Optics Seminar

The ability to accurately create, manipulate andcharacterize quantum systems is essential for fundamental tests ofquantum physics and realization of emergent quantum-enhancedtechnologies. Optical quantum systems offer unique capabilities in theirlow decoherence rates at room temperature and relative ease of control,making them ideally suited as proving grounds of quantum applicationsand foundations. However, a key challenge is associated withphoton-photon interaction. Here I focus on our recent work toexperimentally realize generation, control and measurement ofnon-classical states of light and their effective interaction. Inparticular, emphasis is placed on generation of photon-number states andcoherent manipulation of quantum superpositions of photon-number states.Experimental probing of the implemented quantum operation is performedusing custom detection that shows the effective nonlinear interactioncan be achieved by multi-photon interference and projective measurement,but that the efficacy of this process is limited primarily by currentdetection techniques. Future directions of research associated withalternative measurements and resource states are discussed as potentialextensions of this work.