrent seeding of candidate disturbance vectors, out of which the one entailing collision is selected through a combination of quantum search, phase gating, diffusion gating, and information feedbacks from classical computing machinery. The complexity reduction is shown to be on the order of $\mathcal{O}(2^{n/2+1})$ where $n$ is the number of qubits encoding addresses. We demonstrate the practicality of the proposed by an implementation scheme based on degenerate optical parametric oscillators.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Scalable semi-classical implementation of Shor factoring using time-multiplexed degenerate optical parametric oscillators

A scheme to encode arbitrarily long integer pairs on degenerate optical parametric oscillations multiplexed in time is proposed. The classical entanglement between the polarization directions and the phases of the oscillating pulses, regarded as two computational registers, furnishes the integer correlations within each pair. We show the major algorithmic steps, modular exponentiation and discrete Fourier transform, of Shor's quantum factoring algorithm can be executed in the registers as pulse interferences under the assistance of external logics. The factoring algorithm is thus rendered equivalent to a semi-classical optical-path implementation that is scalable and decoherence-free. The sought-after multiplicative order, from which the prime factors are deduced, is identified from a two-dimensional fringe image generated by four-hole interference measured at the end of the path.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Distributed entanglement generation from asynchronously excited qubits

The generation of GHZ states calls for simultaneous excitation of multiple qubits. The peculiarity of such states is reflected in their nonzero distributed entanglement which is not contained in other entangled states. We study the optimal way to excite three superconducting qubits through a common cavity resonator in a circuit such that the generation of distributed entanglement among them could be obtained at the highest degree in a time-controllable way. A non-negative measure quantifying this entanglement is derived as a time function of the quadripartite system evolution. We find that this measure does not stay static but obtains the same maximum periodically. When the qubit-resonator couplings are allowed to vary, its peak value is enhanced monotonically by increasing the greatest coupling strength to one of the qubits. The period of its peak to peak revival maximizes when the couplings become inhomogeneous, thus qubit excitation becoming asynchronous, at a relative ratio of 0.35. The study demonstrates the role of asynchronous excitations for time-controlling multi-qubit systems, in particular in extending entanglement time.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Quasi-lattices of qubits for generating inequivalent multipartite entanglements

The mesoscopic scale of superconducting qubits makes their inter-spacings comparable to the scale of wavelength of a circuit cavity field to which they commonly couple. This comparability results in inhomogeneous coupling strengthes for each qubit and hence asynchronous Rabi excitation cycles among the qubits that form a quasi-lattice. We find that such inhomogeneous coupling benefits the formation of multi-photon resonances between the single-mode cavity field and the quasi-lattice. The multi-photon resonances lead, in turn, to the simultaneous generation of inequivalent GHZ and W types of multipartite entanglement states, which are not transformable to each other through local operations with classical communications. Applying the model on the 3-qubit quasi-lattice and using the entanglement measures of both concurrence and 3-tangle, we verify that the inhomogeneous coupling specifically promotes the generation of the totally inseparable GHZ state.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Measurement of classical entanglement using interference fringes

Classical entanglement refers to non-separable correlations between the polarization direction and the polarization amplitude of a light field. The degree of entanglement is quantified by the Schmidt number, taking the value of unity for a separable state and two for a maximally entangled state. We propose two detection methods to determine this number based on the distinguishable patterns of interference between four light sources derived from the unknown laser beam to be detected. The second method being a modification of the first one has the interference fringes form discernable angles uniquely related to the entangled state. The maximally entangled state corresponds to fringes symmetric about the diagonal axis at either 45° or 135° direction while the separable state corresponds to fringes symmetric either about the X- or Y-axis or both simultaneously. States with Schmidt number between unity and two have fringes of symmetric angles between these two extremes. The detection methods would be beneficial to constructing transmission channels of information contained in the classically entangled states.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Ramsey-biased spectroscopy of superconducting qubits under dispersion

We proposed a spectroscopic method that extends Ramsey's atomic spectroscopy to detect the transition frequency of a qubit fabricated on a superconducting circuit. The method uses a multi-interval train of qubit biases to implement an alternate resonant and dispersive couplings to an incident probe field. The consequent absorption spectrum of the qubit has a narrower linewidth at its transition frequency than that obtained from constantly biasing the qubit to resonance while the middle dispersive evolution incurs only a negligible shift in detected frequency. Modeling on transmon qubits, we find that the linewidth reduction reaches 23% and Ramsey fringes are simultaneously suppressed at extreme duration ratio of dispersion over resonance for a double-resonance scheme. If the scheme is augmented by an extra resonance segment, a further 37% reduction can be achieved.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Pulse-qubit interaction in a superconducting circuit under frictively dissipative environment

Microwave pulses are used ubiquitously to control and measure qubits fabricated on superconducting circuits. Due to continual environmental coupling, the qubits undergo decoherence both when it is free and during its interaction with the microwave pulse. As quantum logic gates are executed through pulse-qubit interaction, we study theoretically the decoherence-induced effects during the interaction, especially the variations of the pulse, under a dissipative environment with linear spectral distribution. We find that a transmissible pulse of finite width adopts an asymmetric multi-hump shape, due to the imbalanced pumping and emitting rates of the qubit during inversion when the environment is present. The pulse shape reduces to a solitonic pulse at vanishing dissipation and a pulse train at strong dissipation. We give detailed analysis of the environmental origin from both the perspectives of envelope and phase of the propagating pulse.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Synchronization of two cavity-coupled qubits measured by entanglement

Some nonlinear radiations such as superfluorescence can be understood as cooperative effects between atoms. We regard the cooperative radiation as a manifested effect secondary to the intrinsic synchronization among the atoms and propose a time-resolved measure of synchronization on a cavity-coupled dual-qubit system using multipartite concurrence. Comparing the variation of the concurrence over time with that of an asynchronicity measure, we find that the synchronization between the qubits features a time delay characteristic to the initiation of superfluorescent pulses. The delay coincides with the duration for the qubits to establish cooperation and emit the collective radiation, after which the concurrence monotonically increases to a stationary value while the asynchronicity dives to a steady minimum. Furthermore, the establishment of synchronization is determined by the qubit-cavity coupling strength. Asynchronicity shows that synchronization is only possible when the coupling enters strong regime and sustains to a high level when the coupling becomes ultra-strong.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Evolution of Skyrmion Crystals in Fe$_{0.5}$Co$_{0.5}$Si-Like Quasi-Two-Dimensional Ferromagnets Driven by External Magnetic Field and Temperature

Magnetic skyrmions have attracted great research interest in recent years due to their exotic physical properties, scientific merit and potential applications in modern technology. Here, we apply a quantum computational method to investigate the spin configurations of Fe$_{0.5}$Co$_{0.5}$Si-Like quasi-two-dimensional ferromagnetic system with co-existence of Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya and Heisenberg exchange interactions. We find that within a weak magnetic field perpendicular to the film plane, skyrmion crystal (SkX) of hexagonal-close-packed pattern can be induced, the spin configurations evolve with applied magnetic field and temperature. This quantum model, if scaled, is able to qualitatively reproduce the experimental results of SkX with long periodicity, especially, when the skyrmion size is around a few nano-meters in diameter, it is expected to be more accurate than the classical ones.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2019

Decoherence-free propagation and ramification of a solitary pulse

Using a microscopic master equation to account for the environmental effects, we compute the decoherence culminated during the propagation of a microwave pulse of arbitrary shape through a superconducting qubit. It is shown that the qubit decoherence vanishes and the pulse shape remains absorption-free when the latter adopts a soliton shape with $nπ$ area. Otherwise, the environmental feedback decelerates the velocity of the soliton envelop and induces an monotonic increase of phase in the microwave. A pulse of non-$nπ$ area thus ramifies into a transparent part that travels decoherence-free at incident velocity and a slowing part that decays through space. The ramification explains the environmental origin of pulse splitting observed in self-induced transparency.

quant-ph↗