Exploring quantum interferences with few atoms and photons

Rainer Kaltenbaek, B. Blauensteiner, Markus Aspelmeyer +1 more

Stephanie Ferrone

Though quantum mechanics is often associated with science and technology of the future, significant progress is being made in fascinating areas such as quantum teleportation and quantum computing. Applications such as these can increase the speed and capacity of current technologies and may pave the way for future technologies. Some quantum physics theories focus on a "non-physical" connection between atoms or photons, which is often referred to as quantum entanglement. Although quantum entanglement was once confined to a select few advanced research labs, recent advances in technology have now made it possible to explore entanglement in an undergraduate lab setting. This experiment will be exploring the use of quantum mechanics and entanglement to find patterns ofquantum interference. These effects are of interest on their own because of the persistent search for further knowledge about the workings of quantum mechanics.

Paolo Longo, Peter Schmitteckert, Kurt Busch

We provide a theoretical and computational framework for fully quantum mechanical studies of few-photon transport phenomena in arbitrary waveguiding structures in the presence of coherent interaction with optically active emitters. The reduced dimensionality of such systems leads to pronounced quantum interference effects that may be exploited for a number of applications and we apply our framework to the case of single-photon transport through a two-level atom. In this system, the atom's emission dynamics leads to strong interference effects that can be used for the realization of nanomirrors.

Axel Schenzle

S. J. van Enk, J. I. Cirac, P. Zoller

A general photonic channel for quantum communication is defined. By means of local quantum computing with a few auxiliary atoms, this channel can be reduced to one with effectively less noise. A scheme based on quantum interference is proposed that iteratively improves the fidelity of distant entangled particles.