We review our work on electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) as a potentially key enabling science for few-qubit Quantum Information Technology (QIT). EIT systems capable of providing two-qubit phase shifts as large as pi are possible in a condensed matter system such as NV-diamond, but the potentially large residual absorption necessarily arising under this condition significantly reduces the fidelity of a nonlinear optical gate based on EIT. Instead, we emphasize that a universal set of quantum gates can be constructed using EIT systems that provide cumulative phase shifts (and residual absorptions) that are much smaller than unity. We describe a single-photon quantum nondemolition detector and a two-photon parity gate as basic elements of a nonlinear optical quantum information processing system.
We review our work on electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) as a potentially key enabling science for few-qubit Quantum Information Technology (QIT). EIT systems capable of providing two-qubit phase shifts as large as pi are possible in a condensed matter system such as NV-diamond, but the potentially large residual absorption necessarily arising under this condition significantly reduces the fidelity of a nonlinear optical gate based on EIT. Instead, we emphasize that a universal set of quantum gates can be constructed using EIT systems that provide cumulative phase shifts (and residual absorptions) that are much smaller than unity. We describe a single-photon quantum nondemolition detector and a two-photon parity gate as basic elements of a nonlinear optical quantum information processing system.
We provide a broad outline of the requirements that should be met by components produced for a Quantum Information Technology (QIT) industry, and we identify electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) as potentially key enabling science toward the goal of providing widely available few-qubit quantum information processing within the next decade. As a concrete example, we build on earlier work and discuss the implementation of a two-photon controlled phase gate and a one-photon phase gate using the approximate Kerr nonlinearity provided by EIT. We rigorously the dependence of the performance of these gates on atomic dephasing and field detuning and intensity, and we calculate the optimum parameters needed to apply a pi phase shift in a gate of a given fidelity. Although high-fidelity gate operation will be difficult to achieve with realistic system dephasing rates, the moderate fidelities that we believe will be needed for few-qubit QIT seem much more obtainable.
We provide a broad outline of the requirements that should be met by components produced for a Quantum Information Technology (QIT) industry, and we identify electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) as potentially key enabling science toward the goal of providing widely available few-qubit quantum information processing within the next decade. As a concrete example, we build on earlier work and discuss the implementation of a two-photon controlled phase gate (and, briefly, a one-photon phase gate) using the approximate Kerr nonlinearity provided by EIT. In this paper, we rigorously analyze the dependence of the performance of these gates on atomic dephasing and field detuning and intensity, and we calculate the optimum parameters needed to apply a π phase shift in a gate of a given fidelity. Although high-fidelity gate operation will be difficult to achieve with realistic system dephasing rates, the moderate fidelities that we believe will be needed for few-qubit QIT seem much more obtainable.
We describe how a quantum non-demolition device based on electromagnetically-induced transparency in solidstate atom-like systems could be realized. Such a resource, requiring only weak optical nonlinearities, could potentially enable photonic quantum information processing (QIP) that is much more efficient than QIP based on linear optics alone. As an example, we show how a parity gate could be constructed. A particularly interesting physical system for constructing devices is the nitrogen-vacancy defect in diamond, but the excited-state structure for this system is unclear in the existing literature. We include some of our latest spectroscopic results that indicate that the optical transitions are generally not spin-preserving, even at zero magnetic field, which allows the realization of a Λ-type system.
We describe how a quantum non-demolition device based on electromagnetically-induced transparency in solidstate atom-like systems could be realized. Such a resource, requiring only weak optical nonlinearities, could potentially enable photonic quantum information processing (QIP) that is much more efficient than QIP based on linear optics alone. As an example, we show how a parity gate could be constructed. A particularly interesting physical system for constructing devices is the nitrogen-vacancy defect in diamond, but the excited-state structure for this system is unclear in the existing literature. We include some of our latest spectroscopic results that indicate that the optical transitions are generally not spin-preserving, even at zero magnetic field, which allows the realization of a Λ-type system.
In third order nonlinear mediums, the intensity of one optical field can modify the phase of another optical field. This is known as cross-phase modulation (XPM) and is important for Quantum Information Processing (QIP) as phase shifts of single-photons that exceed π rad can be used to implement two-qubit quantum logic gates. For a conventional XPM scheme, the Kerr nonlinearity responsible for XPM is too small for appreciable phase shifts to be achieved with low intensity optical fields. However, Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT) can increase this nonlinearity by several orders of magnitude. This thesis discusses the experimental construction of a laser-atomic system capable of EIT modulated XPM. This includes construction of a rubidium magneto-optical trap (RbMOT), characterization of this RbMOT, demonstration of EIT in the RbMOT, and a system capable of detecting optical phase shifts produced by EIT. The talk will conclude with an outlook on further implementations to the experiment that will increase this nonlinearity such that phase shifts at the single-photon level are possible. | 76 pages
We theoretically investigate the implementation of a quantum controlled-phase gate in a system constituted by a single atom inside an optical cavity, based on the electromagnetically induced transparency effect. First we show that a probe pulse can experience a $\ensuremath{\pi}$ phase shift due to the presence or absence of a classical control field. Considering the interplay of the cavity-EIT effect and the quantum memory process, we demonstrated a controlled-phase gate between two single photons. To this end, first one needs to store a (control) photon in the ground atomic states. In the following, a second (target) photon must impinge on the atom-cavity system. Depending on the atomic state, this second photon will be either transmitted or reflected, acquiring different phase shifts. This protocol can then be easily extended to multiphoton systems, i.e., keeping the control photon stored, it may induce phase shifts in several single photons, thus enabling the generation of multipartite entangled states. We explore the relevant parameter space in the atom-cavity system that allows the implementation of quantum controlled-phase gates using the recent technologies. In particular, we have found a lower bound for the cooperativity of the atom-cavity system which enables the implementation of phase shift on single photons. The induced shift on the phase of a photonic qubit and the controlled-phase gate between single photons, combined with optical devices, enable one to perform universal quantum computation.