Continuous-time cross-phase modulation and quantum computation

The weak nonlinear Kerr interaction between single photons and intense laser fields has been recently proposed as a basis for distributed optics-based solutions to few-qubit applications in quantum communication and computation. Here, we analyse the above Kerr interaction by employing a continuous-time multi-mode model for the input/output fields to/from the nonlinear medium. In contrast to previous single-mode treatments of this problem, our analysis takes into account the full temporal content of the free-field input beams as well as the non-instantaneous response of the medium. The main implication of this model, in which the cross-Kerr phase shift on one input is proportional to the photon flux of the other input, is the existence of phase noise terms at the output. We show that these phase noise terms will preclude satisfactory performance of the parity gate proposed by Munro et al (2005 New J. Phys. 7 137).