The construction of unitary matrixes for quantum computation by means of red and blue detuning transitions in an ion trap is first discussed. Then, with these matrixes, a scheme for realizing a two bit quantum search is proposed.
The desired interference required for quantum computing may be modified by wave-function oscillations for the implementation of quantum algorithms [Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 1615 (2000)]. To diminish such a detrimental effect, we propose a scheme with trapped ion pairs as qubits and apply the scheme to the Grover search. It will be shown that our scheme cannot only carry out a full Grover search, but can also meet the requirement for scalable hot-ion quantum computing. Moreover, the ion-pair qubits in our scheme are more robust against decoherence and the dissipation caused by the environment than single-particle qubits proposed before.
The purpose of this article is to review two complementary schemes for quantum computation with trapped ions. We initially discuss the first proposal of quantum computations with cold trapped ions (J. I. Cirac and P. Zoller; Phys. Rev. Lett. 74, 4091, 1995) which requires, prior to any computation, laser cooling to the motional ground state. This proposal is closely related to the physics of generating and manipulating N-particles entangled states in both ion traps and high-Q cavities (cavity quantum electrodynamics). The second scheme is that of quantum computations with hot trapped ions (J.F. Poyatos, J.I. Cirac and P. Zoller; Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 1322, 1998) which works at finite temperature and resembles physical ideas found in atom interferometry.