Quantum Information Science with Single Atoms and Photons

Dik Bouwmeester, John C. Howell, Antía Lamas Linares

Hugues de Riedmatten

Quantum information science (QIS) aims at controlling quantum coherence effects in light and matter in order to enable new information processing capabilities that are not possible with classical resources. Quantum information can be encoded in photons that are used as flying quantum bits that can be sent over long distances, and in atoms that are used as stationary quantum bits to store and process the information. The efficient transfer of quantum information between single photons and atomic systems is an important requirement for QIS. It enables the realization of a quantum memory for light, which is required for many applications in QIS. In particular, it is necessary for scalable implementations of quantum information networks. It is also a crucial element of quantum repeaters that have been proposed to overcome losses in the transport of photonic quantum information over long distances.

Harry J. Kimble

Strong radiative coupling between one atom and photon has been achieved with high-Q micro-toroidal resonators, thereby providing capabilities for diverse advances in quantum information science, including an efficient router for single photons and atom-atom interactions catalyzed by one photon. Article not available.

Teodor Strömberg

Gerhard Rempe, M. Hijlkema, Axel Kuhn +4 more

We review recent experiments with single atoms strongly coupled to high-finesse optical cavities, highlighting deterministic schemes for the production of polarized single photons, the generation of an entanglement between a stationary atom and a flying photon, the mapping of a quantum state from an atom onto a photon, the emission of an entangled photon pair, and the generation of an up-to-half-a-minute long stream of single photons from one-and-the-same atom.

Pieter Kok, Brendon W. Lovett