Characterization of errors in quantum processes using finite sets of test measurements - art. no. 63050F

Quantum information processes utilize the potential of quantum coherence to achieve improvements in communication and computation protocols. In order to develop appropriate technologies, it is therefore necessary to test the successful implementation of quantum coherent operations in experimental devices. In this presentation, it is shown how the quantum coherent performance of a device can be evaluated from complementary test measurements. Despite the limitation of test measurements to only two orthogonal basis sets of states, this method provides a surprisingly detailed and intuitively accessible picture of errors in quantum operations, making it possible to assess the quantum parallelism of non-classical operations in terms of the directly observable "classical" device properties.