Optimal linear optical implementation of a single-qubit damping channel

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate a single-qubit decohering quantum channel using linear optics. We implement the channel, whose special cases include the familiar amplitude-damping channel and the bit-flip channel, using a single, static optical setup. Following a recent theoretical result (Piani et al 2011 Phys. Rev. A 84 032304), we realize the channel in an optimal way, maximizing the probability of success, i.e. the probability for the photonic qubit to remain in its encoding. Using a two-photon entangled resource, we characterize the channel using ancilla-assisted process tomography and find average process fidelities of 0.98±0.01 and 0.976±0.009 for amplitude-damping and the bit-flip case, respectively. © IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft.