Timothy P. Spiller

Weak nonlinearities: a new route to optical quantum computation

Quantum information processing (QIP) offers the promise of being able to do things that we cannot do with conventional technology. Here we present a new route for distributed optical QIP, based on generalized quantum non-demolition measurements, providing a unified approach for quantum communication and computing. Interactions between photons are generated using weak nonlinearities and intense laser fields—the use of such fields provides for robust distribution of quantum information. Our approach only requires a practical set of resources, and it uses these very efficiently. Thus it promises to be extremely useful for the first quantum technologies, based on scarce resources. Furthermore, in the longer term this approach provides both options and scalability for efficient many-qubit QIP.

Symmetry analyzer for nondestructive Bell-state detection using weak nonlinearities

We describe a method to project photonic two-qubit states onto the symmetric and antisymmetric subspaces of their Hilbert space. This device utilizes an ancillary coherent state, together with a weak cross-Kerr nonlinearity, generated, for example, by electromagnetically induced transparency. The symmetry analyzer is nondestructive, and works for small values of the cross-Kerr coupling. Furthermore, this device can be used to construct a nondestructive Bell-state detector.

High-efficiency quantum-nondemolition single-photon-number-resolving detector

We discuss an approach to the problem of creating a photon-number-resolving detector using the giant Kerr nonlinearities available in electromagnetically induced transparency. Our scheme can implement a photon-number quantum-nondemolition measurement with high efficiency

Quantum tagging: Authenticating location via quantum information and relativistic signaling constraints

(\ensuremath{\sim}99%)

An introduction to quantum information processing: applications and realizations

using fewer than 1600 atoms embedded in a dielectric waveguide.

Applications of Electromagnetically Induced Transparency to Quantum Information Processing

We define the task of quantum tagging, that is, authenticating the classical location of a classical tagging device by sending and receiving quantum signals from suitably located distant sites, in an environment controlled by an adversary whose quantum information processing and transmitting power is unbounded. We define simple security models for this task and briefly discuss alternatives. We illustrate the pitfalls of naive quantum cryptographic reasoning in this context by describing several protocols which at first sight appear unconditionally secure but which, as we show, can in fact be broken by teleportation-based attacks. We also describe some protocols which cannot be broken by these specific attacks, but do not prove they are unconditionally secure. We review the history of quantum tagging protocols, and show that protocols previously proposed by Malaney and Chandran et al. are provably insecure.

Efficient optical quantum information processing

The ideas behind Quantum Information Processing (QIP) began to appear about twenty years ago and theoretical developments have been appearing ever since. Over the last decade quantum experiments have begun to realize QIP and point the way towards the routes for future quantum information technology. This review is a simple introduction to QIP for non-experts. It discusses the basic ideas of and the underpinning quantum theory needed to understand them, as well as various applications and algorithms, and some of the main candidate routes for realizing QIP.

Loss in hybrid qubit-bus couplings and gates

Abstract We provide a broad outline of the requirements that should be met by components produced for a Quantum Information Technology (QIT) industry, and we identify electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) as potentially key enabling science toward the goal of providing widely available few-qubit quantum information processing within the next decade. As a concrete example, we build on earlier work and discuss the implementation of a two-photon controlled phase gate (and, briefly, a one-photon phase gate) using the approximate Kerr nonlinearity provided by EIT. In this paper, we rigorously analyze the dependence of the performance of these gates on atomic dephasing and field detuning and intensity, and we calculate the optimum parameters needed to apply a π phase shift in a gate of a given fidelity. Although high-fidelity gate operation will be difficult to achieve with realistic system dephasing rates, the moderate fidelities that we believe will be needed for few-qubit QIT seem much more obtainable.

Weak nonlinearities and cluster states

Quantum information offers the promise of being able to perform certain communication and computation tasks that cannot be done with conventional information technology (IT). Optical quantum information processing (QIP) holds particular appeal, since it offers the prospect of communicating and computing with the same type of qubit. Linear optical techniques have been shown to be scalable, but the corresponding quantum computing circuits need many auxiliary resources. Here we present an alternative approach to optical QIP, based on the use of weak cross-Kerr nonlinearities and homodyne measurements. We show how this approach provides the fundamental building blocks for highly efficient non-absorbing single photon number resolving detectors, two qubit parity detectors, Bell state measurements and finally near deterministic control-not (CNOT) gates. These are essential QIP devices.

Hybrid quantum computation in quantum optics

We provide a characterization and analysis of the effects of dissipation on oscillator assisted (qubus) quantum gates. The effects can be understood and minimized by looking at the dynamics of the signal coherence and its entanglement with the continuous variable probe. Adding loss in between successive interactions we obtain the effective quantum operations, providing a novel approach to loss analysis in such hybrid settings. We find that in the presence of moderate dissipation the gate can operate with a high fidelity. We also show how a simple iteration scheme leads to independent single qubit dephasing, while retaining the conditional phase operation regardless of the amount of loss incurred by the probe.