Creation of Optical Cat and GKP States Using Shaped Free Electrons

Understand

Cat states and Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill (GKP) states play a key role in quantum computation and communication with continuous variables.

• The creation of such states relies on strong nonlinear light-matter interactions, which are widely available in microwave frequencies as in circuit quantum electrodynamics platforms.
• However, strong nonlinearities are hard to come by in optical frequencies, severely limiting the use of continuous variable quantum information in the optical range.
• Here we propose using the strong interactions of free electrons with light as a source for optical cat and GKP states.