title: Dipole blockade and quantum information processing in mesoscopic atomic ensembles.
abstract: We describe a technique for manipulating quantum information stored in collective states of mesoscopic ensembles. Quantum processing is accomplished by optical excitation into states with strong dipole-dipole interactions. The resulting "dipole blockade" can be used to inhibit transitions into all but singly excited collective states. This can be employed for a controlled generation of collective atomic spin states as well as nonclassical photonic states and for scalable quantum logic gates. An example involving a cold Rydberg gas is analyzed.
authors.affiliation: ITAMP, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Lukin
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fleischhauer
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cote
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jaksch
authors.forename: J I
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Cirac
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zoller