We describe a technique for manipulating quantum information stored in collective states of mesoscopic ensembles. Quantum processing is accomplished by optical excitation into states with strong dipole-dipole interactions. The resulting ``dipole blockade can be used to inhibit transitions into all but singly excited collective states. This can be employed for a controlled generation of collective atomic spin states as well as non-classical photonic states and for scalable quantum logic gates. An example involving a cold Rydberg gas is analyzed.
We present schemes for geometric phase compensation in adiabatic passage which can be used for the implementation of quantum logic gates with atomic ensembles consisting of an arbitrary number of strongly interacting atoms. Protocols using double seq
uences of stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) or adiabatic rapid passage (ARP) pulses are analyzed. Switching the sign of the detuning between two STIRAP sequences, or inverting the phase between two ARP pulses, provides state transfer with well defined amplitude and phase independent of atom number in the Rydberg blockade regime. Using these pulse sequences we present protocols for universal single-qubit and two-qubit operations in atomic ensembles containing an unknown number of atoms.
We review methods for coherently controlling Rydberg quantum states of atomic ensembles using Adiabatic Rapid Passage and Stimulated Raman Adiabatic Passage. These methods are commonly used for population inversion in simple two-level and three-level
systems. We show that adiabatic techniques allow us to control population and phase dynamics of complex entangled states of mesoscopic atomic ensembles for quantum information processing with Rydberg atoms. We also propose several schemes of single-qubit and two-qubit gates based on adiabatic passage, Rydberg blockade and F{o}rster resonances in Rydberg atoms.
We study the collective radiation properties of cold, trapped ensembles of atoms. We consider the high density regime with the mean interatomic distance being comparable to, or smaller than, the wavelength of the resonant optical radiation emitted by
the atoms. We find that the emission rate of a photon from an excited atomic ensemble is strongly enhanced for an elongated cloud. We analyze collective single-excitation eigenstates of the atomic ensemble and find that the absorption/emission spectrum is broadened and shifted to lower frequencies as compared to the non-interacting (low density) or single atom spectrum. We also analyze the spatial and temporal profile of the emitted radiation. Finally, we explore how to efficiently excite the collective super-radiant states of the atomic ensemble from a long-lived storage state in order to implement matter-light interfaces for quantum computation and communication applications.
The dipole blockade phenomenon is a direct consequence of strong dipole-dipole interaction, where only single atom can be excited because the doubly excited state is shifted out of resonance. The corresponding two-body entanglement with non-zero conc
urrence induced by the dipole blockade effect is an important resource for quantum information processing. Here, we propose a novel physical mechanism for realizing dipole blockade without the dipole-dipole interaction, where two qubits coupled to a cavity, are driven by a coherent field. By suitably chosen placements of the qubits in the cavity and by adjusting the relative decay strengths of the qubits and cavity field, we kill many unwanted excitation pathways. This leads to dipole blockade. In addition, we show that these two qubits are strongly entangled over a broad regime of the system parameters. We show that a strong signature of this dipole blockade is the bunching property of the cavity photons which thus provides a possible measurement of the dipole blockade. We present dynamical features of the dipole blockade without dipole-dipole interaction. The proposal presented in this work can be realized not only in traditional cavity QED, but also in non-cavity topological photonics involving edge modes.
Quantum computing is an attractive and multidisciplinary field, which became a focus for experimental and theoretical research during last decade. Among other systems, like ions in traps or superconducting circuits, solid-states based qubits are cons
idered to be promising candidates for first experimental tests of quantum hardware. Here we report recent progress in quantum information processing with point defect in diamond. Qubits are defined as single spin states (electron or nuclear). This allows exploring long coherence time (up to seconds for nuclear spins at cryogenic temperatures). In addition, the optical transition between ground and excited electronic states allows coupling of spin degrees of freedom to the state of the electromagnetic field. Such coupling gives access to the spin state readout via spin-selective scattering of photon. This also allows using of spin state as robust memory for flying qubits (photons).