Qudit Quantum Information Processing: State Preparation and Manipulation Mark S. Byrd Departments of Physics and Computer Science Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Illinois Quantum information processing is often done using qubits, or two-state quantum systems. However, two qudits (d-state systems) can be more entangled than two qubits and can share a larger fraction of their entanglement. We do not know what types of quantum information processing tasks are best suited for qubits or best suited for higher dimensional systems. On the poster, we explore the production and use of higher dimensional systems in quantum information processing devices, i.e. we examine quantum information processing beyond qubits, using photons as information carriers. Recent results: An experimental proposal for creating decoherence-free entangled qutrit states Gates which are compatible with noiseless subsystems and decoherence-free subspaces.