University of Waterloo

About: University of Waterloo is a education organization based out in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 36093 authors who have published 93906 publications receiving 2948139 citations. The organization is also known as: UW & uwaterloo.

Simplifying quantum logic using higher-dimensional Hilbert spaces

Abstract: Quantum computation promises to solve fundamental, yet otherwise intractable, problems across a range of active fields of research. Recently, universal quantum logic-gate sets—the elemental building blocks for a quantum computer—have been demonstrated in several physical architectures. A serious obstacle to a full-scale implementation is the large number of these gates required to build even small quantum circuits. Here, we present and demonstrate a general technique that harnesses multi-level information carriers to significantly reduce this number, enabling the construction of key quantum circuits with existing technology. We present implementations of two key quantum circuits: the three-qubit Toffoli gate and the general two-qubit controlled-unitary gate. Although our experiment is carried out in a photonic architecture, the technique is independent of the particular physical encoding of quantum information, and has the potential for wider application.

Screening for Superoxide Reactivity in Li-O2 Batteries: Effect on Li2O2/LiOH Crystallization

Abstract: Unraveling the fundamentals of Li-O2 battery chemistry is crucial to develop practical cells with energy densities that could approach their high theoretical values. We report here a straightforward chemical approach that probes the outcome of the superoxide O2–, thought to initiate the electrochemical processes in the cell. We show that this serves as a good measure of electrolyte and binder stability. Superoxide readily dehydrofluorinates polyvinylidene to give byproducts that react with catalysts to produce LiOH. The Li2O2 product morphology is a function of these factors and can affect Li-O2 cell performance. This methodology is widely applicable as a probe of other potential cell components.

Beating the channel capacity limit for linear photonic superdense coding

Abstract: Classically, one photon can transport one bit of information. But more is possible when quantum entanglement comes into play, and a record ‘channel capacity’ of 1.63 bits per photon has now been demonstrated, using a method that overcomes fundamental limitations of earlier approaches to ‘superdense coding’. Dense coding is arguably the protocol that launched the field of quantum communication1. Today, however, more than a decade after its initial experimental realization2, the channel capacity remains fundamentally limited as conceived for photons using linear elements. Bob can only send to Alice three of four potential messages owing to the impossibility of carrying out the deterministic discrimination of all four Bell states with linear optics3,4, reducing the attainable channel capacity from 2 to log23≈1.585 bits. However, entanglement in an extra degree of freedom enables the complete and deterministic discrimination of all Bell states5,6,7. Using pairs of photons simultaneously entangled in spin and orbital angular momentum8,9, we demonstrate the quantum advantage of the ancillary entanglement. In particular, we describe a dense-coding experiment with the largest reported channel capacity and, to our knowledge, the first to break the conventional linear-optics threshold. Our encoding is suited for quantum communication without alignment10 and satellite communication.