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Beam splitters are indispensable elements in optical and photonic systems, and are therefore employed in both classical and quantum technologies. Depending on the intended application, these devices can divide incident light according to its power, polarization state, or wavelength. In this work, we theoretically present a novel type of beam splitter capable of separating a light beam into its two-mode bright and dark components. We propose a prototype based on an optical cross-cavity system resonantly coupled to a $\Lambda$-type three-level atom. The dark component of the incoming light is transmitted because the antisymmetric collective mode of the cavity setup is decoupled from the atom. Meanwhile, in a high-cooperativity regime, the bright component is reflected due to Autler-Townes splitting, which arises from the strong coupling between the atom and the symmetric collective mode of the cavity setup. Although the device requires only a two-level atom to operate, using a three-level atom allows the device to be turned on or off by controlling the atomic ground state. Our results pave the way for new applications of beam splitters that leverage the collective properties of light. Manipulating and exploiting this additional degree of freedom can advance the field of quantum optics and contribute to the development of quantum technologies., Comment: 5 + 7 pages, 2 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2308.14881

Interference underpins some of the most practical and impactful properties of both the classical and quantum worlds. In this work we experimentally investigate a new formalism to describe interference effects, based on collective states which have enhanced or suppressed coupling to a two-level system. We employ a single trapped ion, whose electronic state is coupled to two of the ion's motional modes in order to simulate a multi-mode light-matter interaction. We observe the emergence of phononic bright and dark states for both a single phonon and a superposition of coherent states and demonstrate that a view of interference which is based solely on their decomposition in the collective basis is able to intuitively describe their coupling to a single atom. This work also marks the first time that multi-mode bright and dark states have been formed with the bounded motion of a single trapped ion and we highlight the potential of the methods discussed here for use in quantum information processing., Comment: 7 + 5 pages, 6 + 4 figures

Two-photon interference is an indispensable resource in quantum photonics, but it is not straightforward to achieve. The cascaded generation of photon pairs contains intrinsic temporal correlations that negatively affect the ability of such sources to perform two-photon interference, thus hindering applications. We report on how such correlation interplays with decoherence and temporal postselection, and under which conditions temporal postselection could improve two-photon interference visibility. Our study identifies crucial parameters and points the way to a source with optimal performance.

Quantum gates are the building blocks of quantum circuits, which in turn are the cornerstones of quantum information processing. In this work, we theoretically investigate a single-step implementation of both a universal two- (CNOT) and three-qubit (quantum Fredkin) gates in a cross-cavity setup coupled to a $\Lambda$-type three-level atom. Within a high-cooperativity regime, the system exhibits an atomic-state-dependent $\pi$-phase gate involving the two-mode single-photon bright and dark states of the input light pulses. This allows for the controlled manipulation of light states by the atom and vice versa. Our results indicate these quantum gates can be implemented with high probability of success using the state-of-the-art parameters, either for the weak- or strong-coupling regime, where the quantum interference is due to an electromagnetically-induced-transparency-like phenomenon and the Autler-Townes splitting, respectively. This work not only paves the way for implementing quantum gates in a single step using simple resources, thus avoiding the need to chain basic gates together in a circuit, but it also endorses the potential of cross-cavity systems for realizing universal quantum computation., Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures; close to the published version

Many quantum algorithms demand a large number of repetitions to obtain reliable statistical results. Thus, at each repetition it is necessary to reset the qubits efficiently and precisely in the shortest possible time, so that quantum computers actually have advantages over classical ones. In this work, we perform a detailed analysis on three different models for information resetting in superconducting qubits. Our experimental setup consists of a main qubit coupled to different auxiliary dissipative systems, that are employed in order to perform the erasing of the information of the main qubit. Our analysis shows that it is not enough to increase the coupling and the dissipation rate associated with the auxiliary systems to decrease the resetting time of the main qubit, a fact that motivates us to find the optimal set of parameters for each studied approach, allowing a significant decrease in the reset time of the three models analyzed.

In this paper we describe one of the most promising platforms for the construction of a universal quantum computer, which consists of a chain of $N$ ions trapped in a harmonic potential, whose internal states work out as qubits, and are coupled to collective vibrational modes of the chain. From such coupling, it is possible to build interactions between different ions of the chain, that is, qubit-qubit interactions that, together with individual operations on the ions, allow building a quantum computer as first proposed by Cirac and Zoller in the 1990s [Phys. Rev. Lett. 74, 4091 (1995)]. Here we discuss from the physics involved in trapping ions in electromagnetic potentials to the Hamiltonian engineering needed to generate a universal set of logic gates, fundamental for the execution of more complex quantum algorithms. Finally, we present the current state of the art of quantum computing in trapped ion systems, highlighting recent advances made by companies and government projects that use such architecture, such as IonQ and AQTION., Comment: 18 pages, in Portuguese language, 8 figures

We propose a scheme to dissipatively produce steady-state entanglement in a two-qubit system, via an interaction with a bosonic mode. The system is driven into a stationary entangled state, while we compensate the mode dissipation by injecting energy via a coherent pump field. We also present a scheme which allows us to adiabatically transfer all the population to the desired entangled state. The dynamics leading to the entangled state in these schemes can be understood in analogy with electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP), respectively., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures

Recently J. M. Arrazola et al. [Phys. Rev. A 100, 032306 (2019)] proposed a quantum algorithm for solving nonhomogeneous linear partial differential equations of the form $A\psi(\textbf{r})=f(\textbf{r})$. Its nonhomogeneous solution is obtained by inverting the operator $A$ along with the preparation and measurement of special ancillary modes. In this work we suggest modifications in its structure to reduce the costs of preparing the initial ancillary states and improve the precision of the algorithm for a specific set of inputs. These achievements enable easier experimental implementation of the quantum algorithm based on nowadays technology., Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures

Classical theory asserts that several electromagnetic waves cannot interact with matter if they interfere destructively to zero, whereas quantum mechanics predicts a nontrivial light-matter dynamics even when the average electric field vanishes. Here we show that in quantum optics classical interference emerges from collective bright and dark states of light, \textit{i.e.}, entangled superpositions of multi-mode photon-number states. This makes it possible to explain wave interference using the particle description of light and the superposition principle for linear systems., Comment: 5 pages, 1 figures

Considering the paradigmatic case of a cloud of two-level atoms interacting through common vacuum modes, we show how cooperative spontaneous emission, which is at the origin of superradiance, leads the system to long-lived entangled states at late times. These subradiant modes are characterized by an entanglement between all particles, independently of their geometrical configuration. While there is no threshold on the interaction strength necessary to entangle all particles, stronger interactions lead to longer-lived entanglement., Comment: 6 pages and 4 figures + Supplemental Material

Quantum information processing has been one of the pillars of the new information age. In this sense, the control and processing of quantum information plays a fundamental role, and computers capable of manipulating such information have become a reality. In this article we didactically present basic elements of the latest version of IBM's quantum computer and its main tools. We also present in detail the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm used to differentiate constant functions from balanced functions, also, including a discussion of its efficiency against classical algorithms for the same task. The experimental implementation of the algorithm in a 4-qbit system is presented. Our article paves the way for a series of didactic investigations into the IBM system as well as the best known quantum algorithms., Comment: in Portuguese

In this work, we are interested in the detailed analysis of complexity aspects of both time and space that arises from the implementation of a quantum algorithm on a quantum based hardware. In particular, some steps of the implementation, as state preparation and readout processes, in most of the cases can surpass the complexity aspects of the algorithm itself. We present the complexity involved in the full implementation of quantum algorithms for solving linear systems of equations and linear system of differential equations, from state preparation to the number of measurements needed to obtain good statistics from the final states of the quantum system, in order to assess the overall complexity of the processes., Comment: Some reviews in the main text have been made since the first version. 11 pages, 2 figures, 1 table. Comments are welcome

We investigate superpositions of two-mode squeezed states (TMSSs), which have potential applications to quantum information processing and quantum sensing. Firstly we study some properties of these nonclassical states such as the statistics of each mode and the degree of entanglement between the two modes, which can be higher than that of a TMSS with the same degree of squeezing. The states we consider can be prepared by inducing two-mode Jaynes-Cummings and anti-Jaynes-Cummings interactions in a system of two modes and a spin-$\tfrac{1}{2}$ particle, for instance in the trapped ion domain, as described here. We show that when two harmonic oscillators are prepared in a superposition of two TMSSs, each reduced single-mode state can be advantageously employed to sense arbitrary displacements of the mode in phase space. The Wigner function of this reduced state exhibits a symmetrical peak centered at the phase-space origin, which has the convenient peculiarity of getting narrower in both quadratures simultaneously as the average photon number increases. This narrow peakcan be used as the pointer of our quantum sensor, with its position in phase space indicating the displacement undergone by the oscillator., Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures

We propose a variational principle to compute a quantum adiabatic brachistochrone (QAB) for open systems. Using the notion of "adiabatic speed" based on the energy gaps, we derive a Lagrangian associated to the functional measuring the time spent to achieve adiabatic behavior, which in turn allows us to perform the optimization. The QAB is illustrated for non-unitary dynamics of STIRAP process, the Deutsch-Jozsa quantum computing algorithm and of a transmon qutrit. A numerical protocol is devised, which allows to compute the QAB for arbitrary quantum systems for which exact simulations can be afforded. We also establish sufficient conditions for the equivalence between the Lagrangians, and thus the QAB, of open and closed systems., Comment: 7 pages (with Appendix) and 3 figures (with sub-figures)

Abstract Reservoir engineering is an important tool for quantum information science and quantum thermodynamics since it allows for preparing and/or protecting special quantum states of single or multipartite systems or to investigate fundamental questions of the thermodynamics as quantum thermal machines and their efficiencies. Here we employ this technique to engineer reservoirs with arbitrary (effective) negative and positive temperatures for a single spin system. To this end, we firstly engineer an appropriate interaction between a qubit system, a carbon nuclear spin, to a fermionic reservoir, in our case a large number of hydrogen nuclear spins that acts as the spins bath. This carbon-hydrogen structure is present in a polycrystalline adamantane, which was used in our experimental setup. The required interaction engineering is achieved by applying a specific sequence of radio-frequency pulses using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), while the temperature of the bath can be controlled by appropriate preparation of the initial hydrogen nuclear spin state, being the predicted results in very good agreement with the experimental data. As an application we implemented a single qubit quantum thermal machine which operates at a single reservoir at effective negative temperature whose efficiency is always 100%, independent of the unitary transformation performed on the qubit system, as long as it changes the qubit state., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures

Abstract We perform an experiment in which a quantum heat engine works under two reservoirs, one at a positive spin temperature and the other at an effective negative spin temperature i.e., when the spin system presents population inversion. We show that the efficiency of this engine can be greater than that when both reservoirs are at positive temperatures. We also demonstrate the counter-intuitive result that the Otto efficiency can be beaten only when the quantum engine is operating in the finite-time mode., Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, Accepted in Physical Review Letters

The multiphoton Jaynes-Cummings model is investigated and applications in quantum information science are explored. Considering the strong atom-field coupling regime and an $N$-photon interaction, a nonlinear driving field can perform an arbitrary rotation in the Fock space of the cavity mode involving the vacuum and an $M$-Fock state, with $M

We theoretically investigate the generation of heralded entanglement between two identical atoms via cavity-assisted photon scattering in two different configurations, namely either both atoms confined in the same cavity or trapped into locally separated ones. Our protocols are given by a very simple and elegant single-step process, whose key mechanism is a controlled-phase-flip gate implemented by impinging a single photon on single-sided cavities. In particular, when the atoms are localized in remote cavities, we introduce a single-step parallel quantum circuit instead of the serial process extensively adopted in the literature. We also show that such parallel circuit can be straightforwardly applied to entangle two macroscopic clouds of atoms. Both protocols proposed here predict a high entanglement degree with a success probability close to the unity for the state-of-the-art parameters. Among other applications, our proposal and its extension to multiple atom-cavity systems step toward a suitable route for quantum networking, in particular for quantum state transfer, quantum teleportation and nonlocal quantum memory., Comment: 10 pages , 5 figures

We investigate the optical properties of a two-level system (TLS) coupled to a linear series of $N$ other TLS's with dipole-dipole coupling between the first neighbours. The first TLS is probed by weak field and we assume that it has a decay rate much stronger than the decay rates of the other TLS's. For N=1 and in the limit of a probe field much weaker than the dipole-dipole coupling, the optical response of the first TLS, i.e., its absorption and dispersion, are equivalent to those of a three-level atomic system in the configuration which allow one to observe electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) phenomenon. Thus, here we are investigating a new kind of induced transparency where the dipole-dipole coupling plays the same role of the control field in EIT in three-level atoms. We describe this physical phenomenon, here named as Dipole-Dipole Induced Transparency (DDIT), and investigate how it scales with the number of coupled TLS's. In particular we have shown that the number of TLS's coupled to the main one is exactly equals to the number of transparency windows. The ideas presented here are very general and can be implemented in different physical systems such as array of superconducting qubits, array of quantum dots, spin chains, optical lattices, etc., Comment: 14 pages including the supplementary material and 5 figures

The quantum Rabi model is in the scientific spotlight due to the recent theoretical and experimental progress. Nevertheless, a full-fledged classification of its coupling regimes remains as a relevant open question. We propose a spectral classification dividing the coupling regimes into three regions based on the validity of perturbative criteria on the quantum Rabi model, which allows us the use of exactly solvable effective Hamiltonians. These coupling regimes are i) the perturbative ultrastrong coupling regime which comprises the Jaynes-Cummings model, ii) a region where non-perturbative ultrastrong and non-perturbative deep strong coupling regimes coexist, and iii) the perturbative deep strong coupling regime. We show that this spectral classification depends not only on the ratio between the coupling strength and the natural frequencies of the unperturbed parts, but also on the energy to which the system can access. These regimes additionally discriminate the completely different behaviors of several static physical properties, namely the total number of excitations, the photon statistics of the field, and the cavity-qubit entanglement. Finally, we explain the dynamical properties which are traditionally associated to the deep strong coupling regime, such as the collapses and revivals of the state population, in the frame of the proposed spectral classification.

We theoretically investigate the implementation of a quantum phase gate in a system constituted by a single atom inside an optical cavity, based on the electromagnetically induced transparency effect. Firstly we show that a probe pulse can experience a $\pi$ phase shift due to the presence or absence of a classical control field. Considering the interplay of the cavity-EIT effect and the quantum memory process, we demonstrated a controlled phase gate between two single photons. To this end, firstly one needs to store a (control) photon in the ground atomic states. In the following, a second (target) photon must impinge on the atom-cavity system. Depending on the atomic state, this second photon will be either transmitted or reflected, acquiring different phase shifts. This protocol can then be easily extended to multiphoton systems, i.e., keeping the control photon stored, it may induce phase shifts in several single photons, thus enabling the generation of multipartite entangled states. We explore the relevant parameter space in the atom-cavity system that allows the implementation of quantum phase gates using the recent technologies. In particular we have found a lower bound for the cooperativity of the atom-cavity system which enables the implementation of phase shift on single photons. The induced shift on the phase of a photonic qubit and the controlled phase gate between single photons, combined with optical devices, enable to perform universal quantum computation.

We theoretically studied the implementation of a quantum memory and an optical transistor in a system composed by a single atom trapped inside a high finesse cavity. In order to store and map the quantum state of an input pulse onto internal states of the single atom (quantum memory) we employ the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) phenomenon (which can work out as an optical transistor) where the information can be transferred to the dark state of the atom modelled by a three-level system in a {\Lambda}-type configuration. In our model we consider a suitable temporal shape for the control field that ensures the adiabaticity of the storage process and retrieval of the probe pulse. The dynamic of the field inside the cavity was obtained by master equation approach, while the outside field was calculated by input-output formalism. We have analysed two different setups: i) two-sided and ii) single-sided cavities. While the first setup is the most appropriate and commonly used to observe cavity-EIT in the transmission spectrum, thus the best configuration for the optical transistor, the maximum quantum memory efficiency can not reach reasonable values, being limited to 50% for symmetric cavities. On the other hand, with single-sided cavity the quantum memory efficiency increases considerably and can reach values close to 100% in the strong atom-field coupling regime. However this specific setup is not favourable to observe the cavity-EIT effect in the transmission spectrum and then it is not appropriate to control the transmission of light pulses., Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures

Localization effects and quantum decoherence driven by the mass-eigenstate wave packet propagation are shown to support a statistical correlation between quantum entanglement and damped oscillations in the scenario of three-flavor quantum mixing for neutrinos. Once the mass-eigenstates that support flavor oscillations are identified as three-{\em qubit} modes, a decoherence scale can be extracted from correlation quantifiers, namely the entanglement of formation and the logarithmic negativity. Such a decoherence scale is compared with the coherence length of damped oscillations. Damping signatures exhibited by flavor transition probabilities as an effective averaging of the oscillating terms are then explained as owing to loss of entanglement between mass modes involved in the relativistic propagation., Comment: 13 pages, 03 figures

Optical nonlinearities offer unique possibilities for the control of light with light. A prominent example is electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) where the transmission of a probe beam through an optically dense medium is manipulated by means of a control beam. Scaling such experiments into the quantum domain with one, or just a few particles of both light and matter will allow for the implementation of quantum computing protocols with atoms and photons or the realisation of strongly interacting photon gases exhibiting quantum phase transitions of light. Reaching these aims is challenging and requires an enhanced matter-light interaction as provided by cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED). Here we demonstrate EIT with a single atom quasi-permanently trapped inside a high-finesse optical cavity. The atom acts as a quantum-optical transistor with the ability to coherently control the transmission of light through the cavity. We furthermore investigate the scaling of EIT when the atom number is increased one by one. The measured spectra are in excellent agreement with a theoretical model. Merging EIT with cavity QED and single quanta of matter is likely to become the cornerstone for novel applications, e.g. the dynamic control of the photon statistics of propagating light fields or the engineering of Fock-state superpositions of flying light pulses., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures