Coherent control of single photon states

We define a class of multi-mode single photon states suitable for quantum information applications. We show how standard amplitude modulation techniques may be used to control the pulse shape of single photon states.Comment: Lecture given at the workshop on "Theoretical and Experimental Foundations of Recent Quantum Technologies" Durban, July 2006. Submited to Journal de Physique IV - Proceeding

Quantum stochastic processes in mesoscopic conductors

We show an equivalence between the approach of Buttiker and the Fermi quantum stochastic calculus for mesoscopic systems. To illustrate the method we derive the current fluctuations in a two terminal mesoscopic circuit with two tunnel barriers containing a single quasi bound state on the well. The method enables us to focus on either the incoming/outgoing Fermi fields in the leads, or on the irreversible dynamics of the well state itself. The quantum stochastic calculus we use is the Fermi analogue of the input/output methods of quantum optics.Comment: 17 pages, 1 figur

Homodyne Measurements on a Bose-Einstein Condensate

We investigate a non-destructive measurement technique to monitor Josephson-like oscillations between two spatially separated neutral atom Bose-Einstein condensates. One condensate is placed in an optical cavity, which is strongly driven by a coherent optical field. The cavity output field is monitored using a homodyne detection scheme. The cavity field is well detuned from an atomic resonance, and experiences a dispersive phase shift proportional to the number of atoms in the cavity. The detected current is modulated by the coherent tunneling oscillations of the condensate. Even when there is an equal number of atoms in each well initially, a phase is established by the measurement process and Josephson-like oscillations develop due to measurement back-action noise alone.Comment: 8 pages, 12 figures to appear in PR

Quantum Phase Transitions in a Linear Ion Trap

We show that the quantum phase transition of the Tavis-Cummings model can be realised in a linear ion trap of the kind proposed for quantum computation. The Tavis-Cummings model describes the interaction between a bosonic degree of freedom and a collective spin. In an ion trap, the collective spin system is a symmetrised state of the internal electronic states of N ions, while the bosonic system is the vibrational degree of freedom of the centre of mass mode for the ions.Comment: 6 pages and 2 figures. submitted to Dan Walls Memorial Volume, edited by H. Carmichael, R. Glauber, and M. Scully, to be published by Springe

Conditional phase shifts using trapped atoms

We describe a scheme for producing conditional nonlinear phase shifts on two-photon optical fields using an interaction with one or more ancilla two-level atomic systems. The conditional field state transformations are induced by using high efficiency fluorescence shelving measurements on the atomic ancilla. The scheme can be nearly deterministic and is of obvious benefit for quantum information applications

Continuous quantum error correction

We describe new implementations of quantum error correction that are continuous in time, and thus described by continuous dynamical maps. We evaluate the performance of such schemes using numerical simulations, and comment on the effectiveness and applicability of continuous error correction for quantum computing.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. Presented at QCMC '04 (Univ. of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK, July 25-29, 2004

Quantum slow motion

We simulate the center of mass motion of cold atoms in a standing, amplitude modulated, laser field as an example of a system that has a classical mixed phase-space. We show a simple model to explain the momentum distribution of the atoms taken after any distinct number of modulation cycles. The peaks corresponding to a classical resonance move towards smaller velocities in comparison to the velocities of the classical resonances. We explain this by showing that, for a wave packet on the classical resonances, we can replace the complicated dynamics in the quantum Liouville equation in phase-space by the classical dynamics in a modified potential. Therefore we can describe the quantum mechanical motion of a wave packet on a classical resonance by a purely classical motion

Decoherence and fidelity in ion traps with fluctuating trap parameters

We consider two different kinds of fluctuations in an ion trap potential: external fluctuating electrical fields, which cause statistical movement (``wobbling'') of the ion relative to the center of the trap, and fluctuations of the spring constant, which are due to fluctuations of the ac-component of the potential applied in the Paul trap for ions. We write down master equations for both cases and, averaging out the noise, obtain expressions for the heating of the ion. We compare our results to previous results for far-off resonance optical traps and heating in ion traps. The effect of fluctuating external electrical fields for a quantum gate operation (controlled-NOT) is determined and the fidelity for that operation derived.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Entanglement in the Dicke model

We show how an ion trap, configured for the coherent manipulation of external and internal quantum states, can be used to simulate the irreversible dynamics of a collective angular momentum model known as the Dicke model. In the special case of two ions, we show that entanglement is created in the coherently driven steady state with linear driving. For the case of more than two ions we calculate the entanglement between two ions in the steady state of the Dicke model by tracing over all the other ions. The entanglement in the steady state is a maximum for the parameter values corresponding roughly to a bifurcation of a fixed point in the corresponding semiclassical dynamics. We conjecture that this is a general mechanism for entanglement creation in driven dissipative quantum systems.Comment: Minor changes: Reference added and references correcte