Laying the Foundation for Scalable Quantum Photonic Technologies

A project supported by the National Science Foundation through the EPSCOR RII Track-2 FEC program (Award #: 2217786)

“Quantum photonics” includes any technology in which photons are used to a) transport quantum information, b) perform quantum sensing operations, or c) control qubits, including mediating interactions between separate qubits. The ideal platform for large-scale quantum photonic and photon-mediated quantum computing devices would include an array of deterministically positioned identical quantum emitters (e.g., Quantum Dots / QDs) that can be easily integrated into on-chip photonics. Strings of indistinguishable single photons from such quantum emitters are needed for both quantum sensing and cluster-state-based quantum computation. Deterministic single photon emitters (SPEs) are also essential for long-range quantum repeaters, quantum key distribution, and distributed quantum computers. Quantum emitters could also host spin qubits, enabling all-optical quantum control and photon-mediated entanglement between qubits. Despite the importance and potential impact of quantum photonic technologies, it remains extremely difficult to identify material and device platforms that can be scaled to the level of thousands of qubits or quantum emitters. This collaboration between University of New Mexico and University of Delaware directly addresses this challenge by developing scalable platforms in which site-templated quantum emitters can be deterministically integrated into photonic devices.