ICFO – The Institute of Photonic Sciences

About: ICFO – The Institute of Photonic Sciences is a facility organization based out in Barcelona, Spain. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Quantum & Quantum entanglement. The organization has 872 authors who have published 1965 publications receiving 56273 citations.

Attosecond Streaking in the Water Window: A New Regime of Attosecond Pulse Characterization

Abstract: We report on the first streaking measurement of water-window attosecond pulses generated via high harmonic generation, driven by sub-2-cycle, CEP-stable, 1850 nm laser pulses. Both the central photon energy and the energy bandwidth far exceed what has been demonstrated thus far, warranting the investigation of the attosecond streaking technique for the soft X-ray regime and the limits of the FROGCRAB retrieval algorithm under such conditions. We also discuss the problem of attochirp compensation and issues regarding much lower photo-ionization cross sections compared with the XUV in addition to the fact that several shells of target gases are accessed simultaneously. Based on our investigation, we caution that the vastly different conditions in the soft X-ray regime warrant a diligent examination of the fidelity of the measurement and the retrieval procedure.

Single organic molecules for photonic quantum technologies

Abstract: Isolating single molecules in the solid state has allowed fundamental experiments in basic and applied sciences. When cooled down to liquid helium temperature, certain molecules show transition lines, that are tens of megahertz wide, limited only by the excited state lifetime. The extreme flexibility in the synthesis of organic materials provides, at low costs, a wide palette of emission wavelengths and supporting matrices for such single chromophores. In the last decades, the controlled coupling to photonic structures has led to an optimized interaction efficiency with light. Molecules can hence be operated as single photon sources and as non-linear elements with competitive performance in terms of coherence, scalability and compatibility with diverse integrated platforms. Moreover, they can be used as transducers for the optical read-out of fields and material properties, with the promise of single-quanta resolution in the sensing of charges and motion. We show that quantum emitters based on single molecules hold promise to play a key role in the development of quantum science and technologies.

Ultrafast, Zero-Bias, Graphene Photodetectors with Polymeric Gate Dielectric on Passive Photonic Waveguides.

Abstract: We report compact, scalable, high-performance, waveguide integrated graphene-based photodetectors (GPDs) for telecom and datacom applications, not affected by dark current. To exploit the photother...

Device-independent randomness expansion with entangled photons

Abstract: With the growing availability of experimental loophole-free Bell tests1–5, it has become possible to implement a new class of device-independent random number generators whose output can be certified6,7 to be uniformly random without requiring a detailed model of the quantum devices used8–10. However, all these experiments require many input bits to certify a small number of output bits, and it is an outstanding challenge to develop a system that generates more randomness than is consumed. Here we devise a device-independent spot-checking protocol that consumes only uniform bits without requiring any additional bits with a specific bias. Implemented with a photonic loophole-free Bell test, we can produce 24% more certified output bits (1,181,264,237) than consumed input bits (953,301,640). The experiment ran for 91.0 h, creating randomness at an average rate of 3,606 bits s–1 with a soundness error bounded by 5.7 × 10−7 in the presence of classical side information. Our system allows for greater trust in public sources of randomness, such as randomness beacons11, and may one day enable high-quality private sources of randomness as the device footprint shrinks. Device-independent randomness expansion is demonstrated in an experiment that is secure in the presence of a classical eavesdropper who does not share any entanglement with the setup.

Adding dynamical generators in quantum master equations

Abstract: The quantum master equation is a widespread approach to describing open quantum system dynamics. In this approach, the effect of the environment on the system evolution is entirely captured by the dynamical generator, providing a compact and versatile description. However, care needs to be taken when several noise processes act simultaneously or the Hamiltonian evolution of the system is modified. Here, we show that generators can be added at the master equation level without compromising physicality only under restrictive conditions. Moreover, even when adding generators results in legitimate dynamics, this does not generally correspond to the true evolution of the system. We establish a general condition under which direct addition of dynamical generators is justified, showing that it is ensured under weak coupling and for settings where the free system Hamiltonian and all system-environment interactions commute. In all other cases, we demonstrate by counterexamples that the exact evolution derived microscopically cannot be guaranteed to coincide with the dynamics naively obtained by adding the generators.