Applications of Quantum Measurement Techniques: Counterfactual Quantum Computation, Spin Hall Effect of Light, and Atomic-Vapor-Based Photon Detectors

128 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2010.Our approach to ultra-high-efficiency photon detection develops and extends a recent novel non-solid-state scheme for photo-detection based on atomic vapors. This approach is in principle capable of resolving the number of photons in a pulse, can be extended to non-destructive detection of photons, and most importantly is proposed to operate with single-photon detection efficiencies exceeding 99%, ideally without dark counts. Such a detector would have tremendous implications, e.g., for optical quantum information processing. The feasibility of operation of this approach at the desired level is studied theoretically and several promising physical systems are investigated.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD