Quantum computation has experienced a steady growth in interest in recent years. With the rapid development of quantum technologies, the quantum mechanical nature of physical systems is becoming an increasingly important part of future industrial technology. The Rydberg atom is one of the best test tubes in which to attempt programmable coherent control because of our in-depth understanding of both atomic physics and ultrafast optics. We demonstrate the use of Rydberg atoms for processing quantum information and implementing quantum algorithms. We adopted N Rydberg energy levels of Cesium atom to store information. The phases of the energy states were each programmed and coherently evolve in time with the encoded information. A coherent manipulation then transferred the information contained in the phases to state amplitudes. The programming and the converting of the information in the data register were both performed by ultrafast optical pulses. We implemented an N-state Rydberg atom data register, with N = 6 and 8. Using half-cycle pulses (HCP), we devised methods which perform unitary operations on this data register. Application of the HCP, or terahertz short pulse, to wave packets prepared with one energy state phase-reversed with respect to the others yields a much simpler wave packet. This interaction forced multi-mode interference which constructively interfered only for the phase-flipped state. An impulsive model calculation as well as direct integration of the time-dependent Schrodinger equation showed good agreement with the experimental data. Related to the quantum algorithms, the pseudo-unitary operation implemented by the HCP had a similar structural form to the Grover's inversion-about-average operation. For the same reasons that lead to the Grover's quantum state amplification, the state amplitude of the energy state whose phase was reversed robbed atomic population from all other states. Our implementation of the Grover's inversion-about-average operation has accomplished most of Grover's search protocol. In order to improve upon our implementation and to attempt other quantum algorithms, we conclude that a sophisticated shaping of terahertz pulses is required.
We propose a long-lived and rapidly accessible quantum memory unit, for which the operational Hilbert space is spanned by states involving the two macroscopically occupied hyperfine levels of a miscible binary atomic Bose-Einstein condensate and the Rydberg state of a single atom. It is shown that an arbitrary qubit state, initially prepared using a flux qubit, can be rapidly transferred to and from the trapped atomic ensemble in approximately 10 ns and with a large fidelity of 97%, via an effective two-photon process using an external laser for the transition to the Rydberg level. The achievable ultrafast transfer of quantum information therefore enables a large number of storage and retrieval cycles from the highly controllable quantum optics setup of a dilute ultracold gas, even within the typically very short flux qubit lifetimes of the order of microseconds.
Quantum nonlinear optics by Rydberg polaritons can enable single-photon transistor and switch, single-photon source, and deterministic quantum information processing. A major hindrance in this study is the fast motional decoherence. Here, we devise a scheme to significantly enhance the coherence of Rydberg polariton by letting the atoms {\it remember} their velocities, or, alternatively, by {\it changing} the phase of Rydberg polariton according to its storage time. After the Rydberg polariton is prepared with a Rydberg state
∣r1⟩, i.e., during the storage time, two laser fields induce a transition between
∣r1⟩ and a nearby Rydberg state
∣r2⟩ via a low-lying intermediate state
∣f⟩ which is largely detuned. In particular, we find that either a
2πN protocol, a
π-wait-
π protocol, or a wait-
π protocol, along with an appropriate choice of
∣f⟩ can lead to a phase-coherent Rydberg polariton upon its retrieval. Importantly, the coherent transition between
∣r1⟩ and
∣r2⟩ ensures that the Rydberg polariton can block the Rydberg excitation of nearby atoms as in usual applications of Rydberg polaritons. Numerics show that the theory can nearly completely eliminate the motional dephasing, leaving Rydberg-state decay as the only fundamental channel of decoherence. This sheds light on a broad application of Rydberg-mediated quantum nonlinear optics.