Erlangen 2018 – scientific programme

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A: Fachverband Atomphysik

A 4: Ultracold Plasmas and Rydberg Systems I (joint session Q/A)

A 4.1: Group Report

Monday, March 5, 2018, 10:30–11:00, K 2.013

A Photon-Photon Quantum Gate Based on Rydberg Polaritons — •Steffen Schmidt-Eberle, Daniel Tiarks, Thomas Stolz, Stephan Dürr, and Gerhard Rempe — Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann-Str. 1, 85748 Garching

Rydberg polaritons offer a unique way to create strong interactions for photons. We utilize these interactions to demonstrate a photon-photon quantum gate. To achieve this, a photonic control qubit is stored in a quantum memory consisting of a superposition of a ground state and a Rydberg state in an ultracold atomic gas. This qubit interacts with a photonic target qubit in the form of a propagating Rydberg polariton to generate a conditional pi phase shift, as in Ref. [1]. Finally, the control photon is retrieved. We measure two controlled-NOT truth tables and the two-photon state after an entangling-gate operation. This work is an important step toward applications in optical quantum information processing, such as deterministic photonic Bell-state detection which is crucial for quantum repeaters.

D. Tiarks et al., Science Advances 2, 1600036 (2016).