2,169 research outputs found
Creating excitonic entanglement in quantum dots through the optical Stark effect
We show that two initially non-resonant quantum dots may be brought into
resonance by the application of a single detuned laser. This allows for control
of the inter-dot interactions and the generation of highly entangled excitonic
states on the picosecond timescale. Along with arbitrary single qubit
manipulations, this system would be sufficient for the demonstration of a
prototype excitonic quantum computer.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures; published version, figure 3 improved, corrections
to RWA derive
Quantum-enhanced capture of photons using optical ratchet states
Natural and artificial light harvesting systems often operate in a regime
where the flux of photons is relatively low. Besides absorbing as many photons
as possible it is therefore paramount to prevent excitons from annihilation via
photon re-emission until they have undergone an irreversible energy conversion
process. Taking inspiration from photosynthetic antenna structures, we here
consider ring-like systems and introduce a class of states we call ratchets:
excited states capable of absorbing but not emitting light. This allows our
antennae to absorb further photons whilst retaining the excitations from those
that have already been captured. Simulations for a ring of four sites reveal a
peak power enhancement by up to a factor of 35 under ambient conditions owing
to a combination of ratcheting and the prevention of emission through
dark-state population. In the slow extraction limit the achievable power
enhancement due to ratcheting alone exceeds 20%.Comment: major revision with improved model (all data and figures updated
Optical Quantum Computation with Perpetually Coupled Spins
The possibility of using strongly and continuously interacting spins for
quantum computation has recently been discussed. Here we present a simple
optical scheme that achieves this goal while avoiding the drawbacks of earlier
proposals. We employ a third state, accessed by a classical laser field, to
create an effective barrier to information transfer. The mechanism proves to be
highly efficient both for continuous and pulsed laser modes; moreover it is
very robust, tolerating high decay rates for the excited states. The approach
is applicable to a broad range of systems, in particular dense structures such
as solid state self-assembled (e.g., molecular) devices. Importantly, there are
existing structures upon which `first step' experiments could be immediately
performed.Comment: 5 pages including 3 figures. Updated to published versio
Superabsorption of light via quantum engineering
Almost 60 years ago Dicke introduced the term superradiance to describe a
signature quantum effect: N atoms can collectively emit light at a rate
proportional to N^2. Even for moderate N this represents a significant increase
over the prediction of classical physics, and the effect has found applications
ranging from probing exciton delocalisation in biological systems, to
developing a new class of laser, and even in astrophysics. Structures that
super-radiate must also have enhanced absorption, but the former always
dominates in natural systems. Here we show that modern quantum control
techniques can overcome this restriction. Our theory establishes that
superabsorption can be achieved and sustained in certain simple nanostructures,
by trapping the system in a highly excited state while extracting energy into a
non-radiative channel. The effect offers the prospect of a new class of quantum
nanotechnology, capable of absorbing light many times faster than is currently
possible; potential applications of this effect include light harvesting and
photon detection. An array of quantum dots or a porphyrin ring could provide an
implementation to demonstrate this effect
Global Optical Control of a Quantum Spin Chain
Quantum processors which combine the long decoherence times of spin qubits
together with fast optical manipulation of excitons have recently been the
subject of several proposals. I show here that arbitrary single- and entangling
two-qubit gates can be performed in a chain of perpetually coupled spin qubits
solely by using laser pulses to excite higher lying states. It is also
demonstrated that universal quantum computing is possible even if these pulses
are applied {\it globally} to a chain; by employing a repeating pattern of four
distinct qubit units the need for individual qubit addressing is removed. Some
current experimental qubit systems would lend themselves to implementing this
idea.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Selective spin coupling through a single exciton
We present a novel scheme for performing a conditional phase gate between two
spin qubits in adjacent semiconductor quantum dots through delocalized single
exciton states, formed through the inter-dot Foerster interaction. We consider
two resonant quantum dots, each containing a single excess conduction band
electron whose spin embodies the qubit. We demonstrate that both the two-qubit
gate, and arbitrary single-qubit rotations, may be realized to a high fidelity
with current semiconductor and laser technology.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures; published version, equation formatting improved,
references adde
Coherent state transfer between an electron- and nuclear spin in 15N@C60
Electron spin qubits in molecular systems offer high reproducibility and the
ability to self assemble into larger architectures. However, interactions
between neighbouring qubits are 'always-on' and although the electron spin
coherence times can be several hundred microseconds, these are still much
shorter than typical times for nuclear spins. Here we implement an
electron-nuclear hybrid scheme which uses coherent transfer between electron
and nuclear spin degrees of freedom in order to both controllably turn on/off
dipolar interactions between neighbouring spins and benefit from the long
nuclear spin decoherence times (T2n). We transfer qubit states between the
electron and 15N nuclear spin in 15N@C60 with a two-way process fidelity of
88%, using a series of tuned microwave and radiofrequency pulses and measure a
nuclear spin coherence lifetime of over 100 ms.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures with supplementary material (8 pages
Polarization--universal rejection filtering by ambichiral structures made of indefinite dielectric--magnetic materials
An ambichiral structure comprising sheets of an anisotropic dielectric
material rejects normally incident plane waves of one circular polarization
(CP) state but not of the other CP state, in its fundamental Bragg regime.
However, if the same structure is made of an dielectric--magnetic material with
indefinite permittivity and permeability dyadics, it may function as a
polarization--universal rejection filter because two of the four planewave
components of the electromagnetic field phasors in each sheet are of the
positive--phase--velocity type and two are of the negative--phase--velocity
type.Comment: Cleaned citations in the tex
Convergence of the expansion of the Laplace-Borel integral in perturbative QCD improved by conformal mapping
The optimal conformal mapping of the Borel plane was recently used to
accelerate the convergence of the perturbation expansions in QCD. In this work
we discuss the relevance of the method for the calculation of the Laplace-Borel
integral expressing formally the QCD Green functions. We define an optimal
expansion of the Laplace-Borel integral in the principal value prescription and
establish conditions under which the expansion is convergent.Comment: 10 pages, no figure
Overcoming phonon-induced dephasing for indistinguishable photon sources
Reliable single photon sources constitute the basis of schemes for quantum
communication and measurement based quantum computing. Solid state single
photon sources based on quantum dots are convenient and versatile but the
electronic transitions that generate the photons are subject to interactions
with lattice vibrations. Using a microscopic model of electron-phonon
interactions and a quantum master equation, we here examine phonon-induced
decoherence and assess its impact on the rate of production, and
indistinguishability, of single photons emitted from an optically driven
quantum dot system. We find that, above a certain threshold of desired
indistinguishability, it is possible to mitigate the deleterious effects of
phonons by exploiting a three-level Raman process for photon production
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