Implementation of the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm on an ion-trap quantum computer

Quantum face recognition protocol with ghost imaging

Face recognition is one of the most ubiquitous examples of pattern recognition in machine learning, with numerous applications in security, access control, and law enforcement, among many others. Pattern recognition with classical algorithms requires significant computational resources, especially when dealing with high-resolution images in an extensive database. Quantum algorithms have been shown to improve the efficiency and speed of many computational tasks, and as such, they could also potentially improve the complexity of the face recognition process. Here, we propose a quantum machine learning algorithm for pattern recognition based on quantum principal component analysis, and quantum independent component analysis. A novel quantum algorithm for finding dissimilarity in the faces based on the computation of trace and determinant of a matrix (image) is also proposed. The overall complexity of our pattern recognition algorithm is [Formula: see text]-N is the image dimension. As an input to these pattern recognition algorithms, we consider experimental images obtained from quantum imaging techniques with correlated photons, e.g. "interaction-free" imaging or "ghost" imaging. Interfacing these imaging techniques with our quantum pattern recognition processor provides input images that possess a better signal-to-noise ratio, lower exposures, and higher resolution, thus speeding up the machine learning process further. Our fully quantum pattern recognition system with quantum algorithm and quantum inputs promises a much-improved image acquisition and identification system with potential applications extending beyond face recognition, e.g., in medical imaging for diagnosing sensitive tissues or biology for protein identification.

High-Fidelity Quantum Control by Polychromatic Pulse Trains

We introduce a quantum control technique using polychromatic pulse trains, consisting of pulses with different carrier frequencies, i.e., different detunings with respect to the qubit transition frequency. We derive numerous polychromatic pulse trains, which generate broadband, narrowband, and passband excitation profiles for different target transition probabilities. This makes it possible to create high-fidelity excitation profiles which are either (i) robust to deviations in the experimental parameters, which is attractive for quantum computing, or (ii) more sensitive to such variations, which is attractive for crosstalk elimination and quantum sensing. The method is demonstrated experimentally using one of IBM's superconducting quantum processors, in a very good agreement between theory and experiment. These results demonstrate both the excellent coherence properties of the IBM qubits and the accuracy, robustness, and flexibility of the proposed quantum control technique. They also show that the detuning is a control parameter which is as efficient as the pulse phase that is commonly used in composite pulses. Hence the method opens a variety of perspectives for quantum control in areas where phase manipulation is difficult or inaccurate.

Spontaneous giant vortices and circular supercurrents in a trapped exciton-polariton condensate

We theoretically study an exciton-polariton condensate trapped in a harmonic potential with an annular pump. With a circular pump, predictions were made for a spontaneous rotating vortex lattice packed by singly quantized vortices. If the circular pump is replaced by an annular pump, singly quantized vortices are absorbed into the central hole and form a multiply quantized vortex. For a sufficiently narrow annular width, all vortices are absorbed into the central hole, ultimately forming a giant vortex with supersonic circular supercurrents flowing around it. Vortex-antivortex pairs can be generated if a defect is present in these supersonic circular supercurrents. We further discover that the motion of the vortex-antivortex pairs depends on the position at which they were generated. We suggest that this property can be used to control whether the velocity of the circular supercurrents is above or below the sound velocity.

Verification of Information Thermodynamics in a Trapped Ion System

Information thermodynamics has developed rapidly over past years, and the trapped ions, as a controllable quantum system, have demonstrated feasibility to experimentally verify the theoretical predictions in the information thermodynamics. Here, we address some representative theories of information thermodynamics, such as the quantum Landauer principle, information equality based on the two-point measurement, information-theoretical bound of irreversibility, and speed limit restrained by the entropy production of system, and review their experimental demonstration in the trapped ion system. In these schemes, the typical physical processes, such as the entropy flow, energy transfer, and information flow, build the connection between thermodynamic processes and information variation. We then elucidate the concrete quantum control strategies to simulate these processes by using quantum operators and the decay paths in the trapped-ion system. Based on them, some significantly dynamical processes in the trapped ion system to realize the newly proposed information-thermodynamic models is reviewed. Although only some latest experimental results of information thermodynamics with a single trapped-ion quantum system are reviewed here, we expect to find more exploration in the future with more ions involved in the experimental systems.

Geometric property of off resonance error robust composite pulse

The precision of quantum operations is affected by unavoidable systematic errors. A composite pulse (CP), which has been well investigated in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), is a technique that suppresses the influence of systematic errors by replacing a single operation with a sequence of operations. In one-qubit operations, there are two typical systematic errors, Pulse Length Error (PLE) and Off Resonance Error (ORE). Recently, it was found that PLE robust CPs have a clear geometric property. In this study, we show that ORE robust CPs also have a simple geometric property, which is associated with trajectories on the Bloch sphere of the corresponding operations. We discuss the geometric property of ORE robust CPs using two examples.

Designing excitonic circuits for the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm: mitigating fidelity loss by merging gate operations

In this manuscript, we examine design strategies for the development of excitonic circuits that are capable of performing simple 2-qubit multi-step quantum algorithms. Specifically, we compare two different strategies for designing dye-based systems that prescribe exciton evolution encoding a particular quantum algorithm. A serial strategy implements the computation as a step-by-step series of circuits, with each carrying out a single operation of the quantum algorithm, and a combined strategy implements the entire computation in a single circuit. We apply these two approaches to the well-studied Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm and evaluate circuit fidelity in an idealized system under a model harmonic bath, and also for a bath that is parameterized to reflect the thermal fluctuations of an explicit molecular environment. We find that the combined strategy tends to yield higher fidelity and that the harmonic bath approximation leads to lower fidelity than a model molecular bath. These results imply that the programming of excitonic circuits for quantum computation should favor hard-coded modules that incorporate multiple algorithmic steps and should represent the molecular nature of the circuit environment.

Eliminating Leakage Errors in Hyperfine Qubits

Population leakage outside the qubit subspace presents a particularly harmful source of error that cannot be handled by standard error correction methods. Using a trapped ^{171}Yb^{+} ion, we demonstrate an optical pumping scheme to suppress leakage errors in atomic hyperfine qubits. The selection rules and narrow linewidth of a quadrupole transition are used to selectively pump population out of leakage states and back into the qubit subspace. Each pumping cycle reduces the leakage population by a factor of ∼3, allowing for an exponential suppression in the number of cycles. We use interleaved randomized benchmarking on the qubit subspace to show that this pumping procedure has negligible side effects on the qubit subspace, bounding the induced qubit memory error by ≤2.0(8)×10^{-5}  per cycle, and qubit population decay to ≤1.4(3)×10^{-7}  per cycle. These results clear a major obstacle for implementations of quantum error correction and error mitigation protocols.

Modular quantum computation in a trapped ion system

Modern computation relies crucially on modular architectures, breaking a complex algorithm into self-contained subroutines. A client can then call upon a remote server to implement parts of the computation independently via an application programming interface (API). Present APIs relay only classical information. Here we implement a quantum API that enables a client to estimate the absolute value of the trace of a server-provided unitary operation [Formula: see text]. We demonstrate that the algorithm functions correctly irrespective of what unitary [Formula: see text] the server implements or how the server specifically realizes [Formula: see text]. Our experiment involves pioneering techniques to coherently swap qubits encoded within the motional states of a trapped [Formula: see text] ion, controlled on its hyperfine state. This constitutes the first demonstration of modular computation in the quantum regime, providing a step towards scalable, parallelization of quantum computation.

Photonic scheme of discrete quantum Fourier transform for quantum algorithms via quantum dots

We propose an optical scheme of discrete quantum Fourier transform (DQFT) via ancillary systems using quantum dots (QDs) confined in single-sided cavities (QD-cavity systems). In our DQFT scheme, the main component is a controlled-rotation k (CRk) gate, which utilizes the interactions between photons and QDs, consisting of two QD-cavity systems. Since the proposed CRk gate can be experimentally implemented with high efficiency and reliable performance, the scalability of multi-qubit DQFT scheme can also be realized through the simple composition of the proposed CRk gates via the QD-cavity systems. Subsequently, in order to demonstrate the performance of the CRk gate, we analyze the interaction between a photon and a QD-cavity system, and then indicate the condition to be efficient CRk gate with feasibility under vacuum noise and sideband leakage.

A tutorial on regularized partial correlation networks

Recent years have seen an emergence of network modeling applied to moods, attitudes, and problems in the realm of psychology. In this framework, psychological variables are understood to directly affect each other rather than being caused by an unobserved latent entity. In this tutorial, we introduce the reader to estimating the most popular network model for psychological data: the partial correlation network. We describe how regularization techniques can be used to efficiently estimate a parsimonious and interpretable network structure in psychological data. We show how to perform these analyses in R and demonstrate the method in an empirical example on posttraumatic stress disorder data. In addition, we discuss the effect of the hyperparameter that needs to be manually set by the researcher, how to handle non-normal data, how to determine the required sample size for a network analysis, and provide a checklist with potential solutions for problems that can arise when estimating regularized partial correlation networks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Operational effects of the UNOT gate on classical and quantum correlations

The NOT gate that flips a classical bit is ubiquitous in classical information processing. However its quantum analogue, the universal NOT (UNOT) gate that flips a quantum spin in any alignment into its antipodal counterpart is strictly forbidden. Here we explore the connection between this discrepancy and how UNOT gates affect classical and quantum correlations. We show that while a UNOT gate always preserves classical correlations between two spins, it can non-locally increase or decrease their shared discord in ways that allow violation of the data processing inequality. We experimentally illustrate this using a multi-level trapped ¹⁷¹Yb⁺ ion that allows simulation of anti-unitary operations.

A programmable two-qubit quantum processor in silicon

Now that it is possible to achieve measurement and control fidelities for individual quantum bits (qubits) above the threshold for fault tolerance, attention is moving towards the difficult task of scaling up the number of physical qubits to the large numbers that are needed for fault-tolerant quantum computing. In this context, quantum-dot-based spin qubits could have substantial advantages over other types of qubit owing to their potential for all-electrical operation and ability to be integrated at high density onto an industrial platform. Initialization, readout and single- and two-qubit gates have been demonstrated in various quantum-dot-based qubit representations. However, as seen with small-scale demonstrations of quantum computers using other types of qubit, combining these elements leads to challenges related to qubit crosstalk, state leakage, calibration and control hardware. Here we overcome these challenges by using carefully designed control techniques to demonstrate a programmable two-qubit quantum processor in a silicon device that can perform the Deutsch-Josza algorithm and the Grover search algorithm-canonical examples of quantum algorithms that outperform their classical analogues. We characterize the entanglement in our processor by using quantum-state tomography of Bell states, measuring state fidelities of 85-89 per cent and concurrences of 73-82 per cent. These results pave the way for larger-scale quantum computers that use spins confined to quantum dots.

Experimental quantum compressed sensing for a seven-qubit system

Well-controlled quantum devices with their increasing system size face a new roadblock hindering further development of quantum technologies. The effort of quantum tomography—the reconstruction of states and processes of a quantum device—scales unfavourably: state-of-the-art systems can no longer be characterized. Quantum compressed sensing mitigates this problem by reconstructing states from incomplete data. Here we present an experimental implementation of compressed tomography of a seven-qubit system—a topological colour code prepared in a trapped ion architecture. We are in the highly incomplete—127 Pauli basis measurement settings—and highly noisy—100 repetitions each—regime. Originally, compressed sensing was advocated for states with few non-zero eigenvalues. We argue that low-rank estimates are appropriate in general since statistical noise enables reliable reconstruction of only the leading eigenvectors. The remaining eigenvectors behave consistently with a random-matrix model that carries no information about the true state.

Quantum compressed sensing can provide a scalable way to characterize quantum states and devices, but has been so far limited to states with quickly decaying eigenvalues. Here the authors show that it can be appropriate even in the general case, demonstrating reconstruction the state of a seven-qubit system.

Accurate and agile digital control of optical phase, amplitude and frequency for coherent atomic manipulation of atomic systems

We demonstrate a system for fast and agile digital control of laser phase, amplitude and frequency for applications in coherent atomic systems. The full versatility of a direct digital synthesis radiofrequency source is faithfully transferred to laser radiation via acousto-optic modulation. Optical beatnotes are used to measure phase steps up to 2π, which are accurately implemented with a resolution of ≤ 10 mrad. By linearizing the optical modulation process, amplitude-shaped pulses of durations ranging from 500 ns to 500 ms, in excellent agreement with the programmed functional form, are demonstrated. Pulse durations are limited only by the 30 ns rise time of the modulation process, and a measured extinction ratio of > 5 × 10(11) is achieved. The system presented here was developed specifically for controlling the quantum state of trapped ions with sequences of multiple laser pulses, including composite and bichromatic pulses. The demonstrated techniques are widely applicable to other atomic systems ranging across quantum information processing, frequency metrology, atom interferometry, and single-photon generation.

Ultrafast spin-motion entanglement and interferometry with a single atom

We report entanglement of a single atom's hyperfine spin state with its motional state in a time scale of less than 3 ns. We engineer a short train of intense laser pulses to impart a spin-dependent momentum transfer of ± 2 ħk. Using pairs of momentum kicks, we create an atomic interferometer and demonstrate collapse and revival of spin coherence as the motional wave packet is split and recombined. The revival after a pair of kicks occurs only when the second kick is delayed by an integer multiple of the harmonic trap period, a signature of entanglement and disentanglement of the spin with the motion. Such quantum control opens a new regime of ultrafast entanglement in atomic qubits.

Further analysis of some symmetric and antisymmetric composite pulses for tackling pulse strength errors

Composite pulses have found widespread use in both conventional Nuclear Magnetic Resonance experiments and in experimental quantum information processing to reduce the effects of systematic errors. Here we describe several families of time symmetric and antisymmetric fully compensating composite pulses, inspired by the previous Fn, Gn and BB1 families family developed by Wimperis. We describe families of composite 180° pulses (not gates) which exhibit unprecedented tolerance of pulse strength errors without unreasonable sensitivity to off-resonance errors, and related families with more exotic tailored responses. Next we address the problem of extending these methods to other rotation angles, and discuss numerical results for 90° pulses. Finally we demonstrate the performance of some 90° and 180° pulses in NMR experiments.

Effect of laser pulse shaping parameters on the fidelity of quantum logic gates

The effect of varying parameters specific to laser pulse shaping instruments on resulting fidelities for the ACNOT(1), NOT(2), and Hadamard(2) quantum logic gates are studied for the diatomic molecule (12)C(16)O. These parameters include varying the frequency resolution, adjusting the number of frequency components and also varying the amplitude and phase at each frequency component. A time domain analytic form of the original discretized frequency domain laser pulse function is derived, providing a useful means to infer the resulting pulse shape through variations to the aforementioned parameters. We show that amplitude variation at each frequency component is a crucial requirement for optimal laser pulse shaping, whereas phase variation provides minimal contribution. We also show that high fidelity laser pulses are dependent upon the frequency resolution and increasing the number of frequency components provides only a small incremental improvement to quantum gate fidelity. Analysis through use of the pulse area theorem confirms the resulting population dynamics for one or two frequency high fidelity laser pulses and implies similar dynamics for more complex laser pulse shapes. The ability to produce high fidelity laser pulses that provide both population control and global phase alignment is attributed greatly to the natural evolution phase alignment of the qubits involved within the quantum logic gate operation.

Compact radio-frequency resonator for cryogenic ion traps

We report on the investigation and implementation of a lumped-component, radio-frequency resonator used in a cryogenic vacuum environment to drive an ion trap. The resonator was required to achieve the voltages necessary to trap (~100 V), while dissipating very little power. Ultimately, for an input voltage of 1.35 V, a voltage gain of 100 was measured at 5.7 K, using a design which dissipated only 18 mW. The resonator operated at a frequency of 7.64 MHz and had a Q of 700. Single (40)Ca(+) ions were confined in a trap driven by this device, providing proof of successful resonator operation at low temperature.

High-fidelity adiabatic passage by composite sequences of chirped pulses

We present a method for optimization of the technique of adiabatic passage between two quantum states by composite sequences of frequency-chirped pulses with specific relative phases: composite adiabatic passage (CAP). By choosing the composite phases appropriately the nonadiabatic losses can be canceled to any desired order with sufficiently long sequences, regardless of the nonadiabatic coupling. The values of the composite phases are universal for they do not depend on the pulse shapes and the chirp. The accuracy of the CAP technique and its robustness against parameter variations make CAP suitable for high-fidelity quantum information processing.

High-fidelity local addressing of trapped ions and atoms by composite sequences of laser pulses

A vital requirement for a quantum computer is the ability to locally address, with high fidelity, any of its qubits without affecting their neighbors. We propose an addressing method using composite sequences of laser pulses that dramatically reduces the addressing error in a lattice of closely spaced atoms or ions and at the same time significantly enhances the robustness of qubit manipulations. To this end, we design novel (to our knowledge) high-fidelity composite pulses for the most important single-qubit operations. In principle, this method allows one to beat the diffraction limit, for only atoms situated in a small spatial region around the center of the laser beam are excited, well within the laser beam waist.

Room-temperature implementation of the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm with a single electronic spin in diamond

The nitrogen-vacancy defect center (N-V center) is a promising candidate for quantum information processing due to the possibility of coherent manipulation of individual spins in the absence of the cryogenic requirement. We report a room-temperature implementation of the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm by encoding both a qubit and an auxiliary state in the electron spin of a single N-V center. By thus exploiting the specific S=1 character of the spin system, we demonstrate how even scarce quantum resources can be used for test-bed experiments on the way towards a large-scale quantum computing architecture.

Quantum gate operations using midinfrared binary shaped pulses on the rovibrational states of carbon monoxide

Frequency domain shaped binary laser pulses were optimized to perform 2 qubit quantum gate operations in (12)C(16)O. The qubit rovibrational state representation was chosen so that all gate operations consisted of one-photon transitions. The amplitude and phase varied binary pulses were determined using a genetic algorithm optimization routine. Binary pulses have two possible amplitudes, 0 or 1, and two phases, 0 or pi, for each frequency component of the pulse. Binary pulses are the simplest to shape experimentally and provide a minimum fidelity limit for amplitude and phase shaped pulses. With the current choice of qubit representation and using optimized binary pulses, fidelities of 0.80 and as high as 0.97 were achieved for the controlled-NOT and alternative controlled-NOT quantum gates. This indicates that with a judicious choice of qubits, most of the required control can be obtained with a binary pulse. Limited control was observed for 2 qubit NOT and Hadamard gates due to the need to control multiple excitations. The current choice of qubit representation produces pulses with decreased energies and superior fidelities when compared with rovibrational qubit representations consisting of two-photon transitions. The choice of input pulse energy is important and applying pulses of increased energy does not necessarily lead to a better fidelity.

Demonstration of two-qubit algorithms with a superconducting quantum processor

Quantum computers, which harness the superposition and entanglement of physical states, could outperform their classical counterparts in solving problems with technological impact-such as factoring large numbers and searching databases. A quantum processor executes algorithms by applying a programmable sequence of gates to an initialized register of qubits, which coherently evolves into a final state containing the result of the computation. Building a quantum processor is challenging because of the need to meet simultaneously requirements that are in conflict: state preparation, long coherence times, universal gate operations and qubit readout. Processors based on a few qubits have been demonstrated using nuclear magnetic resonance, cold ion trap and optical systems, but a solid-state realization has remained an outstanding challenge. Here we demonstrate a two-qubit superconducting processor and the implementation of the Grover search and Deutsch-Jozsa quantum algorithms. We use a two-qubit interaction, tunable in strength by two orders of magnitude on nanosecond timescales, which is mediated by a cavity bus in a circuit quantum electrodynamics architecture. This interaction allows the generation of highly entangled states with concurrence up to 94 per cent. Although this processor constitutes an important step in quantum computing with integrated circuits, continuing efforts to increase qubit coherence times, gate performance and register size will be required to fulfil the promise of a scalable technology.

Entangled states of trapped atomic ions

To process information using quantum-mechanical principles, the states of individual particles need to be entangled and manipulated. One way to do this is to use trapped, laser-cooled atomic ions. Attaining a general-purpose quantum computer is, however, a distant goal, but recent experiments show that just a few entangled trapped ions can be used to improve the precision of measurements. If the entanglement in such systems can be scaled up to larger numbers of ions, simulations that are intractable on a classical computer might become possible.

Two-ion Coulomb crystals of Ca + in a Penning trap

Results demonstrating laser cooling and observation of individual calcium ions in a Penning trap are presented. We show that we are able to trap, cool, image and manipulate the shape of very small ensembles of ions sufficiently well to produce two-ion 'Coulomb crystals' aligned along the magnetic field of a Penning trap. Images are presented which show the individual ions to be resolved in a two-ion crystal. A distinct change in the configuration of such a crystal is observed as the experimental parameters are changed. These structures could eventually be used as building blocks in a Penning trap based quantum computer.

Robust controlled-NOT gates from almost any interaction

There are many cases where the interaction between two qubits is not precisely known, but single-qubit operations are available. In this Letter we show how, regardless of an incomplete knowledge of the strength or form of the interaction between two qubits, it is often possible to construct a controlled-NOT gate which has arbitrarily high fidelity. In particular, we show that oscillations in the strength of the exchange interaction in solid state Si and Ge structures are correctable.

Trapped ion quantum computation with transverse phonon modes

We propose a scheme to implement quantum gates on any pair of trapped ions immersed in a large linear crystal, using interaction mediated by the transverse phonon modes. Compared with the conventional approaches based on the longitudinal phonon modes, this scheme is much less sensitive to ion heating and thermal motion outside of the Lamb-Dicke limit thanks to the stronger confinement in the transverse direction. The cost for such a gain is only a moderate increase of the laser power to achieve the same gate speed. We also show how to realize arbitrary-speed quantum gates with transverse phonon modes based on simple shaping of the laser pulses.

Deutsch-jozsa algorithm using triggered single photons from a single quantum dot

We demonstrate a two-qubit Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm with single photons from a single InP quantum dot. The qubits are implemented via the spatial mode and the polarization of a single photon. Our photon source is operated both under continuous and pulsed excitation, the latter allowing deterministic quantum logic by generating photons on demand with a strong suppression of two-photon events. The computation reached a success probability of up to 79%. We also exploit the concept of decoherence-free subspaces that helps to make our experimental setup robust against sources of phase noise.

Implementation of quantum gate operations in molecules with weak laser fields

We numerically propose a way to perform quantum computations by combining an ensemble of molecular states and weak laser pulses. A logical input state is expressed as a superposition state (a wave packet) of molecular states, which is initially prepared by a designed femtosecond laser pulse. The free propagation of the wave packet for a specified time interval leads to the specified change in the relative phases among the molecular basis states, which corresponds to a computational result. The computational results are retrieved by means of quantum interferometry. Numerical tests are implemented in the vibrational states of the B state of I2 employing controlled-NOT gate, and 2 and 3 qubits Fourier transforms. All the steps involved in the computational scheme, i.e., the initial preparation, gate operation, and detection steps, are achieved with extremely high precision.

Scalable multiparticle entanglement of trapped ions

The generation, manipulation and fundamental understanding of entanglement lies at the very heart of quantum mechanics. Entangled particles are non-interacting but are described by a common wavefunction; consequently, individual particles are not independent of each other and their quantum properties are inextricably interwoven. The intriguing features of entanglement become particularly evident if the particles can be individually controlled and physically separated. However, both the experimental realization and characterization of entanglement become exceedingly difficult for systems with many particles. The main difficulty is to manipulate and detect the quantum state of individual particles as well as to control the interaction between them. So far, entanglement of four ions or five photons has been demonstrated experimentally. The creation of scalable multiparticle entanglement demands a non-exponential scaling of resources with particle number. Among the various kinds of entangled states, the 'W state' plays an important role as its entanglement is maximally persistent and robust even under particle loss. Such states are central as a resource in quantum information processing and multiparty quantum communication. Here we report the scalable and deterministic generation of four-, five-, six-, seven- and eight-particle entangled states of the W type with trapped ions. We obtain the maximum possible information on these states by performing full characterization via state tomography, using individual control and detection of the ions. A detailed analysis proves that the entanglement is genuine. The availability of such multiparticle entangled states, together with full information in the form of their density matrices, creates a test-bed for theoretical studies of multiparticle entanglement. Independently, 'Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger' entangled states with up to six ions have been created and analysed in Boulder.

Sequential generation of entangled multiqubit states

We consider the deterministic generation of entangled multiqubit states by the sequential coupling of an ancillary system to initially uncorrelated qubits. We characterize all achievable states in terms of classes of matrix-product states and give a recipe for the generation on demand of any multiqubit state. The proposed methods are suitable for any sequential generation scheme, though we focus on streams of single-photon time-bin qubits emitted by an atom coupled to an optical cavity. We show, in particular, how to generate familiar quantum information states such as W, Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger, and cluster states within such a framework.

Bose-Einstein condensation and strong-correlation behavior of phonons in ion traps

We show that the dynamics of phonons in a set of trapped ions interacting with lasers is described by a Bose-Hubbard model whose parameters can be externally adjusted. We investigate the possibility of observing several quantum many-body phenomena, including Bose-Einstein condensation as well as a superfluid-Mott insulator quantum phase transition.

Scaling ion trap quantum computation through fast quantum gates

We propose a method to achieve scalable quantum computation based on fast quantum gates on an array of trapped ions, without the requirement of ion shuttling. Conditional quantum gates are obtained for any neighboring ions through spin-dependent acceleration of the ions from periodic photon kicks. The gates are shown to be robust to influence all the other ions in the array and insensitive to the ions' temperature.

Scaling of decoherence in wide NMR quantum registers

Among the most important parameters for the usefulness of quantum computers are the size of the quantum register and the decoherence time for the quantum information. The decoherence time is expected to get shorter with the number of correlated qubits, but experimental data are only available for small numbers of qubits. Solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance allows one to correlate large numbers of qubits (several hundred) and measure their decoherence rates. We use a modified magnetic dipole-dipole interaction to correlate the proton spins in a solid sample and observe the decay of the resulting highly correlated states. By systematically varying the number of correlated spins, we measure the increase of the decoherence rate with the size of the quantum register.