CAREER: Quantum State Preparation via Continuous Measurement and Feedback

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An important goal of quantum information science is to understand the process of continuous quantum measurement and real-time feedback control of quantum systems. This CAREER project has the goal of experimentally implementing important tests of quantum measurement theory. In the project supported by this grant a cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) feedback control experiment to generate deterministic photon number states of a high-finesse cavity mode will be conducted. Continuous nondemolition measurement of cavity photon number will be achieved and quantum state reduction to a conditional photon number state will be observed in real-time. Quantum feedback techniques will then be employed to stabilize the continuous measurement to a deterministic eigenstate. This demonstration of deterministic state reduction will signify a dramatic advance in our ability to prepare quantum states for communication, metrology and computation. Most notably: a single measurement procedure will be capable of generating different predetermined photon numbers, without engineering an exact number of intra-cavity excitations. Studying the foundations of quantum measurement and control will provide essential experimental validation of a canonical class of state-preparation techniques applicable to quantum information science. Complete continuous observation of quantum state reduction is expected to provide new insights into decoherence, non-unitary quantum dynamics and the measurement problem. The experiment will contribute to our understanding of measurement and feedback in open quantum systems.The educational development aspects of the proposed career plan are focused on three important tasks: (1) Discovery and education will be explicitly integrated in the research program by incorporating state-of-the-art techniques in experimental quantum information science into undergraduate. (2) Respond to the situation at the University of New Mexico, where the vast majority of students live off campus and around half of the students are commuters by creating a virtual conference room with a course blog and video chat that will allow students to have the kind of communication that on-campus students enjoy when working on physics assignments. (3) Participation in the Science Education Institute of the Southwest (SEIS) to advance science education and learning in . SEIS is a collaborative effort between Sandia National Laboratories, the University of New Mexico, and the Albuquerque Public Schools to enhance education in schools ranging from the Albuquerque outskirts to small New Mexico pueblos.