New optical quantum logic gates and their application to quantum chemistry - Ben Lanyon

I'll talk about some recent work done by our experimental quantum information group at the University of Queensland, Australia, where we are developing techniques for encoding, processing and measuring quantum information in photons. Firstly I'll present our recent implementation of two new quantum logic gates, which are the building blocks of a quantum computer. Then I'll talk about our early experimental step towards using a quantum computer to solve otherwise intractable physics problems - specifically, calculating the energy spectrum of molecules. I will assume no prior knowledge of optical quantum computing but some of quantum information.