Exploring the quantum world
Quantum Computing Devices–
Principles, Designs, and
Analysis
By G. Chen, D. Church, B. Englert,
C. Henkel, B. Rohwedder, M. Scully and
M. Zubairy.
Chapman & Hall/CRS 2007. 542 pp., hard-
cover; $ 79.95.—ISBN 1-58488-681-1
Quantum mechanical systems could, in
principle, solve certain computational
problems more efficiently than classical
computers, as was realized in the 1980s
by Benioff, Feynman, and Deutsch. The
advantage of quantum computers lies in
the coherent superposition of a huge
number of states that allows for search-
ing a solution space in a massively paral-
lel way. The field became popular and
well financed in the mid-1990s, after
Shor had shown that the most popular
encryption codes based on products of
primes might be easily broken by future
quantum computers. Various experimen-
tal schemes have been proposed since
and their potential and limitations were
explored.
It was soon realized that decoherence,
that is, the phase relaxation of the coher-
ent superposition, introduces substantial
errors. Error correction schemes were
proposed and minimization of decoher-
ence became one of the main issues in
experimental work. Within the past two
decades more than 1000 research papers
on quantum computing have been pub-
lished. Reviews treat only subsets of ex-
perimental techniques and theoretical
advances. This book by seven renowned
scientists in the field, Chen, Church, Eng-
lert, Henkel, Rohwedder, Scully, and Zu-
bairy, attempts—for the first time—a
comprehensive introduction that is ac-
cessible to both physicists and comput-
ing scientists.
This is an ambitious goal. To cover six
different highly-developed and still de-
veloping experimental techniques and
ChemPhysChem 2008, 9, 799 – 802 ? 2008 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
highly sophisticated theory is certainly a
challenge for the seven scientists from
different institutions and the outcome is
a monograph rather than an edited
book. Ensuring coherence of such a proj-
ect is another ambitious endeavour. The
book should thus not be judged with
the same rigour that is applied to a
monograph by one or two authors treat-
ing a well-developed field.
Indeed an impatient reader might be
turned off by the two introductory chap-
ters that try to introduce quantum me-
chanics and digital computation from
scratch. It did not become clear to me
which concept the authors followed in
selecting and arranging the topics. The
text jumps back and forth between basic
concepts of computing and quantum
mechanics, touching ever so slightly and
never explaining anything in depth. This
introduction to quantum mechanics in-
cluding the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen par-
adox and Bell’s inequality on 21 pages,
four of which are devoted to subtleties
in the understanding of thermodynami-
cal entropy, is not a good primer for
non-physicists. At least it is free of factu-
al errors, which cannot be said of the
“Basics of Atoms and Molecules” section
of the second chapter. There is some
confusion in the sequence of introducing
quantum numbers and counting of
states on p. 41. The electron Zeeman
term of the Hamiltonian misses the g
value on p. 43 and Hamiltonian terms for
anisotropic and purely isotropic systems
are mixed on p. 44. The definition of the
phase coherence time T2 on p. 92 as the
“average time over which the qubit
energy-level difference does not vary” is
sloppy physics and certainly not univer-
sal to all experimental techniques used
for quantum computing. This chapter
also contains an introduction to lasers
that is based on Wikipedia articles and
fails to mention that more than two
energy levels are required. The authors,
as they explain in the Preface, believe in
using Wikipedia as teaching material.
Having used Wikipedia as one of many
sources in the preparation of lecture
scripts and problem sets, I would strong-
ly discourage its use as the principal
source on a topic in a monograph.
Starting with Chapter 3 on two-level
atoms and cavity quantum electrody-
namics the authors write about their
own research fields and the quality of
the text increases tremendously. In this
chapter both the experimental concepts
and the underlying theory are explained
in sufficient depth to achieve real under-
standing and on a level that should be
accessible to anyone trained in experi-
mental or theoretical physics. The style
of this chapter is clear and concise. The
short Chapter 4 on imperfect quantum
operations is of the same high quality
and provides a very readable introduc-
tion into the dynamics of ensembles of
quantum systems.
Chapters 5 and 6 describe the use of
cold confined atomic ions and atoms for
quantum computation. In an effort to
make these chapters more accessible to
non-physicists they appear to have been
stripped of as many equations as possi-
ble, which I personally do not find help-
ful. The description is thus not as strin-
gent as in the previous two chapters.
Nevertheless Chapters 5 and 6 give good
overviews on their respective topics and
a nice introduction into the experimental
difficulties of fighting decoherence.
Chapter 7 on application of quantum
dots as quantum computing gates finds
a good balance between describing
technical and experimental aspects on
the one hand and the requirements for
realizing quantum algorithms on the
other hand. This chapter makes it very
transparent how research proceeds in
the field of quantum computing. On
p. 339 the origin of decoherence is ex-
plained in a better way than in the intro-
ductory chapters.
www.chemphyschem.org 799
 The didactical concept of Chapter 8
on linear optics computers is very clever
in that a completely classical approach is
followed on the first 15 pages. Quantum
mechanical concepts are then intro-
duced sparingly in a gentle manner. If
any chapter in the book is indeed acces-
sible to someone without a physics
background it is certainly this one. For
somebody coming from the computa-
tional science side the best way into the
book may be to start from here and
work back via cross-references, while
using an introductory text on quantum
mechanics as a backup.
The short Chapter 9 on superconduct-
ing quantum interference devices in
quantum computing is concise and clear
although it is noticeable that this is not
a technique that the authors favour.
They do not favour and do not work on
NMR quantum computing either and in
that case it shows in the quality of Chap-
ter 10 devoted to this topic. Again the
introduction is based on an internet
source, complemented here by an out-
dated monograph from 1965. According-
ly, a continuous-wave cross-coil NMR
spectrometer with field or frequency
sweep is described which is certainly not
suitable for quantum computing. There
is also some confusion between ESR and
solid-state NMR on pages 471–473.
Despite the shortcomings of some
chapters this is a useful book which I en-
joyed reading and from which I learned
a lot. It can be recommended to anyone
who works in the field of quantum com-
puting or is interested to take up such
work. Regarding a future revised edition
I would hope for a more extensive use
of error correction algorithms and for an
effort to minimize decoherence.
Prof. Dr. Gunnar Jeschke
Fachbereich Chemie
UniversitEt Konstanz (Germany)
DOI: 10.1002/cphc.200700656
800 www.chemphyschem.org
R+action Ultrarapides en
Solution—Approches
Exp+́rimentales et Th+oriques
By Mehran Mostafavi and
Thomas Gustavsson.
CNRS Editions 2007. 400 pp., softcover
E 50.00.—ISBN 978-2-271-06478-3
Most of natural and preparative chemis-
try and biology occur in solutions. The
importance of solvents in driving, hin-
dering or modifying chemical reactions
need not be emphasized here, and the
study of solvent dynamics has emerged
over the past 10–20 years as one of the
main areas of research in chemical phys-
ics, especially since the advent of femto-
second lasers. Indeed, it has become
possible to probe chemical reactions and
the accompanying solvent response on
the timescale of nuclear motion. In paral-
lel, new theoretical tools and methods,
both analytical and computational, have
emerged that can rationalise these ex-
perimental observations.
With this intense activity in mind this
book edited by M. Mostafavi and Th.
Gustavsson was published in 2006. The
book stems from a summer school or-
ganised in 2004 on ultrafast reactions in
solutions, and the didactic approach
aimed at students and newcomers to
this field of research is felt throughout
the various chapters (total 16) that deal
with all aspects of solvation dynamics in
both experimental and theoretical fields.
After a general (too general, in my
opinion) introduction that recalls the
main principles underlying photophysical
processes in molecules, the book contin-
ues with a chapter dealing with charged
particle–matter interaction. It represents
a succinct description of the basic pro-
cesses behind pulsed radiolysis. Because
most solvation studies are carried out
with short pulse lasers, a chapter is de-
voted to the production and generation
of ultrashort laser pulses, and the
common nonlinear optical tools used in
ultrafast studies.
The experimental techniques com-
monly used to study solvation dynamics
are femtosecond transient absorption in
the visible, and in the IR, femtosecond
fluorescence up-conversion studies and
nonlinear optical techniques such as
? 2008 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
photon echo and 4-wave mixing. These
advanced experimental methods are de-
scribed in great detail in the following
chapters, providing a very nice introduc-
tion into their basic concepts, and a de-
tailed description of their signals and of
the possible artefacts that may affect
them.
Data analysis and treatment of signals
(e.g. to reduce noise) are seldom de-
scribed in books dealing with ultrafast
laser spectroscopy. Chapter 9 offers a
nice and comprehensive description of
methods to improve the quality of sig-
nals based on Bayesian reasoning.
Obviously without adequate concepts
and theoretical tools, it is difficult to in-
terpret the complex signals obtained by
the above different experimental tools.
There exist a large range of theoretical
approaches, both analytical and compu-
tational, that are commonly used, and
this book provides a fairly comprehen-
sive and extensive sample. Chapter 10
presents the various theoretical ap-
proaches that are currently available,
and stresses the issue of scaling when
going from isolated molecule to mole-
cule in the condensed phase.
Mixed quantum–classical molecular
dynamics methods are commonly used
to describe solvation dynamics, and this
is exemplified in the case of the famous
solvated electron, whose importance in
chemical processes in solution need not
be underscored. In Chapter 15, it is also
examined from an experimental point of
view. Protein transfer is one of the most
fundamental processes in solution
chemistry and in biology. It is here ana-
lytically described taking account of the
quantum nature of the proton.
Over the past few years there has
been a huge development aimed at
probing chemical reactions and the
structural changes therein involved by
pump–probe techniques where the
probe pulse is replaced by an ultrafast
electron or X-ray pulse. When it comes
to solvation, only X-ray can be used,
either in diffraction or in absorption ex-
periments. Chapter 13 deals with the
former case and with the theoretical
modelling of diffraction patterns. Al-
though the data is on the 100 ps time-
scale, these models prepare for the
future when sources of intense femto-
ChemPhysChem 2008, 9, 799 – 802