Storing quantum states in bosonic dissipative networks

By considering a network of dissipative quantum harmonic oscillators, we deduce and analyse the optimum topologies which are able to store quantum superposition states, protecting them from decoherence, for the longest period of time. The storage is made dynamically, in that the states to be protected evolve through the network before being retrieved back in the oscillator where they were prepared. The decoherence time during the dynamic storage process is computed and we demonstrate that it is proportional to the number of oscillators in the network for a particular regime of parameters.

Selective excitation through tapered silica fibers of fluorescent two-photon polymerized structures

Two-photon polymerization has emerged as a powerful tool to design complex three-dimensional microstructures for applications ranging from biology to nanophotonics. To broaden the application spectrum of such microstructures, different materials have been incorporated to the polymers, aiming at specific applications. In this paper we report the fabrication of microstructures containing rhodamine 610, which display strong fluorescence upon one- and two-photon excitation. The latter increases light-penetration depth and spatial selectivity of luminescence. We also demonstrate that by using silica submicrometric wires we were able to select individual microstructures to be excited, which could be explored for designing microstructure-based optical circuits.