40 research outputs found
Physical realization of coupled Hilbert-space mirrors for quantum-state engineering
Manipulation of superpositions of discrete quantum states has a mathematical
counterpart in the motion of a unit-length statevector in an N-dimensional
Hilbert space. Any such statevector motion can be regarded as a succession of
two-dimensional rotations. But the desired statevector change can also be
treated as a succession of reflections, the generalization of Householder
transformations. In multidimensional Hilbert space such reflection sequences
offer more efficient procedures for statevector manipulation than do sequences
of rotations. We here show how such reflections can be designed for a system
with two degenerate levels - a generalization of the traditional two-state atom
- that allows the construction of propagators for angular momentum states. We
use the Morris-Shore transformation to express the propagator in terms of
Morris-Shore basis states and Cayley-Klein parameters, which allows us to
connect properties of laser pulses to Hilbert-space motion. Under suitable
conditions on the couplings and the common detuning, the propagators within
each set of degenerate states represent products of generalized Householder
reflections, with orthogonal vectors. We propose physical realizations of this
novel geometrical object with resonant, near-resonant and far-off-resonant
laser pulses. We give several examples of implementations in real atoms or
molecules.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure
Quantum Gates and Memory using Microwave Dressed States
Trapped atomic ions have been successfully used for demonstrating basic
elements of universal quantum information processing (QIP). Nevertheless,
scaling up of these methods and techniques to achieve large scale universal
QIP, or more specialized quantum simulations remains challenging. The use of
easily controllable and stable microwave sources instead of complex laser
systems on the other hand promises to remove obstacles to scalability.
Important remaining drawbacks in this approach are the use of magnetic field
sensitive states, which shorten coherence times considerably, and the
requirement to create large stable magnetic field gradients. Here, we present
theoretically a novel approach based on dressing magnetic field sensitive
states with microwave fields which addresses both issues and permits fast
quantum logic. We experimentally demonstrate basic building blocks of this
scheme to show that these dressed states are long-lived and coherence times are
increased by more than two orders of magnitude compared to bare magnetic field
sensitive states. This changes decisively the prospect of microwave-driven ion
trap QIP and offers a new route to extend coherence times for all systems that
suffer from magnetic noise such as neutral atoms, NV-centres, quantum dots, or
circuit-QED systems.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure
Cavity Induced Interfacing of Atoms and Light
This chapter introduces cavity-based light-matter quantum interfaces, with a
single atom or ion in strong coupling to a high-finesse optical cavity. We
discuss the deterministic generation of indistinguishable single photons from
these systems; the atom-photon entanglement intractably linked to this process;
and the information encoding using spatio-temporal modes within these photons.
Furthermore, we show how to establish a time-reversal of the aforementioned
emission process to use a coupled atom-cavity system as a quantum memory. Along
the line, we also discuss the performance and characterisation of cavity
photons in elementary linear-optics arrangements with single beam splitters for
quantum-homodyne measurements.Comment: to appear as a book chapter in a compilation "Engineering the
Atom-Photon Interaction" published by Springer in 2015, edited by A.
Predojevic and M. W. Mitchel