Macroscopic Single-Qubit Operation for Coherent Photons

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Saito, Shinichi
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866909217754972160
author Saito, Shinichi
author_facet Saito, Shinichi
contents Polarisation is described by an $SU(2)$ wavefunction due to macroscopic coherence of photons emitted from a ubiquitous laser source, and thus, a laser pulse is expected to behave as a macroscopic quantum bit (qubit), i.e., a qubit realised by a macroscopic number of photons. Here, we show that an arbitrary single-qubit operation can be carried out for such a macroscopic qubit by employing optical modulators, together with standard optical plates, in a computer-controlled fibre-optic configuration. We named the device as a Poincaré rotator, which allows a dynamic control over a polarisation state by executing an arbitrary amount of rotations on the Poincaré sphere. The Poincaré rotator works as an arbitrary $SU(2)$ operator in a Lie group, by combining a $U(1)$ operation to change the phase and another $U(1)$ operation to change the amplitude of the wavefunction. We have realised various polarisation states, such as $4 \times 4=16$, $8 \times 8=64$, and $10 \times 10=100$ distinguishable states on the sphere. As a locus of the realised polarisation states on the sphere, we have successfully drawn the molecular structure of Buckminsterfullerene (C$_{60}$) and the coastline of the earth.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2304_00013
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Macroscopic Single-Qubit Operation for Coherent Photons
Saito, Shinichi
Optics
Quantum Physics
Polarisation is described by an $SU(2)$ wavefunction due to macroscopic coherence of photons emitted from a ubiquitous laser source, and thus, a laser pulse is expected to behave as a macroscopic quantum bit (qubit), i.e., a qubit realised by a macroscopic number of photons. Here, we show that an arbitrary single-qubit operation can be carried out for such a macroscopic qubit by employing optical modulators, together with standard optical plates, in a computer-controlled fibre-optic configuration. We named the device as a Poincaré rotator, which allows a dynamic control over a polarisation state by executing an arbitrary amount of rotations on the Poincaré sphere. The Poincaré rotator works as an arbitrary $SU(2)$ operator in a Lie group, by combining a $U(1)$ operation to change the phase and another $U(1)$ operation to change the amplitude of the wavefunction. We have realised various polarisation states, such as $4 \times 4=16$, $8 \times 8=64$, and $10 \times 10=100$ distinguishable states on the sphere. As a locus of the realised polarisation states on the sphere, we have successfully drawn the molecular structure of Buckminsterfullerene (C$_{60}$) and the coastline of the earth.
title Macroscopic Single-Qubit Operation for Coherent Photons
topic Optics
Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.00013