Mechanisms of local and global molecular quantum gates and their implementation prospects

We explore how the globality of quantum logic operations is ensured in the context of optimal control theory when qubits are encoded in vibrational eigenstates of different normal modes and specially shaped laser fields act as quantum logic operations. In a two-qubit model system, transition mechanisms for optimized laser fields generating single qubit flips, local NOT and global NOT and controlled-NOT (CNOT) gates are investigated and compared. We evaluate the participation of vibrational eigenstates beyond the qubit basis in the global gate mechanisms and how different features of CNOT and NOT gates relate to the characteristics of the vibrational manifold. When a non-qubit normal mode interacting via anharmonic resonances is introduced, neither the global gate mechanisms nor the optimized laser fields show a significant increase in complexity. Similar features of the global quantum gates in both model systems indicate a generality of the deduced principles. Finally, a primary concept for a realization of global quantum gates in- an actual experiment referring to state-of-the-art techniques is presented. The possible reconstruction of optimized laser fields with sequences of simple Gaussian subpulses is demonstrated and some critical parameters are deduced. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.