An essential component of future quantum networks is an optical switch capable of dynamically routing single photons. Here we implement such a switch, based on a fiber-optical Sagnac interferometer design. The routing is implemented with a pair of fast electro-optical telecom phase modulators placed inside the Sagnac loop, such that each modulator acts on an orthogonal polarization component of the single photons, in order to yield polarization-independent capability that is crucial for several applications. We obtain an average extinction ratio of more than 19 dB between both outputs of the switch. Our experiment is built exclusively with commercial off-the-shelf components, thus allowing direct compatibility with current optical communication systems.

Photonic spatial quantum states are a subject of great interest for applications in quantum communication. One important challenge has been how to dynamically generate these states using only fiber-optical components. Here we propose and experimentally demonstrate an all-fiber system that can dynamically switch between any general transverse spatial qubit state based on linearly polarized modes. Our platform is based on a fast optical switch based on a Sagnac interferometer combined with a photonic lantern and few-mode optical fibers. We show switching times between spatial modes on the order of 5 ns and demonstrate the applicability of our scheme for quantum technologies by demonstrating a measurement-device-independent (MDI) quantum random number generator based on our platform. We run the generator continuously over 15 hours, acquiring over 13.46 Gbits of random numbers, of which we ensure that at least 60.52% are private, following the MDI protocol. Our results show the use of photonic lanterns to dynamically create spatial modes using only fiber components, which due to their robustness and integration capabilities, have important consequences for photonic classical and quantum information processing.

Quantum random number generators (QRNG) are based on the naturally random measurement results performed on individual quantum systems. Here, we implement a branching-path photonic QRNG implemented with a Sagnac interferometer with a tunable splitting ratio. The fine-tuning of the splitting allows us to maximize the generated entropy of the sequence of produced random numbers and effectively compensate for tolerances in the components. By producing single-photons from attenuated telecom laser pulses, and employing commercially-available components we are able to generate a sequence of more than 2 gigabytes of random numbers with an average entropy of 7.99 bits/byte directly from the raw measured data. Furthermore, our sequence passes randomness tests from both the NIST and Dieharder statistical test suites, thus certifying its randomness. Our scheme shows an alternative design of QRNGs based on the dynamic adjustment of the uniformity of the produced random sequence, which is relevant for the construction of modern generators that rely on independent real-time testing of its performance.

A natural choice for quantum communication is to use the relative phase between two paths of a single-photon for information encoding. This method was nevertheless quickly identified as impractical for fibre-based communication due to the requirement of a long stabilised interferometer to connect the communicating parties. A modification based on single-photon time-bins has then become widely adopted, with its practicability relying on trading the long interferometer for two shorter local ones. It however, introduces a fundamental loss, which increases with the dimension and that limits its application over long distances. Here, we are able to solve this long-standing hurdle by employing a few-mode fibre space-division multiplexing platform working with orbital angular momentum modes. In our scheme, we maintain the practicability provided by two short interferometers, while the quantum states are transmitted through a few-mode fibre in a configuration that does not require temporal post-selection, thus enabling a detection system without irreversible losses. Our solution can be instantly deployed opening up new paths for the already commercial phase-coding quantum communication systems.

We show that telecom few-mode fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometers can be used for quantum communication protocols where the LP01 and LP11 a modes are employed to encode spatial qubits.