Light-shift imbalance induced blockade of collective excitations beyond the lowest order

Current proposals focusing on neutral atoms for quantum computing are mostly based on using single atoms as quantum bits (qubits), while using cavity induced coupling or dipole-dipole interaction for two-qubit operations. An alternative approach is to use atomic ensembles as quantum bits. However, when an atomic ensemble is excited, by a laser beam matched to a two-level transition (or a Raman transition) for example, it leads to a cascade of many states as more and more photons are absorbed [R.H. Dicke, Phys. Rev. 93 (1954) 99]. In order to make use of an ensemble as a qubit, it is necessary to disrupt this cascade, and restrict the excitation to the absorption (and emission) of a single photon only. Here, we show how this can be achieved by using a new type of blockade mechanism, based on the light-shift imbalance (LSI) in a Raman transition. We describe first a simple example illustrating the concept of light-shift imbalance induced blockade (LSIIB) using a multi-level structure in a single atom, and show verifications of the analytic prediction using numerical simulations. We then extend this model to show how a blockade can be realized by using LSI in the excitation of an ensemble. Specifically, we show how the LSIIB process enables one to treat the ensemble as a two-level atom that undergoes fully deterministic Rabi oscillations between two collective quantum states, while suppressing excitations of higher order collective states. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.