R. L. de Matos Filho

We propose a quantum computer architecture involving substitutional donors in photonic-crystal silicon cavities and the optical initialization, manipulation, and detection processes already demonstrated in ion traps and other atomic systems. Our scheme considerably simplifies the implementation of the building blocks for the successful operation of silicon-based solid-state quantum computers, including positioning of the donors, realization of one- and two-qubit gates, initialization and readout of the qubits. Detailed consideration of the processes involved, using state-of-the-art values for the relevant parameters, indicates that this architecture might lead to errors per gate compatible with scalable quantum computation.

We present a protocol that allows us to obtain the concurrence of any two qubit pure state by performing a minimal and optimal tomography of one of the subsystems through measuring a single observable of an ancillary four dimensional qudit. An implementation for a system of trapped ions is also proposed, which can be achieved with present day experimental techniques.

Sub-Planck phase-space structures in the Wigner function of the motional degree of freedom of a trapped ion can be used to perform weak force measurements with Heisenberg-limited sensitivity. We propose methods to engineer the Hamiltonian of the trapped ion to generate states with such small scale structures, and we show how to use them in quantum metrology applications.

We discuss the roles of the macroscopic limit and of different system-environment interactions in the quantum-classical transition for a chaotic system. We consider the kicked harmonic oscillator subject to reservoirs that correspond in the classical case to purely dissipative or purely diffusive behavior, in a situation that can be implemented in ion trap experiments. In the dissipative case, we derive an expression for the time at which quantum and classical predictions become different (breaking time) and show that a complete quantum-classical correspondence is not possible in the chaotic regime. For the diffusive environment we estimate the minimum value of the diffusion coefficient necessary to retrieve the classical limit and also show numerical evidence that, for diffusion below this threshold, the breaking time behaves, essentially, as in the case of the system without a reservoir.

We consider a resonant bichromatic excitation of N trapped ions that generates displacement and squeezing in their collective motion conditioned to their ionic internal state, producing eventually Scrhodinger cat states and entangled squeezing. Furthermore, we study the case of tetrachromatic illumination or producing the so called entangled coherent states in two motional normal modes.

We propose a scalable procedure to generate entangled superpositions of motional coherent states and electronic states in N trapped ions. Beyond their fundamental importance, these states may be of interest for quantum information processing and may be used in experimental studies of decoherence.

We present a proposal for protecting states against decoherence, based on the engineering of pointer states. We apply this procedure to the vibrational motion of a trapped ion, and show how to protect qubits, squeezed states, approximate phase eigenstates and superpositions of coherent states.

We present a selective vibronic interaction for manipulating motional states in two trapped ions, acting resonantly on a previously chosen vibronic subspace and dispersively on all others. This is done respecting technical limitations on ionic laser individual addressing. We discuss the generation of Fock states and entanglement in the ionic collective motional degrees of freedom, among other applications.

We study a method for the implementation of a reliable teleportation protocol (theoretically, 100% of success) of internal states in trapped ions. The generation of the quantum channel (any of four Bell states) may be done respecting technical limitations on individual addressing and without claiming the Lamb-Dicke regime. An adequate Bell analyzer, that transforms unitarily the Bell basis into a completely disentangled one, is considered. Probable sources of error and fidelity estimations of the teleportation process are studied. Finally, we discuss experimental issues, proposing a scenario in which the present scheme could be implemented.

We present a method for the deterministic generation of all the electronic Bell states of two trapped ions. It involves the combination of a purely dispersive with a resonant laser excitation of vibronic transitions of the ions. In contrast to other methods presented up to now, our proposal does not require differential laser addressing of the individual ions and may be easily implemented with present available techniques. It is further shown that this excitation scheme is highly adequate for the complete determination of the motional state of the ions.