Genuine time-bin entanglement generation and high-performance software interfaces for Quantum Communication

Time-bin (TB) and energy-time (ET) entanglement are crucial resources for long-distance quantum information processing. For device-independent quantum communication protocols, loophole-free violations of Bell inequalities are required. However, the original and most used scheme for entanglement certification is undermined by the so-called "post-selection loophole" (PSL) when implemented without special precautions. Recently, major efforts have been made to produce compact high-quality sources of TB/ET entangled photons based on integrated technologies but none of them closed the PSL. A Bell test silicon nitride chip integrating an interferometer in the hug configuration is presented. We demonstrate the versatility of the hug interferometer by showing that it can close the PSL not only with energy-time sources, as shown in previous works, but also with time-bin entangled sources. A different approach to "genuine" TB entanglement based on the use of fast optical switches in the measurement interferometers was demonstrated in 2018. We present an improvement to the implementation of the protocol through the use of Sagnac-based switches. Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) and Quantum Random Generation (QRNG) are probably the most mature quantum technologies. Still, for their integration into telecommunication networks complete, robust, and interoperable implementations are needed. The thesis presents two recent QKD field trials, focusing on the hardware and software allowing for continuous operation. An interface between QRNG and consumer applications is finally introduced. Its use for the generation of a high-rate continuous stream of arbitrarily biased random bits to a QKD transmitter is described.