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We propose and experimentally demonstrate a scheme for implementation of a maximally entangling quantum controlled-Z gate between two weakly interacting systems. We conditionally enhance the interqubit coupling by quantum interference. Both before and after the interqubit interaction, one of the qubits is coherently coupled to an auxiliary quantum system, and finally it is projected back onto qubit subspace. We experimentally verify the practical feasibility of this technique by using a linear optical setup with weak interferometric coupling between single-photon qubits. Our procedure is universally applicable to a wide range of physical platforms including hybrid systems such as atomic clouds or optomechanical oscillators coupled to light., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, REVTeX4

We investigate optimal discrimination between two projective single-qubit measurements in a scenario where the measurement can be performed only once. We consider general setting involving a tunable fraction of inconclusive outcomes and we prove that the optimal discrimination strategy requires an entangled probe state for any nonzero rate of inconclusive outcomes. We experimentally implement this optimal discrimination strategy for projective measurements on polarization states of single photons. Our setup involves a real-time electrooptical feed-forward loop which allows us to fully harness the benefits of entanglement in discrimination of quantum measurements. The experimental data clearly demonstrate the advantage of entanglement-based discrimination strategy as compared to unentangled single-qubit probes., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures

A quantum analog of the fundamental classical NOT gate is a quantum gate that would transform any input qubit state onto an orthogonal state. Intriguingly, this universal NOT gate is forbidden by the laws of quantum physics. This striking phenomenon has far-reaching implications concerning quantum information processing and encoding information about directions and reference frames into quantum states. It also triggers the question under what conditions the preparation of quantum states orthogonal to input states becomes possible. Here we report on experimental demonstration of orthogonalization of partly unknown single- and two-qubit quantum states. A state orthogonal to an input state is conditionally prepared by quantum filtering, and the only required information about the input state is a mean value of a single arbitrary operator. We show that perfect orthogonalization of partly unknown two-qubit entangled states can be performed by applying the quantum filter to one of the qubits only., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, REVTeX4

We present a systematic comparison of different methods of fidelity estimation of a linear optical quantum controlled-Z gate implemented by two-photon interference on a partially polarizing beam splitter. We have utilized a linear fidelity estimator based on the Monte Carlo sampling technique as well as a non-linear estimator based on maximum likelihood reconstruction of a full quantum process matrix. In addition, we have also evaluated lower bound on quantum gate fidelity determined by average quantum state fidelities for two mutually unbiased bases. In order to probe various regimes of operation of the gate we have introduced a tunable delay line between the two photons. This allowed us to move from high-fidelity operation to a regime where the photons become distinguishable and the success probability of the scheme significantly depends on input state. We discuss in detail possible systematic effects that could influence the gate fidelity estimation., Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures REVTeX4

The optical implementation of the recently proposed unambiguous identification of coherent states is presented. Our system works as a programmable discriminator between two, in general non-orthogonal weak coherent states. The principle of operation lies in the interference of three light beams - two program states and one unknown coherent state which can be equal to whichever of the two program states. The experiment is based on fiber optics. Its results confirm theoretical predictions and the experimental setup can be straightforwardly extended for higher numbers of program states., Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures

We present a linear-optical implementation of a class of two-qubit partial SWAP gates for polarization states of photons. Different gate operations, including the SWAP and entangling square root of SWAP, can be obtained by changing a classical control parameter -- namely the path difference in the interferometer. Reconstruction of output states, full process tomography and evaluation of entanglement of formation prove very good performance of the gates., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, RevTeX4

We compare several optical implementations of phase-covariant cloning machines. The experiments are based on copying of the polarization state of a single photon in bulk optics by special unbalanced beam splitter or by balanced beam splitter accompanied by a state filtering. Also the all-fiber based setup is discussed, where the information is encoded into spatial modes, i.e., the photon can propagate through two optical fibers. Each of the four implementations possesses some advantages and disadvantages that are discussed., Comment: 8 pages, 11 figures

The experimental realization of optimal symmetric phase-covariant 1->2 cloning of qubit states is presented. The qubits are represented by polarization states of photons generated by spontaneous parametric down-conversion. The experiment is based on the interference of two photons on a custom-made beam splitter with different splitting ratios for vertical and horizontal polarization components. From the measured data we have estimated the implemented cloning transformation using the maximum-likelihood method. The result shows that the realized transformation is very close to the ideal one and the map fidelity reaches 94%., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, REVTeX4

If there are correlations between two qubits then the results of the measurement on one of them can help to predict measurement results on the other one. It is an interesting question what can be predicted about the results of two complementary projective measurements on the first qubit. To quantify these predictions the complementary \emph{knowledge excesses} are used. A non-trivial constraint restricting them is derived. For any mixed state and for arbitrary measurements the knowledge excesses are bounded by a factor depending only on the maximal violation of Bell's inequalities. This result is experimentally verified on two-photon Werner states prepared by means of spontaneous parametric down-conversion., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures

Scheme for optimal spin state estimation is considered in analogy with phase detection in interferometry. Recently reported coherent measurements yielding the average fidelity (N+1)/(N+2) for N particle system corresponds to the standard limit of phase resolution 1/\sqrt{N}. It provides the bound for incoherent measurements when each particle is detected separately and information is used optimally. For specific states, improvement up to the value 1/N is possible in quantum theory. The best results are obtained combining sequentially coherent measurements on fractional groups of particles., Comment: 5 pages

An experimental comparison of several operational phase concepts is presented. In particular, it is shown that statistically motivated evaluation of experimental data may lead to a significant improvement in phase fitting upon the conventional Noh, Fouge'res and Mandel procedure. The analysis is extended to the asymptotic limit of large intensities, where a strong evidence in favor of multi--dimensional estimation procedures has been found., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures