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Physical Review A

High-efficiency nondistortion quantum interrogation of atoms in quantum superpositions

Xingxiang Zhou, Zheng-Wei Zhou, Guang‐Can Guo, M. J. Feldman

Published Jul 1, 2001• 12 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We consider the nondistortion quantum interrogation of an atom prepared in a quantum superposition. By manipulating the polarization of the probe photon and making connections to interaction-free measurements of opaque objects, we show that nondistortion interrogation of an atom in a quantum superposition can be done with efficiency approaching unity. However, if any component of the atom's superposition is completely transparent to the probe wave function, a nondistortion interrogation of the atom is impossible.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.64.020101

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•Mar 17, 2001•3 citations
We consider the nondistortion quantum interrogation of an atom prepared in a quantum superposition. By manipulating the polarization of the probe photon and making connections to interaction-free measurements of opaque objects, we show that nondistortion interrogation of an atom in a quantum superposition can be done with efficiency approaching unity. However, if any component of the atom's superposition is completely transparent to the probe wave function, a nondistortion interrogation of the atom is impossible.
We consider the nondistortion quantum interrogation (NQI) of an atom prepared in a quantum superposition. By manipulating the polarization of the probe photon and making connections to interaction free measurements of opaque objects, we show that nondistortion interrogation of an atom in a quantum superposition can be done with efficiency approaching unity. However, if any component of the atom's superposition is completely transparent to the probe wave function, a nondistortion interrogation of the atom is impossible.
We propose a scheme for nondistortion quantum interrogation defined as an interaction-free measurement that preserves the internal state of the object being detected. In our scheme, two Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen entangled photons are used as the probe and polarization-sensitive measurements are performed at the four ports of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer. In comparison with the previous single-photon scheme, it is shown that the two-photon approach has a higher probability of initial state preserving interrogation of an atom prepared in a quantum superposition. In the case that the presence of the atom is not successfully detected, the experiment can be repeated since the initial state of the atom is unperturbed.
We present some applications of high-efficiency quantum interrogation (``interaction-free measurement'') for the creation of entangled states of separate atoms and of separate photons. The quantum interrogation of a quantum object in a superposition of object-in and object-out leaves the object and probe in an entangled state. The probe can then be further entangled with other objects in subsequent quantum interrogations. By then projecting out those cases in which the probe is left in a particular final state, the quantum objects can themselves be left in various entangled states. In this way, we show how to generate two-, three-, and higher-qubit entanglement between atoms and between photons. The effect of finite efficiency for the quantum interrogation is delineated for the various schemes.
We present a general framework to study nondistortion quantum interrogation which preserves the internal state of the quantum object being detected. We obtain the necessary and sufficient condition for successful performing nondistortion interrogation for unknown quantum object when the interaction between the probe system and the detected system takes place only once. When the probe system and interrogation process have been limited we develop a mathematical frame to determine whether it is possible to realize NQI processes only relying on the choice of the original probe state. We also consider NQI process in iterative cases. A sufficient criterion for NQI is obtained.