Error Analysis on Photonic Qubit Rotations Implemented by Wave Plates

Optical Poincare sphere rotations $e^{-i\theta\sigma_{x}/2}$ , $e^{-i\theta\sigma_{y}/2}$ and $e^{-i\theta\sigma_{z}/2}$ can be realized by wave-plate combinations. Errors due to combinations with non-ideal wave plates are discussed for three specific combinations (θ=π) by trace distance. The result shows that different settings of combinations affect trace distance: (i) trace distance for $e^{-i\pi\sigma_{x}/2}$ equals that for $e^{-i\pi\sigma_{z}/2}$ , but both of them are smaller than that for $e^{-i\pi\sigma_{y}/2}$ , when optics-axis random errors are considered; (ii) trace distance for $e^{-i\pi\sigma_{x}/2}$ also equals that for $e^{-i\pi\sigma_{z}/2}$ , but both of them are larger than that for $e^{-i\pi\sigma_{y}/2}$ , when phase-shift random errors are considered. The method outlined in this paper is general and is useful to analyze other combinations.