Mainz 1997 – scientific programme

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Q: Quantenoptik

Q VI: HV VI

Q VI.1: Invited Talk

Thursday, March 6, 1997, 11:00–11:45, N 1

Trapped Ions, Schrödinger’s cat, and Quantum Logic — •D. J. Wineland — NIST, Boulder, CO

With the current interest in generation of entangled states and quantum computation, several ideas for practical implementation of quantum logic operations are being investigated. A scheme suggested by Cirac and Zoller (Innsbruck) uses trapped atomic ions as "qubits." Quantum logic operations between qubits can be accomplished by coupling the ions’ internal states through their (shared) motional degrees of freedom. A fundamental quantum logic gate has been realized along these lines at NIST. Scaling of this system to a size useful for computation will need to overcome the effects of decoherence; this issue is closely related to the survival of "Schrödinger cats."