High fidelity all-optical control of quantum dot spins: detailed study of the adiabatic approach

Confined electron spins are preferred candidates for embodying quantum information in the solid state. A popular idea is the use of optical excitation to achieve the ``best of both worlds'', i.e. marrying the long spin decoherence times with rapid gating. Here we study an all-optical adiabatic approach to generating single qubit phase gates. We find that such a gate can be extremely robust against the combined effect of all principal sources of decoherence, with an achievable fidelity of 0.999 even at finite temperature. Crucially this performance can be obtained with only a small time cost: the adiabatic gate duration is within about an order of magnitude of a simple dynamic implementation. An experimental verification of these predictions is immediately feasible with only modest resources

Quantum dynamics in a tiered non-Markovian environment

We introduce a new analytical method for studying the open quantum systems problem of a discrete system weakly coupled to an environment of harmonic oscillators. Our approach is based on a phase space representation of the density matrix for a system coupled to a two-tiered environment. The dynamics of the system and its immediate environment are resolved in a non-Markovian way, and the environmental modes of the inner environment can themselves be damped by a wider `universe'. Applying our approach to the canonical cases of the Rabi and spin-boson models we obtain new analytical expressions for an effective thermalisation temperature and corrections to the environmental response functions as direct consequences of considering such a tiered environment. A comparison with exact numerical simulations confirms that our approximate expressions are remarkably accurate, while their analytic nature offers the prospect of deeper understanding of the physics which they describe. A unique advantage of our method is that it permits the simultaneous inclusion of a continuous bath as well as discrete environmental modes, leading to wide and versatile applicability.Comment: Video abstract available at http://iopscience.iop.org/1367-2630/17/2/023063. 15 pages, 6 figure

Practicality of spin chain 'wiring' in diamond quantum technologies

Coupled spin chains are promising candidates for 'wiring up' qubits in solid-state quantum computing (QC). In particular, two nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond can be connected by a chain of implanted nitrogen impurities; when driven by a suitable global fields the chain can potentially enable quantum state transfer at room temperature. However, our detailed analysis of error effects suggests that foreseeable systems may fall far short of the fidelities required for QC. Fortunately the chain can function in the more modest role as a mediator of noisy entanglement, enabling QC provided that we use subsequent purification. For instance, a chain of 5 spins with inter-spin distances of 10 nm has finite entangling power as long as the T2 time of the spins exceeds 0.55 ms. Moreover we show that re-purposing the chain this way can remove the restriction to nearest-neighbor interactions, so eliminating the need for complicated dynamical decoupling sequences.Comment: 5 pages (plus 5-page supplement

Measurement-based approach to entanglement generation in coupled quantum dots

Measurements provide a novel mechanism for generating the entanglement resource necessary for performing scalable quantum computation. Recently, we proposed a method for performing parity measurements in a coupled quantum dot system. In this paper we generalise this scheme and perform a comprehensive analytic and numerical study of environmental factors. We calculate the effects of possible error sources including non-ideal photon detectors, ineffective spin-selective excitation and dot distinguishability (both spatial and spectral). Furthermore, we present an experimental approach for verifying the success of the parity measurement

Modeling physical and chemical climate of the northeastern United States for a geographic information system

A model of physical and chemical climate was developed for New York and New England that can be used in a GIs for integration with ecosystem models. The variables included are monthly average maximum and minimum daily temperatures, precipitation, humidity, and solar radiation, as well as annual atmospheric deposition of sulfur and nitrogen. Equations generated from regional data bases were combined with a digital elevation model of the region to generate digital coverages of each variable

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

Ensemble based quantum metrology

The field of quantum metrology promises measurement devices that are fundamentally superior to conventional technologies. Specifically, when quantum entanglement is harnessed the precision achieved is supposed to scale more favourably with the resources employed, such as system size and the time required. Here we consider measurement of magnetic field strength using an ensemble of spins, and we identify a third essential resource: the initial system polarisation, i.e. the low entropy of the original state. We find that performance depends crucially on the form of decoherence present; for a plausible dephasing model, we describe a quantum strategy which can indeed beat the standard quantum limit

Quantum metrology with molecular ensembles

This work was supported by the EPSRC through QIP IRC (Grants No. GR/S82176/01 and No. GR/S15808/01), the National Research Foundation and Ministry of Education, Singapore, the DAAD, and the Royal Society.The field of quantum metrology promisesmeasurement devices that are fundamentally superior to conventional technologies. Specifically, when quantum entanglement is harnessed, the precision achieved is supposed to scale more favorably with the resources employed, such as system size and time required. Here, we consider measurement of magnetic-field strength using an ensemble of spin-active molecules. We identify a third essential resource: the change in ensemble polarization (entropy increase) during the metrology experiment. We find that performance depends crucially on the form of decoherence present; for a plausible dephasing model, we describe a quantum strategy, which can indeed beat the standard strategy.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

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