Selection of papers

Polarization-encoded free-space Quantum Communication requires a quantum state source featuring fast polarization modulation, long-term stability and a low intrinsic error rate. Here we present a source based on a Sagnac interferometer and composed of polarization maintaining fibers, a fiber polarization beam splitter and an electro-optic phase modulator. The system generates predetermined polarization states with a…

Quantum key distribution (QKD) allows distant parties to exchange cryptographic keys with unconditional security by encoding information on the degrees of freedom of photons. Polarization encoding has been extensively used for QKD along free-space, optical fiber, and satellite links. However, the polarization encoders used in such implementations are unstable, expensive, and complex and can even…

Random numbers are commonly used in many different fields, ranging from simulations in fundamental science to security applications. In some critical cases, as Bell’s tests and cryptography, the random numbers are required to be both secure (i.e. known only by the legitimate user) and to be provided at an ultra-fast rate (i.e. larger than Gbit/s).…

Satellite-based quantum communication is an invaluable resource for the realization of a quantum network at the global scale. In this regard, the use of satellites well beyond the low Earth orbits gives the advantage of long communication time with a ground station. However, high-orbit satellites pose a great technological challenge due to the high diffraction…

New techniques based on weak measurements have recently been introduced to the field of quantum state reconstruction. Some of them allow to directly measure each matrix element of an unknown density operator and need only d+1 different couplings between the system and the measuring device, compared to d2 in the case of standard QST for…

Entanglement is an invaluable resource for fundamental tests of physics and the implementation of quantum information protocols such as device-independent secure communications. In particular, time-bin entanglement is widely exploited to reach these purposes both in free-space and optical fiber propagation, due to the robustness and simplicity of its implementation. However, all existing realizations of time-bin…

One of the most surprising and counterintuitive aspects of Quantum Mechanics is the wave-particle duality, more precisely the impossibility of describing the fundamental elements of nature exclusively as waves or as particles. In fact, Quantum Mechanics requires all elementary particles to be treated contemporaneously as waves and as particles, but forbids both characters to be…

Measurements of the electromagnetic vacuum fluctuations allowed the generation of random numbers at a gigabits per second rate and with an enhanced security level with respect to the state-of-the-art quantum random number generators (QRNG). Random numbers, employed in any cryptographic algorithm, are of paramount importance for security applications. It is well known that physical systems…

Interference of quantum objects has been a key ingredient in the description of microscopic world since the early development of Quantum Theory. Testing the predictions of Quantum Mechanics in Space, over distances larger and larger, allows to extend its validity limits on a scale at which it was originally not meant for. Furthermore, exploiting quantum…

The unprecedented single photon exchange with a MEO satellite range was annoucend in a manuscript posted in Sep. 2015 in the ArXiv with number [arXiv:1509.05692] by Daniele Dequal, Giuseppe Vallone, Davide Bacco, Simone Gaiarin, Vincenza Luceri, Giuseppe Bianco, and Paolo Villoresi. The satellite distance was more than 7000 km to the ground station at the…