Optical implementations of the optimal phase-covariant quantum cloning machine -: art. no. 052314

We propose two simple implementations of the optimal symmetric 1-->2 phase-covariant cloning machine for qubits. The first scheme is designed for qubits encoded into polarization states of photons and it involves a mixing of two photons on an unbalanced beam splitter. This scheme is probabilistic and the cloning succeeds with the probability 1/3. In the second setup, the qubits are represented by the states of Rydberg atoms and the cloning is accomplished by the resonant interaction of the atoms with a microwave field confined in a high-Q cavity. This latter approach allows for deterministic implementation of the optimal cloning transformation.