Due to their rich level structure, molecules are well-suited for probing time variation of fundamental constants, precisely measuring parity violation and time-reversal non-invariance effects, studying quantum mechanical aspects of chemical reactions
, and implementing scalable quantum information processing architectures. Molecular ions are particularly attractive for these applications due to their long storage times and the near-perfect isolation from environment that result in long coherence times required to achieve high measurement precision and reduce systematic errors. However, the control of molecular quantum states remains a challenge. Based on quantum logic techniques, we propose a scheme for preparation, manipulation, and detection of quantum states of single molecular ions. The scheme relies on coherent coupling between internal and motional degrees of freedom of the molecular ion via a frequency comb laser field, while detection and cooling of the motion of ions is done via a co-trapped atomic ion.
We demonstrate the use of an optical frequency comb to coherently control and entangle atomic qubits. A train of off-resonant ultrafast laser pulses is used to efficiently and coherently transfer population between electronic and vibrational states o
f trapped atomic ions and implement an entangling quantum logic gate with high fidelity. This technique can be extended to the high field regime where operations can be performed faster than the trap frequency. This general approach can be applied to more complex quantum systems, such as large collections of interacting atoms or molecules.
Quantum teleportation is the faithful transfer of quantum states between systems, relying on the prior establishment of entanglement and using only classical communication during the transmission. We report teleportation of quantum information betwee
n atomic quantum memories separated by about 1 meter. A quantum bit stored in a single trapped ytterbium ion (Yb+) is teleported to a second Yb+ atom with an average fidelity of 90% over a replete set of states. The teleportation protocol is based on the heralded entanglement of the atoms through interference and detection of photons emitted from each atom and guided through optical fibers. This scheme may be used for scalable quantum computation and quantum communication.
Trapped atomic ions have proven to be one of the most promising candidates for the realization of quantum computation due to their long trapping times, excellent coherence properties, and exquisite control of the internal atomic states. Integrating i
ons (quantum memory) with photons (distance link) offers a unique path to large-scale quantum computation and long-distance quantum communication. In this article, we present a detailed review of the experimental implementation of a heralded photon-mediated quantum gate between remote ions, and the employment of this gate to perform a teleportation protocol between two ions separated by a distance of about one meter.
We present a precise measurement of the lifetime of the 6p 2P_1/2 excited state of a single trapped ytterbium ion (Yb+). A time-correlated single-photon counting technique is used, where ultrafast pulses excite the ion and the emitted photons are cou
pled into a single-mode optical fiber. By performing the measurement on a single atom with fast excitation and excellent spatial filtering, we are able to eliminate common systematics. The lifetime of the 6p 2P_1/2 state is measured to be 8.12 +/- 0.02 ns.
We observe violation of a Bell inequality between the quantum states of two remote Yb ions separated by a distance of about one meter with the detection loophole closed. The heralded entanglement of two ions is established via interference and joint
detection of two emitted photons, whose polarization is entangled with each ion. The entanglement of remote qubits is also characterized by full quantum state tomography.
