Photon Sorters and QND Detectors Using Single Photon Emitters

Abstract

We discuss a new method for realizing number-resolving and non-demolition photo detectors by strong coupling of light to individual single photon emitters, which act as strong optical non-linearities. As a specific application we show how these elements can be integrated into an error-proof Bell state analyzer, whose efficiency exceeds the best possible performance with linear optics even for a modest atom-field coupling. The methods are error-proof in the sense that every detection event unambiguously projects the photon state onto a Fock or Bell state and imperfections only result in reduced success probability, not in wrong results.