Atom-mediated deterministic generation and stitching of photonic graph states

Abstract

Highly-entangled multi-photon graph states are a crucial resource in photonic quantum computation and communication. Yet, the lack of photon-photon interactions makes the construction of such graph states especially challenging. Typically, these states are produced through probabilistic single-photon sources and linear-optics entangling operations that require indistinguishable photons. The resulting inefficiency of these methods necessitates a large overhead in the number of sources and operations, creating a major bottleneck in the photonic approach. Here, we show how harnessing single-atom-based photonic operations can enable deterministic generation of photonic graph states, while also lifting the requirement for photon indistinguishability. To this end, we introduce a multi-gate quantum node comprised of a single atom in a W-type level scheme coupled to an optical resonator. This configuration provides a versatile toolbox for generating graph states, allowing the operation of both the controlled-Z and SWAP photon-atom gates, as well as the deterministic generation of single photons. Furthermore, the ability to deterministically entangle photonic qubits enables expanding the generated state by stitching graphs from different devices. We investigate the implementation of this gate-based approach using $^{87}$Rb atoms and evaluate its performance through numerical simulations.