Theory Of A Scalable Electron-Spin Based Quantum Network Inside A Photonic Crystal

We review our theoretical proposal on producing a scalable quantum network inside a photonic crystal. The qubits are represented by electron spins in quantum dots, each embedded inside a nanocavity that is produced by a defect in the photonic crystal. The coupling between the qubits is governed by single photons that are guided through waveguides in the photonic crystal, thereby interacting with the quantum dots by means of the conditional single-photon Faraday rotation, which provides the basic method to entangle single spins with single photons. Unlike other schemes using virtual photons, our scheme makes use of real single photons that produce the spin entanglement. Therefore all the spin-photon interactions can be performed locally at each site of a quantum dot, which is a key ingredient for making our quantum network scalable. Copyright © 2010 American Scientific Publishers All rights reserved