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arXiv:quant-ph/0003025 · Physical Review A

Optimal photon cloning

Julia Kempe, Christoph Simon, Gregor Weihs

Published Aug 8, 2000• 29 citations
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Abstract

We show that optimal universal cloning of the polarization state of photons can be achieved via stimulated emission in three-level systems, both of the \ensuremath{\Lambda} and the $V$ type. We establish the equivalence of our systems with coupled harmonic oscillators, which permits us to analyze the structure of the cloning transformations realized. These transformations are shown to be equivalent to the optimal cloning transformations for qubits discovered by Bu\ifmmode \check{z}\else \v{z}\fi{}ek and Hillery and Gisin and Massar. The down-conversion cloner discovered previously by some of the authors is obtained as a limiting case. We demonstrate an interesting equivalence between systems of \ensuremath{\Lambda} atoms and systems of pairwise entangled V atoms. Finally we discuss the physical differences between our photon cloners and the qubit cloners considered previously and prove that the bounds on the fidelity of the clones derived for qubits also apply in our situation.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.62.032302

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We show that optimal universal cloning of the polarization state of photons can be achieved via stimulated emission in three-level systems, both of the \ensuremath{\Lambda} and the VVV type. We establish the equivalence of our systems with coupled harmonic oscillators, which permits us to analyze the structure of the cloning transformations realized. These transformations are shown to be equivalent to the optimal cloning transformations for qubits discovered by Bu\ifmmode \check{z}\else \v{z}\fi{}ek and Hillery and Gisin and Massar. The down-conversion cloner discovered previously by some of the authors is obtained as a limiting case. We demonstrate an interesting equivalence between systems of \ensuremath{\Lambda} atoms and systems of pairwise entangled V atoms. Finally we discuss the physical differences between our photon cloners and the qubit cloners considered previously and prove that the bounds on the fidelity of the clones derived for qubits also apply in our situation.
We present ways of realizing quantum cloning via stimulated emission. Universality of the cloning procedure is achieved by choosing systems that have appropriate symmetries. We first discuss a scheme based on certain three-level systems, e.g. atoms in a cavity. Our numerical results show that this scheme approaches optimal cloning for short interaction times. Then we demonstrate that optimal universal cloning can be realized using parametric down-conversion. At the same time, our down-conversion scheme also implements the optimal universal NOT operation. We conclude with some remarks on cloning and superluminal signalling, using our cloner as an illustrative example.
Beyond the no-cloning theorem, the universal symmetric quantum cloning machine was first addressed by Bu\ifmmode \check{z}\else \v{z}\fi{}ek and Hillery. Here, we realized the $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{1}$2 qubit Bu\ifmmode \check{z}\else \v{z}\fi{}ek-Hillery cloning machine with linear optical devices. This method relies on the representation of several qubits by a single photon. We showed that the fidelities between the two output qubits and the original qubit are both 56\frac{5}{6}65​ (which proved to be the optimal fidelity of $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{1}$2 qubit universal cloner) for arbitrary input pure states.
We establish the best possible approximation to a perfect quantum cloning machine that produces two clones out of a single input. We analyze both universal and state-dependent cloners. The maximal fidelity of cloning is shown to be 5/6 for universal cloners. It can be achieved either by a special unitary evolution or by a teleportation scheme. We construct the optimal state-dependent cloners operating on any prescribed two nonorthogonal states and discuss their fidelities and the use of auxiliary physical resources in the process of cloning. The optimal universal cloners permit us to derive an upper bound on the quantum capacity of the depolarizing quantum channel.
Although perfect copying of unknown quantum systems is forbidden by the laws of quantum mechanics, approximate cloning is possible. A natural way of realizing quantum cloning of photons is by stimulated emission. In this context, the fundamental quantum limit to the quality of the clones is imposed by the unavoidable presence of spontaneous emission. In our experiment, a single input photon stimulates the emission of additional photons from a source on the basis of parametric down-conversion. This leads to the production of quantum clones with near-optimal fidelity. We also demonstrate universality of the copying procedure by showing that the same fidelity is achieved for arbitrary input states.
An optimal universal cloning transformation is derived that produces M copies of an unknown qubit from a pair of orthogonal qubits. For M>6,M>6,M>6, the corresponding cloning fidelity is higher than that of the optimal copying of a pair of identical qubits. It is shown that this cloning transformation can be implemented probabilistically via parametric down conversion by feeding the signal and idler modes of a nonlinear crystal with orthogonally polarized photons.