It is not hard to see that the number of equiangular lines in a complex space of dimension $d$ is at most $d^{2}$. A set of $d^{2}$ equiangular lines in a $d$-dimensional complex space is of significant importance in Quantum Computing as it corresponds to a measurement for which its statistics determine completely the quantum state on which the measurement is carried out. The existence of $d^{2}$ equiangular lines in a $d$-dimensional complex space is only known for a few values of $d$, although physicists conjecture that they do exist for any value of $d$. The main results in this thesis are: \begin{enumerate} \item Abelian covers of complete graphs that have certain parameters can be used to construct sets of $d^2$ equiangular lines in $d$-dimen\-sion\-al space; \item we exhibit infinitely many parameter sets that satisfy all the known necessary conditions for the existence of such a cover; and \item we find the decompose of the space into irreducible modules over the Terwilliger algebra of covers of complete graphs. \end{enumerate} A few techniques are known for constructing covers of complete graphs, none of which can be used to construct covers that lead to sets of $d^{2}$ equiangular lines in $d$-dimensional complex spaces. The third main result is developed in the hope of assisting such construction.

Currently, a major challenge for solid-state spin qubit systems is achieving one-qubit operations on a timescale shorter than the spin coherence time, T2*, a goal currently two orders of magnitude away. By taking advantage of the quasi-one-dimensional structure of a nanowire and the strong spin-orbit interaction of InAs, it is estimated that π-rotations can be implemented using electric dipole spin resonance on the order of 10 ns. To this end, a procedure for the fabrication of homogeneous InAs nanowire quantum dot devices is presented herein for future investigations of solid state spin qubits as a test bed for quantum computing. Both single and double quantum dot systems are formed using local gating of InAs nanowires. Single quantum dot systems were characterized through electron transport measurements in a dilution refrigerator; in one case, the charging energy was measured to be 5.0 meV and the orbital energy was measured to be 1.5-3.5 meV. The total capacitance of the single quantum dot system was determined to be approximately 30 aF. An estimate of the quantum dot geometry resulting from confinement suggests that the quantum dot is approximately 115 nm long. The coupling energy of the double quantum dot system was measured to be approximately 4.5 meV. The electron temperature achieved with our circuitry in the dilution refrigerator is estimated to be approximately 125 mK.

Quantum information is a growing field showing exciting possibilities for computational speed-up and communications. For the successful implementation of quantum computers, high-precision control is required to reach fault-tolerant thresholds. Control of quantum systems pertains to the manipulation of states and their evolution. In order to minimize the effects of the environment on the control operations of the qubits, control pulses should be made time-optimal. In addition, control pulses should be made robust to noise in the system, dispersion in energies and coupling elements, and uncertain parameters. In this thesis, we examine a robust time-optimal gradient ascent technique which is used to develop controls of the motional degrees of freedom for an ensemble of neutral atoms in a one-dimensional optical lattice in the high dispersion regime with shallow trapping potentials. As such, the system is analyzed in the delocalized basis. The system is treated as an ensemble of atoms with a range of possible quasimomenta across the first Brillouin zone. This gives the ensemble of Hamiltonians, indexed by the quasimomenta, a distinct spectra in their motional states and highly inhomogeneous control Hamiltonians. Thus, the optical lattice is seen as a model system for robust control. We find optimized control pulses designed using an ensemble modification of gradient-ascent pulse engineering robust to any range of quasimomentum. We show that it is possible to produce rotation controls with fidelities above 90\% for half of the first Brillouin zone with gate times in the order of several free oscillations. This is possible for a spectrum that shows upwards of 75\% dispersion in the energies of the band structure. We also show that NOT controls for qubit rotations on the entire Brillouin zone fidelities above 99\% were possible for 0.6\% dispersion in energies. The gate times were also in the order of several free oscillations. It is shown that these solutions are palindromic in time due to phase differences in some of the energy couplings when comparing one half of the Brillouin zone to another. We explore the limits of discretized sampling of a continuous ensemble for control.

Using the method of breaking circular symmetry and the subsequent symmetry restoration via projection techniques, we calculate the ground-state energies and excitation spectra of N-electrons confined in parabolic quantum dots in strong magnetic fields in the medium-size range 10<=N <=30. The physical picture is that of finite rotating electron molecules (REMs) comprising multiple rings, with the rings rotating independently of each other. A derived analytic expression for the energetics is applicable to arbitrary sizes given the corresponding ring configuration of classical point charges. Also by exact diagonalization (EXD) method, we show the spectrum and structure of few electrons, 2<=N<=3, confined in elliptical dots at finite magnetic field. The results suggest the formation of a state of Wigner-molecular properties with spin associated, which has great instructions for the development of quantum register in quantum computing.

It is not hard to see that the number of equiangular lines in a complex space of dimension $d$ is at most $d^{2}$. A set of $d^{2}$ equiangular lines in a $d$-dimensional complex space is of significant importance in Quantum Computing as it corresponds to a measurement for which its statistics determine completely the quantum state on which the measurement is carried out. The existence of $d^{2}$ equiangular lines in a $d$-dimensional complex space is only known for a few values of $d$, although physicists conjecture that they do exist for any value of $d$. The main results in this thesis are: \begin{enumerate} \item Abelian covers of complete graphs that have certain parameters can be used to construct sets of $d^2$ equiangular lines in $d$-dimen\-sion\-al space; \item we exhibit infinitely many parameter sets that satisfy all the known necessary conditions for the existence of such a cover; and \item we find the decompose of the space into irreducible modules over the Terwilliger algebra of covers of complete graphs. \end{enumerate} A few techniques are known for constructing covers of complete graphs, none of which can be used to construct covers that lead to sets of $d^{2}$ equiangular lines in $d$-dimensional complex spaces. The third main result is developed in the hope of assisting such construction.

Currently, a major challenge for solid-state spin qubit systems is achieving one-qubit operations on a timescale shorter than the spin coherence time, T2*, a goal currently two orders of magnitude away. By taking advantage of the quasi-one-dimensional structure of a nanowire and the strong spin-orbit interaction of InAs, it is estimated that π-rotations can be implemented using electric dipole spin resonance on the order of 10 ns. To this end, a procedure for the fabrication of homogeneous InAs nanowire quantum dot devices is presented herein for future investigations of solid state spin qubits as a test bed for quantum computing. Both single and double quantum dot systems are formed using local gating of InAs nanowires. Single quantum dot systems were characterized through electron transport measurements in a dilution refrigerator; in one case, the charging energy was measured to be 5.0 meV and the orbital energy was measured to be 1.5-3.5 meV. The total capacitance of the single quantum dot system was determined to be approximately 30 aF. An estimate of the quantum dot geometry resulting from confinement suggests that the quantum dot is approximately 115 nm long. The coupling energy of the double quantum dot system was measured to be approximately 4.5 meV. The electron temperature achieved with our circuitry in the dilution refrigerator is estimated to be approximately 125 mK.

Quantum information is a growing field showing exciting possibilities for computational speed-up and communications. For the successful implementation of quantum computers, high-precision control is required to reach fault-tolerant thresholds. Control of quantum systems pertains to the manipulation of states and their evolution. In order to minimize the effects of the environment on the control operations of the qubits, control pulses should be made time-optimal. In addition, control pulses should be made robust to noise in the system, dispersion in energies and coupling elements, and uncertain parameters. In this thesis, we examine a robust time-optimal gradient ascent technique which is used to develop controls of the motional degrees of freedom for an ensemble of neutral atoms in a one-dimensional optical lattice in the high dispersion regime with shallow trapping potentials. As such, the system is analyzed in the delocalized basis. The system is treated as an ensemble of atoms with a range of possible quasimomenta across the first Brillouin zone. This gives the ensemble of Hamiltonians, indexed by the quasimomenta, a distinct spectra in their motional states and highly inhomogeneous control Hamiltonians. Thus, the optical lattice is seen as a model system for robust control. We find optimized control pulses designed using an ensemble modification of gradient-ascent pulse engineering robust to any range of quasimomentum. We show that it is possible to produce rotation controls with fidelities above 90\% for half of the first Brillouin zone with gate times in the order of several free oscillations. This is possible for a spectrum that shows upwards of 75\% dispersion in the energies of the band structure. We also show that NOT controls for qubit rotations on the entire Brillouin zone fidelities above 99\% were possible for 0.6\% dispersion in energies. The gate times were also in the order of several free oscillations. It is shown that these solutions are palindromic in time due to phase differences in some of the energy couplings when comparing one half of the Brillouin zone to another. We explore the limits of discretized sampling of a continuous ensemble for control.

No description available.

Quantum information science has shown that computers which exploit the quantum nature of particles, namely quantum computers, can outperform contemporary computers in some computational tasks. The fundamental building blocks of a quantum computer are quantum logical gates and quantum bits (qubits). Previous research has shown that the optical approach to quantum computing is promising. However, linear optical quantum computing (LOQC) schemes require a huge amount of resource, which makes large scale LOQC impractical, and hence there have been renewed interests in nonlinear optical quantum computing schemes, where less resource is required. The performance of these quantum gates depends on the properties of the nonlinear media. However, requirements on some of the properties for high performance quantum gates are not fully known. This thesis intends to bridge this gap of knowledge and examines the necessary conditions on several types optical nonlinearities that are common in two-qubit quantum gates schemes. These types of nonlinearities are, namely two-photon absorption, $\chi^{(2)}$ nonlinearity and $\chi^{(3)}$ cross-Kerr nonlinearity. The two-photon absorption based quantum Zeno gate is modeled in this thesis. It is shown that for practical absorbers, the photon loss significantly lowers the quantum fidelity of the Zeno gate. Nevertheless, this thesis proposes to use the Zeno gate for fusing optical cluster states. With the best theoretical estimate of single photon loss in the absorbers, the Zeno gate can outperform linear optical schemes. This thesis also proposes to embed the Zeno gate in the teleportation-type of two-qubit gate, namely GC-Zeno gate, such that the success rate of the gate can be traded off for higher gate fidelity. The effect of some mode matching error and detector inefficiency on the GC-Zeno gate are also considered here. It is shown that the photon loss requirement as well as the mode matching requirement are both stringent for having a fault tolerant GC-Zeno gate. This thesis models some of the properties of a $\chi^{(3)}$ optical medium and explores how they affect the fidelity of the cross-Kerr nonlinearity based quantum gate. This thesis shows that for a cross-Kerr medium with fast time response but negligible wave dispersion, the medium would induce spectral entanglement between the input photons and this significantly lowers the fidelity of the quantum gate. Nevertheless, when the dispersion has a stronger effect than the time response, and if phase noise is negligible, it is possible to achieve a quantum gate with high fidelity. However, the noise is actually significant, and this thesis suggests that spectral filtering can be applied to prohibit the occurrence of the noise. The requirements on employing optical $\chi^{(2)}$ nonlinearity for quantum computing are also examined. This study models the spectral effects of a $\chi^{(2)}$ medium on its efficiency. It is shown in this thesis that since the Hamiltonian of the medium does not commute at different times, the unitary operation should be modeled by a Dyson series, which leads to undesired spectral entanglement that lowers the efficiency of the medium. However, in the case of periodical poling, the unitary operation can be modeled by a Taylor series, where under some phase matching conditions, the medium can have a high efficiency. Furthermore, this thesis proposes a Bell measurement scheme and a quantum gate scheme based on $\chi^{(2)}$ nonlinearity that can always outperform linear optics even when the nonlinearity strength is weak. In the case of sufficiently strong nonlinearity, a quantum gate with high success rate can be achieved. In summary, this thesis models some of the properties of two-photon absorbers, $\chi^{(2)}$ nonlinearity and $\chi^{(3)}$ nonlinearity, and shows that it is possible to achieve the conditions required for high performance quantum gates, however these conditions are experimentally challenging to meet.

Quantum information science has shown that computers which exploit the quantum nature of particles, namely quantum computers, can outperform contemporary computers in some computational tasks. The fundamental building blocks of a quantum computer are quantum logical gates and quantum bits (qubits). Previous research has shown that the optical approach to quantum computing is promising. However, linear optical quantum computing (LOQC) schemes require a huge amount of resource, which makes large scale LOQC impractical, and hence there have been renewed interests in nonlinear optical quantum computing schemes, where less resource is required. The performance of these quantum gates depends on the properties of the nonlinear media. However, requirements on some of the properties for high performance quantum gates are not fully known. This thesis intends to bridge this gap of knowledge and examines the necessary conditions on several types optical nonlinearities that are common in two-qubit quantum gates schemes. These types of nonlinearities are, namely two-photon absorption, $\chi^{(2)}$ nonlinearity and $\chi^{(3)}$ cross-Kerr nonlinearity. The two-photon absorption based quantum Zeno gate is modeled in this thesis. It is shown that for practical absorbers, the photon loss significantly lowers the quantum fidelity of the Zeno gate. Nevertheless, this thesis proposes to use the Zeno gate for fusing optical cluster states. With the best theoretical estimate of single photon loss in the absorbers, the Zeno gate can outperform linear optical schemes. This thesis also proposes to embed the Zeno gate in the teleportation-type of two-qubit gate, namely GC-Zeno gate, such that the success rate of the gate can be traded off for higher gate fidelity. The effect of some mode matching error and detector inefficiency on the GC-Zeno gate are also considered here. It is shown that the photon loss requirement as well as the mode matching requirement are both stringent for having a fault tolerant GC-Zeno gate. This thesis models some of the properties of a $\chi^{(3)}$ optical medium and explores how they affect the fidelity of the cross-Kerr nonlinearity based quantum gate. This thesis shows that for a cross-Kerr medium with fast time response but negligible wave dispersion, the medium would induce spectral entanglement between the input photons and this significantly lowers the fidelity of the quantum gate. Nevertheless, when the dispersion has a stronger effect than the time response, and if phase noise is negligible, it is possible to achieve a quantum gate with high fidelity. However, the noise is actually significant, and this thesis suggests that spectral filtering can be applied to prohibit the occurrence of the noise. The requirements on employing optical $\chi^{(2)}$ nonlinearity for quantum computing are also examined. This study models the spectral effects of a $\chi^{(2)}$ medium on its efficiency. It is shown in this thesis that since the Hamiltonian of the medium does not commute at different times, the unitary operation should be modeled by a Dyson series, which leads to undesired spectral entanglement that lowers the efficiency of the medium. However, in the case of periodical poling, the unitary operation can be modeled by a Taylor series, where under some phase matching conditions, the medium can have a high efficiency. Furthermore, this thesis proposes a Bell measurement scheme and a quantum gate scheme based on $\chi^{(2)}$ nonlinearity that can always outperform linear optics even when the nonlinearity strength is weak. In the case of sufficiently strong nonlinearity, a quantum gate with high success rate can be achieved. In summary, this thesis models some of the properties of two-photon absorbers, $\chi^{(2)}$ nonlinearity and $\chi^{(3)}$ nonlinearity, and shows that it is possible to achieve the conditions required for high performance quantum gates, however these conditions are experimentally challenging to meet.