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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Nanotechnol.
Sec. Nanophotonics
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnano.2024.1422573
This article is part of the Research Topic Spotlight on Nanotechnology: Italy View all articles

Quantum computation with photochromic films in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer

Provisionally accepted
Francesco Scotognella Francesco Scotognella *
  • Polytechnic University of Turin, Turin, Piedmont, Italy

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Photochromic materials are of great interest because they enable the fabrication of photo-activated switches. In this study, an experiment is proposed in which two chromene-based photochromic layers were inserted into the arms of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. Chromene was studied from the perspective of optical absorption to determine the wavelength-dependent complex refractive index. Impinging ultraviolet light on one of the chromene layers induces a transition from the closed to the open form of the chromene, resulting in different phase shifts in the two arms of the interferometer. This results in a change in the probability of detecting a photon by the two detectors after the second mirror of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The experiment may have some interest in the fields of quantum information and quantum communications.

    Keywords: Photochromic materials, Mach-Zehnder interferometer, Complex refractive index, Hueckel method, quantum communication

    Received: 24 Apr 2024; Accepted: 15 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Scotognella. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Francesco Scotognella, Polytechnic University of Turin, Turin, 10129, Piedmont, Italy

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