| Quantum computing has been of intense interest over the last 10 years because of its promising ability to do high-speed factoring and its potential for the efficient simulation of quantum dynamics. It could be implemented in many different ways using optical techniques. A better understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of these approaches would allow the experimental groups working in this area to optimize their choice of experiment and to concentrate on the approaches that are most likely to succeed. In this thesis, we are interested in quantum logic gates based on nonlinear optical approaches and mainly focus on one of the approaches----quantum Zeno gates. We theoretically analyze two-photon absorption, which is essential to perform quantum Zeno gates for coherent light and for frequency-entangled light. We also analyze and compare quantum Zeno gates with nonlinear phase gates, which is another promising optical implementation for quantum logic. The results of our theoretical analysis will be useful for future experimental work in quantum computation. |
