  We investigate the impact of loss (amplitude damping) and decoherence (phase
damping) on the performance of a simple quantum computer which solves the
one-bit Deutsch problem. The components of this machine are beamsplitters and
nonlinear optical Kerr cells, but errors primarily originate from the latter.
We develop models to describe the effect of these errors on a quantum optical
Fredkin gate. The results are used to analyze possible error correction
strategies in a complete quantum computer. We find that errors due to loss can
be avoided perfectly by appropriate design techniques, while decoherence can be
partially dealt with using projective error correction.
