Study of Passive, Cavity-Mediated Gates for Deterministic Quantum Logic with Single Photons

University Of Arkansas, Fayetteville AR

Investigators

Abstract

The goal of this project is the theoretical study of certain devices that have been proposed as possible building blocks for photonic quantum computers; that is, quantum computers where the information is carried by single photons. The devices considered involve a single atom or quantum dot in an optical microcavity. Their design is a substantial improvement over previous designs because of their very low power requirements and potentially very low failure rate. Several different configurations will be studied as regards experimental feasibility and potential for best performance. Many groups around the world are working on photonic quantum computers, and this research will have a direct impact on such work. Moreover, even if an all-optical quantum computer eventually turned out not to be the best choice, photons will almost certainly still be used for communication between the nodes of quantum networks in the future (as they are now in commercially available quantum cryptography systems), and the devices to be studied here would be very useful in such networks, to provide memory storage and allow for error correction operations.