A counterfactual Rydberg gate for photons

Abstract

Quantum computation with photons requires efficient two photon gates. We put forward a two photon entangling gate which uses an intermediate atomic system. The system includes a single Rydberg atom which can switch on and off photon absorption in an ensemble using the dipole blockade. The gate is based in a counterfactual protocol. The mere possibility of an absorption that can only occur with a vanishing probability steers the photons to the desired final state.