Preparing high purity initial states for nuclear magnetic resonance quantum computing

Here we demonstrate how para-hydrogen can be used to prepare a two-spin system in an almost pure state which is suitable for implementing nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) quantum computation. A 12ns laser pulse is used to initiate a chemical reaction involving pure para-hydrogn (the nuclear spin singlet of H2). The product, formed on the microsecond timescale, contains a hydrogen derived two-spin system with an effective spin-state purity of 0.916. To achieve a comparable result by direct cooling would require an unmanageable (in the liquid state) effective spin temperature of 6.4mK or an impractical magnetic field of 0.45MT at room temperature. The resulting spin state has an entanglement of formation of 0.822 and cannot be described by local hidden variable models.
Comment: 4 pages including 2 figures. Changes from v.3 at request of referees. Now in press at Physical Review Letters