Direct counterfactual communication via quantum Zeno effect

Intuition from our everyday lives gives rise to the belief that information exchanged between remote parties is carried by physical particles. Surprisingly, in a recent theoretical study [Salih H, Li ZH, Al-Amri M, Zubairy MS (2013) Phys Rev Lett 110:170502], quantum mechanics was found to allow for communication, even without the actual transmission of physical particles. From the viewpoint of communication, this mystery stems from a (nonintuitive) fundamental concept in quantum mechanics—wave-particle duality. All particles can be described fully by wave functions. To determine whether light appears in a channel, one refers to the amplitude of its wave function. However, in counterfactual communication, information is carried by the phase part of the wave function. Using a single-photon source, we experimentally demonstrate the counterfactual communication and successfully transfer a monochrome bitmap from one location to another by using a nested version of the quantum Zeno effect.

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Color Centers in Diamond as Practical Single-Photon Source to Illustrate Quantum Complementarity

MRS Proceedings ◽

10.1557/proc-0956-j02-01 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 956 ◽

Author(s):

Vincent Jacques ◽

Steven Regnnie ◽

Dominique Chauvat ◽

Jean-François Roch

Keyword(s):

Quantum Mechanics ◽

Recent Experiment ◽

Single Photon ◽

Color Centers ◽

Single Photon Source ◽

Fringe Visibility ◽

Interference Experiment ◽

Complementarity Principle ◽

Path Information ◽

Photon Source

ABSTRACTA recent experiment performed by S. S. Afshar [reviewed in M. Chown, New Scientist183, 30 (2004)] has been interpreted as a possible violation of the complementarity principle of quantum mechanics. Starting from a single-photon wavefront-splitting interference experiment, we propose a new scheme for Afshar's experiment, and we show that Afshar's interpretation is incorrect. Furthermore, this design is well suited to illustrate the complementarity inequality in the interesting intermediate regimes with partial fringe visibility and partial which-path information.

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A Theoretical Study of the Energetic Stability and Geometry of Silicon-Vacancy Color Centers in Diamond (001) Surfaces

Applied Sciences ◽

10.3390/app9245471 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (24) ◽

pp. 5471 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Yuanhui Pan ◽

Wei Shen ◽

Shengnan Shen ◽

Hui Li

Keyword(s):

Density Functional ◽

Theoretical Study ◽

Single Photon ◽

Color Centers ◽

Energy Calculation ◽

Single Photon Source ◽

Functional Theory ◽

Silicon Vacancy ◽

Energetic Stability ◽

Photon Source

Single neutral silicon-vacancy ( SiV 0 ) color centers under H-, O-, or N-terminated diamond (001) surfaces were investigated using density functional theory. The formation energy calculation indicated that it is generally easier for SiV 0 to be embedded in an O-terminated diamond (001) surface as compared with H- and N-terminated surfaces, which were effected above the fifth C layer. The effects of the surface termination species on inner diamond atoms decay to be negligible below the fifth C layer. The binding energy results indicated that SiV centers exhibited rather high energetic stability once formed. Additionally, it was revealed that these three surface-terminating species had contracting or expanding effects on inner surface atoms. The calculation for density of states showed that the N-terminated diamond (001) surface served as a suitable medium for single SiV 0 to function as a single-photon source.

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