AFRL/RITQ - Integrated Photonics and Photon Qubits

FROM THE ULTRAVIOLET TO THE INFRARED

The mission of the AFRL's Quantum Information Processing Group is to generate, manipulate/process, distribute and analyze quantum entanglement both locally and distributed over processing nodes in a quantum network consisting of photon-based and memory-based quantum bits.

As elementary quantum states of light, photons are natural long distance carriers of quantum information and the ideal qubit for fast processing. We generate photon states both in bulk and in chip-scale integrated photonic circuits, with the emphasis moving towards integration as the scaling and complexity of these circuits increase.

Exploiting the large innate entanglement contained within photon’s degrees of freedom will support the implementation of information processing and network functionalities that are fundamentally different from current technology. This work is complemented by the AFRL Quantum Algorithm Group to enact quantum protocols on the circuitry.

We have labs on AFRL's RI campus and in the Innovare Advancement Center.

CLICK HERE to visit our other quantum labs.



GOVERNMENT PERSONNEL
Dr. Paul M. Alsing, Team Lead - Principal Research Physicist
Dr. Michael L. Fanto, Experimental Lead - Senior Research Physicist
Dr. A. Matthew Smith, Senior Research Physicist
Dr. H. Shelton Jacinto, Research Engineer
Dr. James E. Schneeloch, Research Physicist
Dr. Christopher C. Tison, Research Physicist

CONTRACT PERSONNEL
Dr. Shannon Ray, Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. Richard Birrittella, NRC Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. Howard A. Blair, Contractor
Howard Dao, Contractor

STUDENTS
Anthony Rizzo, Ph.D. Candidate, SMART Scholar, Columbia University
Dylan Heberle, Ph.D. Candidate, Cornell University

PUBLICATIONS (Click for list of publications)


PATENTS

2019:
M.L. Fanto, P.M. Alsing, C.C. Tison, S.F. Preble, J.A. Steidle, "Photon generator", U.S. Patent No. 10,466,418 (2019).
M.L. Fanto, P.M. Alsing, C.C. Tison, S.F. Preble, J.A. Steidle, "Photon generator", U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2019/0187380 (2019).
S.F. Preble, Z. Wang, M.L. Fanto, "Mode-locked lasers on silicon by palladium bonding and methods therefor" U.S. Patent No. 10,236,659 (2019).
T.L. Jason, M. Kulick, Y. Qian, S.F. Preble, J.A. Steidle, M.L. Fanto, "Method and system to passively align and attach fiber array to laser array or optical waveguide array" U.S. Patent No. 10,409,004 (2019).

2018:
M.L. Fanto, P.M. Alsing, C.C. Tison, S.F. Preble, J.A. Steidle, "Photon generator", U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2018/0335570 (2018).

2016:
A.M. Smith, M.L. Fanto, "Two dimensional photonic cluster state generator from sequential photons with multiple entanglement gates " U.S. Patent No. 9,264,148 (2016).

2015: 
A.M. Smith, M.L. Fanto, "Apparatus and method for a symmetric sequential entangler of periodic photons in a single input and output mode" U.S. Patent No. 9,146,441  (2015).
A.M. Smith, M.L. Fanto, "Two dimensional photonic cluster state generator from sequential photons with fixed delay loopback", U.S. Patent No. 9,083,473 (2015).
A.M. Smith, M.L. Fanto, "Two dimensional photonic cluster state generator from sequential photons with variable delay loopback", U.S. Patent No. 9,077,457 (2015).
A.M. Smith, M.L. Fanto, "Sequential entangler of periodic photons in a single input and output mode " U.S. Patent No. 9,075,282  (2015).
A.M. Smith, M.L. Fanto, P.M. Alsing, G. Lott, "Periodic probabilistic two-dimensional cluster state generator with arbitrary interconnections", U.S. Patent No. 8,995,797 (2015).
W.A. Miller, G. Kreymerman, P.M. Alsing, "Method and apparatus for quantum holographic information processing", U.S. Patent No. 9,047,571 (2015).

2013:
A.M. Smith, "Number resolving superconducting nanowire photon detector on multiple surfaces of a substrate", U.S. Patent No. 8,577,430 (2013).
A.M. Smith, "Number resolving superconducting nanowire photon detector via a multi-layer hardware architecture", U.S. Patent No. 8,565,844  (2013).

THESES
Paul M. Alsing, "Strongly coupled cavity QED", Ph.D. Thesis, University of Arkansas (1991).
Michael L. Fanto, "Nonlinear Optics in Photonic Ultrawide-bandgap Circuits", Ph.D. Thesis, Rochester Institute of Technology (2020).
A. Matthew Smith, "Topic in Quantum Physics: Chaotic Dynamics, Linear Optical Quantum Computing and Anderson Model Conductance", Ph.D. Thesis, Tulane University (2010).
H. Shelton Jacinto, "Towards Hybrid Quantum-Classical Ciphersuite Primitives", Ph.D. Thesis, Boise State University (2020).
James E. Schneeloch, "On position-momentum entanglement, nonlocality, and measurement", Ph.D. Thesis, University of Rochester (2015).
Christopher C. Tison, "Central Moments of Squeezed States: A Coincidence Statistics Analogue", Ph.D. Thesis, Florida Atlantic University (2018).

EMAIL US

ri.photons.gov@afrl.af.mil