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Proposal for Inverting the Quantum Cloning of Photons

Sadegh Raeisi, Wolfgang Tittel, and Christoph Simon
Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 120404 – Published 22 March 2012
Physics logo See Synopsis: Send in the Clones

Abstract

We propose an experiment where a photon is first cloned by stimulated parametric down-conversion, making many (imperfect) copies, and then the cloning transformation is inverted, regenerating the original photon while destroying the copies. Focusing on the case where the initial photon is entangled with another photon, we study the conditions under which entanglement can be proven in the final state. The proposed experiment would provide a clear demonstration that quantum information is preserved in quantum cloning. It would furthermore allow a definitive experimental proof for micro-macro entanglement in the intermediate multiphoton state, which is still an outstanding challenge. Finally, it might provide a quantum detection technique for small differences in transmission (e.g., in biological samples), whose sensitivity scales better with the number of photons used than a classical transmission measurement.

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  • Received 30 November 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.120404

© 2012 American Physical Society

Synopsis

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Send in the Clones

Published 22 March 2012

Although perfect copies of a quantum state are prohibited, theory shows that recombining all imperfect clones recovers the original quantum state.

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Authors & Affiliations

Sadegh Raeisi1,2, Wolfgang Tittel1, and Christoph Simon1

  • 1Institute for Quantum Information Science and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Calgary, Calgary T2N 1N4, Alberta, Canada
  • 2Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada

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Issue

Vol. 108, Iss. 12 — 23 March 2012

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