Strongly focused light beams interacting with single atoms in free space

We construct 3-D solutions of Maxwell's equations that describe Gaussian light beams focused by a strong lens. We investigate the interaction of such beams with single atoms in free space and the interplay between angular and quantum properties of the scattered radiation. We compare the exact results with those obtained with paraxial light beams and from a standard input-output formalism. We put our results in the context of quantum information processing with single atoms.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure

Two roles of relativistic spin operators

Operators that are associated with several important quantities, like angular momentum, play a double role: they are both generators of the symmetry group and ``observables.'' The analysis of different splittings of angular momentum into "spin" and "orbital" parts reveals the difference between these two roles. We also discuss a relation of different choices of spin observables to the violation of Bell inequalities.Comment: RevTeX 4, 4 pages A discussion on relation of different choices of spin observables to the observed violation of Bell inequalities is added, some misprints corrected and the presentation is clarifie

Phase measurements with weak reference pulses

Quantum state discrimination for two coherent states with opposite phases as measured relative to a reference pulse is analyzed as functions of the intensities of both the signal states and of the reference pulse. This problem is relevant for Quantum Key Distribution with phase encoding. We consider both the optimum measurements and simple measurements that require only beamsplitters and photodetectors.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures. I apologize for this boring pape

The Effect of Stochastic Noise on Quantum State Transfer

We consider the effect of classical stochastic noise on control laser pulses used in a scheme for transferring quantum information between atoms, or quantum dots, in separate optical cavities via an optical connection between cavities. We develop a master equation for the dynamics of the system subject to stochastic errors in the laser pulses, and use this to evaluate the sensitivity of the transfer process to stochastic pulse shape errors for a number of different pulse shapes. We show that under certain conditions, the sensitivity of the transfer to the noise depends on the pulse shape, and develop a method for determining a pulse shape that is minimally sensitive to specific errors.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, to appear in Physical Review

Maximal Entanglement of Two-qubit States Constructed by Linearly Independent Coherent States

In this paper, we find the necessary and sufficient condition for the maximal entanglement of the state, $|\psi>=\mu|\alpha>|\beta>+\lambda|\alpha>|\delta>+ \rho|\gamma>|\beta>+\nu|\gamma>|\delta>,$ constructed by linearly independent coherent states with \emph{real parameters} when $=$. This is a further generalization of the classified nonorthogonal states discussed in Ref. Physics Letters A {\bf{291}}, 73-76 (2001).Comment: some examples added; Int J Theor Phys 201

Quantum Communication with Phantom Photons

We show that quantum information may be transferred between atoms in different locations by using ``phantom photons'': the atoms are coupled through electromagnetic fields, but the corresponding field modes do not have to be fully populated. In the case where atoms are placed inside optical cavities, errors in quantum information processing due to photon absorption inside the cavity are diminished in this way. This effect persists up to intercavity distances of about a meter for the current levels of cavity losses, and may be useful for distributed quantum computing.Comment: 6 pages RevTex, 4 eps figures included. Revised calculation with more details about mode structure calculation and the introduction of losse

Entanglement of photons

It is argued that the title of this paper represents a misconception. Contrary to widespread beliefs it is electromagnetic field modes that are ``systems'' and can be entangled, not photons. The amount of entanglement in a given state is shown to depend on redefinitions of the modes; we calculate the minimum and maximum over all such redefinitions for several examples.Comment: 5 pages ReVTe

Continuous-Variable Quantum Teleportation with a Conventional Laser

We give a description of balanced homodyne detection (BHD) using a conventional laser as a local oscillator (LO), where the laser field outside the cavity is a mixed state whose phase is completely unknown. Our description is based on the standard interpretation of the quantum theory for measurement, and accords with the experimental result in the squeezed state generation scheme. We apply our description of BHD to continuous-variable quantum teleportation (CVQT) with a conventional laser to analyze the CVQT experiment [A. Furusawa et al., Science 282, 706 (1998)], whose validity has been questioned on the ground of intrinsic phase indeterminacy of the laser field [T. Rudolph and B.C. Sanders, Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 077903 (2001)]. We show that CVQT with a laser is valid only if the unknown phase of the laser field is shared among sender's LOs, the EPR state, and receiver's LO. The CVQT experiment is considered valid with the aid of an optical path other than the EPR channel and a classical channel, directly linking between a sender and a receiver. We also propose a method to probabilistically generate a strongly phase-correlated quantum state via continuous measurement of independent lasers, which is applicable to realizing CVQT without the additional optical path.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Experimental Proposal for Achieving Superadditive Communication Capacities with a Binary Quantum Alphabet

We demonstrate superadditivity in the communication capacity of a binary alphabet consisting of two nonorthogonal quantum states. For this scheme, collective decoding is performed two transmissions at a time. This improves upon the previous schemes of Sasaki et al. [Phys. Rev. A 58, 146 (1998)] where superadditivity was not achieved until a decoding of three or more transmissions at a time. This places superadditivity within the regime of a near-term laboratory demonstration. We propose an experimental test based upon an alphabet of low photon-number coherent states where the signal decoding is done with atomic state measurements on a single atom in a high-finesse optical cavity.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Entanglement in bipartite generalized coherent states

Entanglement in a class of bipartite generalized coherent states is discussed. It is shown that a positive parameter can be associated with the bipartite generalized coherent states so that the states with equal value for the parameter are of equal entanglement. It is shown that the maximum possible entanglement of 1 bit is attained if the positive parameter equals $\sqrt{2}$. The result that the entanglement is one bit when the relative phase between the composing states is $\pi$ in bipartite coherent states is shown to be true for the class of bipartite generalized coherent states considered.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures; typos corrected and figures redrawn for better clarit