Coherent-state qubits: entanglement and decoherence

Arbitrary superpositions of any two optical coherent states are investigated as realizations of qubits for quantum information processing. Decoherence of these coherent-state qubits is described in detail, and visualized using a suitable adaptive Bloch-sphere. The entanglement that can be created by a beam splitter from these states is quantified, and its decoherence behavior is analyzed