Experimental demonstration of loop state-preparation-and-measurement tomography

Abstract

We have performed an experiment demonstrating that loop state-preparation-and-measurement (SPAM) tomography [C. Jackson and S. J. van Enk, Phys. Rev. A 92, 042312 (2015)] is capable of detecting correlated errors between the preparation and the measurement of a quantum system. Specifically, we have prepared pure and mixed states of single qubits encoded in the polarization of heralded individual photons. By performing measurements using multiple state preparations and multiple measurement device settings we are able to detect if there are any correlated errors between them, and are also able to determine which state preparations are correlated with which measurements. This is accomplished by going around a 'loop' in parameter space, which allows us to check for self-consistency. No assumptions are made concerning either the state preparations or the measurements, other than that the dimensions of the states and the positive-operator-valued measures (POVM) describing the detector are known. In cases where no correlations are found we are able to perform quantum state tomography of the polarization qubits by using knowledge of the detector POVMs, or quantum detector tomography by using knowledge of the state preparations.