2017/02/28 by Roberto Stassi, Vincenzo Macrì, Vincenzo Macrí +5 · 6 citations
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Atom (system on chip) #Atomic physics #Computer science #Excited state #Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications #Neural Networks and Reservoir Computing #Nonlinear optics #Nonlinear system #Photon #Physics #Quantum #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum mechanics #Quantum optics #Qubit #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.96.023818
published as Phys. Rev. A 96, 023818 (2017)
openalex publication_date 2017/08/09 · arxiv created 2017/08/24 · arxiv updated 2017/08/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Spontaneous parametric down-conversion is a well-known process in quantum nonlinear optics in which a photon incident on a nonlinear crystal spontaneously splits into two photons. Here we propose an analogous physical process where one excited atom directly transfers its excitation to a pair of spatially separated atoms with probability approaching 1. The interaction is mediated by the exchange of virtual rather than real photons. This nonlinear atomic process is coherent and reversible, so the pair of excited atoms can transfer the excitation back to the first one: the atomic analog of sum-frequency generation of light. The parameters used to investigate this process correspond to experimentally demonstrated values in ultrastrong circuit quantum electrodynamics. This approach can be extended to realize other nonlinear interatomic processes, such as four-atom mixing, and is an attractive architecture for the realization of quantum devices on a chip. We show that four-qubit mixing can efficiently implement quantum repetition codes and, thus, can be used for error-correction codes.