Analysis of an experimental quantum logic gate by complementary classical operations

Abstract

Quantum logic gates can perform calculations much more efficiently than their classical counterparts. However, the level of control needed to obtain a reliable quantum operation is correspondingly higher. In order to evaluate the performance of experimental quantum gates, it is therefore necessary to identify the essential features that indicate quantum coherent operation. In this paper, we show that an efficient characterization of an experimental device can be obtained by investigating the classical logic operations on a pair of complementary basis sets. It is then possible to obtain reliable predictions about the quantum coherent operations of the gate such as entanglement generation and Bell state discrimination even without performing these operations directly.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figure, 3 tables, Brief Review for Modern Physics Letters A, includes a more detailed analysis of the experimental data in Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 210506 (2005) (quant-ph/0506263). v2 has minor corrections in layou