Franson-type experiment realizes two-qubit quantum logic gate

Abstract

Quantum computers promise great improvements in solving problems such as factoring large integers, simulating quantum systems, and database searching. Using a photon as a quantum bit (qubit) is one of the most promising ways to realize a universal quantum computer because the coherent superposition state of a photon is very robust against various sources of decoherence. However, it is too difficult to realize two-qubit (photon) gates because it requires huge nonlinearity between photons. Here we show the realization of a controlled-NOT (CNOT) gate, the most important and elemental two-qubit gate for quantum computation, by extending our previous research. The heart of our experiment is the conditional measurement of two-photon coincidences in the Franson-type experiment[7]. The photon counting measurement plays the same role as the nonlinearity required for the two-qubit gate, and our system reproduces the truth table of the CNOT gate. Furthermore, we create an entangled state from the superposition state by our gate, which is clear evidence that our gate works as a quantum logic gate. Our results make it possible to manipulate the quantum state of photons including entanglement and represent significant progress in the operation of various algorithms in quantum computation.