Measurement Technology Continues to Show Its Potential for
Quantum Information
Until recently measuring a 27-dimensional quantum state
would have been a time-consuming, multistage process using a technique called
quantum tomography, which is similar to creating a 3D image from many 2D ones.
Researchers at the University of Rochester have been able to apply a recently
developed, alternative method called direct measurement to do this in a single
experiment with no post-processing. The work is of interest because fast,
accurate and efficient methods for characterizing high-dimensional states like
this could be central in developing high security quantum communications
systems, as well as to probe our fundamental understanding of quantum
mechanics.