Towards deterministic optical quantum computation with coherently driven atomic ensembles

Electromagnetically induced transparency of interacting Rydberg atoms with two-body dephasing

We study electromagnetically induced transparency in a three-level ladder type configuration in ultracold atomic gases, where the upper level is an electronically highly excited Rydberg state. An effective distance dependent two-body dephasing can be induced in a regime where dipole-dipoles interaction couple nearly degenerate Rydberg pair states. We show that strong two-body dephasing can enhance the excitation blockade of neighboring Rydberg atoms. Due to the dissipative blockade, transmission of the probe light is reduced drastically by the two-body dephasing in the transparent window. The reduction of transmission is accompanied by a strong photon-photon anti-bunching. Around the Autler-Townes doublets, the photon bunching is amplified by the two-body dephasing, while transmission is largely unaffected. Besides relevant to the ongoing Rydberg atom studies, our study moreover provides a setting to explore and understand two-body dephasing dynamics in many-body systems.

Waveguide-QED-based photonic quantum computation

We propose a new scheme for quantum computation using flying qubits--propagating photons in a one-dimensional waveguide interacting with matter qubits. Photon-photon interactions are mediated by the coupling to a four-level system, based on which photon-photon π-phase gates (CONTROLLED-NOT) can be implemented for universal quantum computation. We show that high gate fidelity is possible, given recent dramatic experimental progress in superconducting circuits and photonic-crystal waveguides. The proposed system can be an important building block for future on-chip quantum networks.

Strongly interacting photons in asymmetric quantum well via resonant tunneling

We propose an asymmetric quantum well structure to realize strong interaction between two slow optical pulses. The essential idea is the combination of the advantages of inverted-Y type scheme and resonant tunneling. We analytically demonstrate that giant cross-Kerr nonlinearity can be achieved with vanishing absorptions. Owing to resonant tunneling, the contributions of the probe and signal cross-Kerr nonlinearities to total nonlinear phase shift vary from destructive to constrictive, leading to nonlinear phase shift on order of π at low light level. In this structure, the scheme is inherent symmetric for the probe and signal pulses. Consequently, the condition of group velocity matching can be fulfilled with appropriate initial electron distribution.

Ultralow-power four-wave mixing with Rb in a hollow-core photonic band-gap fiber

We demonstrate extremely efficient four-wave mixing with gains greater than 100 at microwatt pump powers and signal-to-idler conversion of 50% in Rb vapor confined to a hollow-core photonic band-gap fiber. We present a theoretical model that demonstrates such efficiency is consistent with the dimensions of the fiber and the optical depths attained. This is, to our knowledge, the largest four-wave mixing gain observed at such low total pump powers and the first demonstrated example of four-wave mixing in an alkali-metal vapor system with a large (approximately 30 MHz) ground state decoherence rate.

Quantum information processing with single photons and atomic ensembles in microwave coplanar waveguide resonators

We show that pairs of atoms optically excited to the Rydberg states can strongly interact with each other via effective long-range dipole-dipole or van der Waals interactions mediated by their nonresonant coupling to a common microwave field mode of a superconducting coplanar waveguide cavity. These cavity mediated interactions can be employed to generate single photons and to realize in a scalable configuration a universal phase gate between pairs of single photon pulses propagating or stored in atomic ensembles in the regime of electromagnetically induced transparency.

Quantum feedback control for deterministic entangled photon generation

We present quantum feedback control for deterministic entanglement generation at the single-photon level. The protocol of controlling both total photon number and phase difference is based on the cascade structure of cavities placed in an optical closed loop, quantum nondemolition measurement with cross-Kerr interactions, and Lyapunov stability for feedback design.