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arXiv:quant-ph/0110144 · Physical Review A

Quantum gates using linear optics and postselection

E. Knill

Published Nov 14, 2002• 113 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Recently it was realized that linear optics and photodetectors with feedback can be used for theoretically efficient quantum information processing. The first of three steps toward efficient linear optics quantum computation is to design a simple postselected gate that implements a nonlinear phase shift on one mode. Here a computational strategy is given for finding postselected gates for bosonic qubits with helper photons. A more efficient conditional sign flip gate is obtained. What is the maximum efficiency for such gates? This question is posed and it is shown that the probability of success cannot be 1.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.66.052306

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Recently it was realized that linear optics and photodetectors with feedback can be used for theoretically efficient quantum information processing. The first of three steps toward efficient linear optics quantum computation is to design a simple postselected gate that implements a nonlinear phase shift on one mode. Here a computational strategy is given for finding postselected gates for bosonic qubits with helper photons. A more efficient conditional sign flip gate is obtained. What is the maximum efficiency for such gates? This question is posed and it is shown that the probability of success cannot be 1.
The fundamental gates of linear optics quantum computation are realized by using single photons sources, linear optics, and photon counters. Success of these gates is conditioned on the pattern of photons detected without using feedback. Here it is shown that the maximum probability of success of these gates is typically strictly less than 1. For the one-mode nonlinear sign shift, the probability of success is bounded by 1/2. For the conditional sign shift of two modes, this probability is bounded by 3/4. These bounds are still substantially larger than the highest probabilities shown to be achievable so far, which are 1/4 and 2/27, respectively.
One of the main problems that optical quantum computing has to overcome is the efficient construction of two-photon gates. Theoretically these gates can be realized using Kerr-nonlinearities, but the techniques involved are experimentally very difficult. We therefore employ linear optics with projective measurements to generate these non-linearities. The downside is that the measurement-induced nonlinearities achieved with linear optics are less versatile and the success rate can be quite low. This project is mainly the result of a literature study but also a theoretical work on the physics behind quantum optical multiports which is essential for realizing two-photon gates. By applying different postcorrection techniques we increase the probability of success in a modifed non-linear sign shift gate which is foundational for the two photon controlled-NOT gate. We prove that it's not possible to correct the states by only using a single beam splitter. We show that it might be possible to increase the probability of success using a more complex setup with at least two error-correcting beam splitters.
Recently, it was shown that fundamental gates for theoretically efficient quantum information processing can be realized by using single photon sources, linear optics and quantum counters. One of these fundamental gates is the NS-gate, that is, the one-mode non-linear sign shift. In this work, firstly, we prove by a new rigorous proof that the upper bound of success probability of NS-gates with only one helper photon and an undefined number of ancillary modes is bounded by 0.25. Secondly, we explore the upper bound of success probability of NS-gate with a new post-selection measurement. The idea behind this new post-selection measurement is to condition the success of NS-gate transformation to the observation of only one helper photon in whichever of the output modes.
In this Letter, the problem of finding optimal success probabilities of linear optics quantum gates is linked to the theory of convex optimization. It is shown that by exploiting this link, upper bounds for the success probability of networks realizing single-mode gates can be derived, which hold in generality for postselected networks of arbitrary size, any number of auxiliary modes, and arbitrary photon numbers. As a corollary, the previously formulated conjecture is proven that the optimal success probability of a nonlinear sign shift without feedforward is 1/4, a gate playing the central role in the scheme of Knill-Laflamme-Milburn for quantum computation. The concept of Lagrange duality is shown to be applicable to provide rigorous proofs for such bounds, although the original problem is a difficult nonconvex problem in infinitely many objective variables. The versatility of this approach is demonstrated.
The first section of the work investigates light modes as a means of implementing optical qubits and qudits. The modes considered are polarization mode, path mode, transverse spatial mode, frequency mode, temporal bin-mode and temporal mode. Subsequently, mathematical model of linear optical elements like beam splitters (BS) and phase shifters are deduced and their capability of representing any single qubit optical gate is exposed. Finally Knill, Laflamme and Milburn (KLM) method of using linear optical elements to promote nonlinear operations based on nonlinear (nondeterministic) sign-flip gate (NS) is explained, and designs of two qubits conditional sign flip gate (c-z1/16) and CNOT gate, both based on KLM method, are demonstrated. So, universal set of quantum gates based on linear optics is possible.
Recently, it has been shown that fundamental gates for theoretically efficient quantum information processing can be realized by using single photon sources, linear optics and photon counters. One of these fundamental gates is the NS-gate, that is, the one-mode non-linear sign shift. In this work, firstly, we prove by an elementary and rigorous proof that the upper bound of success probability of NS-gates with only one helper photon and an undefined number of ancillary modes is bounded by 0.25. Secondly, we explore the upper bound of the success probability of the NS-gate with a new post-selection measurement. The idea behind this new post-selection measurement is to condition the success of NS-gate transformation to the observation of only one helper photon in whichever of the output modes.