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arXiv:2507.16152 · npj Quantum Information

Practical blueprint for low-depth photonic quantum computing with quantum dots

Ming Lai Chan, Aliki A. Capatos, Peter Lodahl, Anders Søndberg Sørensen, Stefano Paesani

Published May 14, 2026• 4 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Fusion-based quantum computing is an attractive model for fault-tolerant computation based on photonics requiring only finite-sized entangled resource states followed by linear-optics operations and photon measurements. Large-scale implementations have so far been limited due to the access only to probabilistic photon sources, vulnerability to photon loss, and the need for massive multiplexing. Deterministic photon sources offer an alternative and resource-efficient route. By synergistically integrating deterministic photon emission, adaptive repeat-until-success fusions, and an optimised architectural design, we propose a complete blueprint for a photonic quantum computer using quantum dots and linear optics. It features time-bin qubit encoding, reconfigurable entangled-photon sources, and a fusion-based architecture with low optical connectivity, significantly reducing the required optical depth per photon and resource overheads. We present in detail the hardware required for resource-state generation and fusion networking, experimental pulse sequences, and exact resource estimates for preparing a logical qubit. We estimate that one logical clock cycle of error correction can be executed within microseconds, which scales linearly with the code distance. We also simulate error thresholds for fault-tolerance considering a full catalogue of intrinsic error sources found in real-world quantum dot devices. Our work establishes a practical blueprint for a low-optical-depth, emitter-based fault-tolerant photonic quantum computer.

DOI
10.1038/s41534-026-01258-3

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Fusion-based quantum computing is an attractive model for fault-tolerant computation based on photonics requiring only finite-sized entangled resource states followed by linear-optics operations and photon measurements. Large-scale implementations have so far been limited due to the access only to probabilistic photon sources, vulnerability to photon loss, and the need for massive multiplexing. Deterministic photon sources offer an alternative and resource-efficient route. By synergistically integrating deterministic photon emission, adaptive repeat-until-success fusions, and an optimised architectural design, we propose a complete blueprint for a photonic quantum computer using quantum dots and linear optics. It features time-bin qubit encoding, reconfigurable entangled-photon sources, and a fusion-based architecture with low optical connectivity, significantly reducing the required optical depth per photon and resource overheads. We present in detail the hardware required for resource-state generation and fusion networking, experimental pulse sequences, and exact resource estimates for preparing a logical qubit. We estimate that one logical clock cycle of error correction can be executed within microseconds, which scales linearly with the code distance. We also simulate error thresholds for fault-tolerance considering a full catalogue of intrinsic error sources found in real-world quantum dot devices. Our work establishes a practical blueprint for a low-optical-depth, emitter-based fault-tolerant photonic quantum computer.
Fusion-based quantum computation is a promising quantum computing model where small-sized photonic resource states are simultaneously entangled and measured by fusion gates. Such operations can be readily implemented with scalable photonic hardware: resource states can be deterministically generated by quantum emitters and fusions require only shallow linear-optical circuits. Here, we propose fusion-based architectures tailored to the capabilities and noise models in quantum emitters. We show that high tolerance to dominant physical error mechanisms can be achieved, with fault-tolerance thresholds of 8% for photon loss, 4% for photon distinguishability between emitters, and spin noise thresholds well above memory-induced errors for typical spin-photon interfaces. Our construction and analysis provide guidelines for the development of photonic quantum hardware targeting fault-tolerant applications with quantum emitters.
We present three schemes for constructing a (2,2)-Shor-encoded 6-ring photonic resource state for fusion-based quantum computing, each relying on a different type of photon source. We benchmark these architectures by analyzing their ability to achieve the loss tolerance threshold for fusion-based quantum computation using the target resource state. More precisely, we estimate their minimum hardware requirements for fault-tolerant quantum computation in terms of the number of photon sources to achieve on-demand generation of resource states with a desired generation period. Notably, we find that a group of 12 deterministic single-photon sources containing a single matter qubit degree of freedom can produce the target resource state near-deterministically by exploiting entangling gates that are repeated until success. The approach is fully modular, eliminates the need for lossy large-scale multiplexing, and reduces the overhead for resource-state generation by several orders of magnitude compared to architectures using heralded single-photon sources and probabilistic linear-optical entangling gates. Our work shows that the use of deterministic single-photon sources embedding a qubit substantially shortens the path toward fault-tolerant photonic quantum computation.
Useful fault-tolerant quantum computers require very large numbers of physical qubits. Quantum computers are often designed as arrays of static qubits executing gates and measurements. Photonic qubits require a different approach. In photonic fusion-based quantum computing (FBQC), the main hardware components are resource-state generators (RSGs) and fusion devices connected via waveguides and switches. RSGs produce small entangled states of a few photonic qubits, whereas fusion devices perform entangling measurements between different resource states, thereby executing computations. In addition, low-loss photonic delays such as optical fiber can be used as fixed-time quantum memories simultaneously storing thousands of photonic qubits. Here, we present a modular architecture for FBQC in which these components are combined to form "interleaving modules" consisting of one RSG with its associated fusion devices and a few fiber delays. Exploiting the multiplicative power of delays, each module can add thousands of physical qubits to the computational Hilbert space. Networks of modules are universal fault-tolerant quantum computers, which we demonstrate using surface codes and lattice surgery as a guiding example. Our numerical analysis shows that in a network of modules containing 1-km-long fiber delays, each RSG can generate four logical distance-35 surface-code qubits while tolerating photon loss rates above 2% in addition to the fiber-delay loss. We illustrate how the combination of interleaving with further uses of non-local fiber connections can reduce the cost of logical operations and facilitate the implementation of unconventional geometries such as periodic boundaries or stellated surface codes. Interleaving applies beyond purely optical architectures, and can also turn many small disconnected matter-qubit devices with transduction to photons into a large-scale quantum computer.
Fusion-based quantum computing (FBQC) offers a powerful approach to building a fault-tolerant universal quantum computer using photonic components -- single-photon sources, linear-optical circuits, single-photon detectors, and optical switching with feedforward control. Both individual optical switches and sophisticated switch networks are needed where it is necessary to perform operations conditionally, using feedforward of previous photon-detection outcomes, within the lifetime of remaining photons. Most visibly, feedforward switching is required for fault-tolerant operations at the level of logical qubits, which are needed in turn for useful quantum algorithms. However, switch networks are also required for multiplexing ("muxing") stages that are needed for generating specific small entangled resource states, where it is used to boost the probabilities for allocating quantum states to fusion gates and other operations -- a task which dominates the footprint of photonic FBQC. Despite their importance, limited attention has been paid to exploring possible designs of switch networks in this setting. Here we present a wide range of new techniques and schemes which enable major improvements in terms of muxing efficiency and reductions in hardware requirements. Since the use of photonic switching heavily impacts qubit losses and errors, our schemes are constructed with low switch depth. They also exploit specific features of linear-optical circuits which are commonly used to generate entanglement in proposed quantum computing and quantum network schemes.
Fault-tolerant quantum computing requires architectures that simultaneously address scalability, connectivity, and error correction under realistic noise constraints. We present a compound photonic-atomic quantum computing platform that uses cavity QED to realize near-deterministic entangling operations between flying photonic qubits and stationary atomic qubits. Photons provide long-range connectivity and scalability via measurement-based quantum computing (MBQC), while atoms supply reusable, near-deterministic resources for photon generation and entanglement, overcoming the inefficiency of purely photonic platforms. The core primitive is a symmetrized Duan-Kimble photon-atom controlled-phase (CZ) gate, robust to experimental imperfections and high-fidelity. Using single 87^{87}87Rb atoms coupled to optical cavities, we give protocols for state preparation, measurement, photon generation, and entangling gates on tens-of-nanosecond timescales, and show how large-scale cluster states with effectively unrestricted connectivity and reduced overhead can be generated through atomic reuse. We analyze fault tolerance on the Raussendorf-Harrington-Goyal (RHG) lattice with a hardware-aware noise model capturing asymmetric loss and correlated photonic-atomic errors. Logical memory simulations yield a photon-loss threshold near 2.6%2.6\%2.6% per physical gate ($\sim$15\% total per trajectory). The full Clifford set -- Hadamard, phase, CNOT -- is implementable transversally or fold-transversally at thresholds matching the identity channel, and we propose two non-Clifford resource-state routes (code teleportation and magic state cultivation) within the foliated cluster-state architecture.
Hybrid discrete- and continuous-variable (DV-CV) encodings have been developed to overcome operational drawbacks of each individual encoding, while fusion-based quantum computation (FBQC) has emerged to address the practical challenges of scalability toward fault-tolerant photonic quantum computation. Here we introduce hybrid FBQC using small optical DV-CV hybrid resource states connected through hybrid fusions, to combine the advantages of both approaches. We develop protocols for directly generating these resource states without requiring local hybrid logic such as the Hadamard gate, together with a tailored decoding strategy that exploits the error information contained in individual hybrid-fusion outcomes. We demonstrate that hybrid FBQC achieves a photon loss threshold of 2.231% while requiring only 12 hybrid fusions per surface-code unit cell, substantially improving upon the 0.89% threshold and 60-fusion requirement of previous hybrid measurement-based scheme. These results establish optical hybrid FBQC as a high-threshold resource-efficient route to scalable fault-tolerant photonic quantum computation.