Abstract Multi-photon entangled graph states are a fundamental resource in quantum communication networks, distributed quantum computing, and sensing. These states can in principle be created deterministically from quantum emitters such as optically active quantum dots or defects, atomic systems, or superconducting qubits. However, finding efficient schemes to produce such states has been a long-standing challenge. Here, we present an algorithm that, given a desired multi-photon graph state, determines the minimum number of quantum emitters and precise operation sequences that can produce it. The algorithm itself and the resulting operation sequence both scale polynomially in the size of the photonic graph state, allowing one to obtain efficient schemes to generate graph states containing hundreds or thousands of photons.
Fusion-based quantum computing (FBQC) relies on a set of small, typically photonic, resource states that are fused together through Bell state measurements. The main bottleneck of FBQC is the low rate of generating the resource states, which stems from the probabilistic nature of photonic fusion gates. Previous work introduced a general algorithm for constructing circuits that deterministically generate photonic resource states from a minimal number of quantum emitters for a specified photon emission ordering. However, finding the minimal number of emitters and CNOT gates across all possible orderings is an NP-hard problem. Here, we exploit the symmetries present in FBQC resource states to dramatically simplify this optimization problem. We find that logically encoded 24-photon FBQC resource states can be produced using as few as 3 emitters and 11 CNOTs.
Photonic graph states constitute important resources in quantum information processing. They are used in measurement-based and fusion-based quantum computing and in all-photonic repeaters for quantum networks. However, generating such highly entangled states is challenging due to the fact that photons do not interact with each other. We propose a protocol for generating arbitrary graph states using matter qubits as quantum emitters. Our approach guarantees the minimal number of emitters and provides in polynomial time the quantum circuit for the graph state generation (which includes the non-unitary process of photon emission). We find that the quantum circuit depth for general graphs also scale polynomially with system size.
Graph states are a fundamental resource for measurement and fusion-based quantum computing, quantum networks, and sensing. Preparing them in a photonic system deterministically is, in principle, possible, but finding efficient schemes to prepare them was a long-standing problem addressed recently. Additionally, heuristic optimization schemes for reducing the required number of two-qubit gates were developed. However, the problem of reducing the number of emitters by optimizing the emission ordering was not addressed, due to its computational complexity, as it is connected to a well-known NP-hard problem from graph theory, the linear rank width computation. In this work, we focus on developing heuristic polynomial algorithms to reduce the number of emitters required. In total, we propose four distinct algorithms, which demonstrate up to
30% emitter reduction on random graphs. Furthermore, we provide numerical and statistical evidence that the combination of our optimization schemes with the preexisting algorithms for optimizing the two-qubit gates of the preparation protocol can further reduce them by around
20%. Finally, we examine the developed algorithms for various useful graph state families, such as graphs useful for measurement-based quantum algorithms, and cluster states and graph codes used for quantum error correction, to determine the performance of each algorithm.
Measurement-based quantum computing relies on the generation of large entangled cluster states that act as a universal resource on which logical circuits can be imprinted and executed through local measurements. A number of strategies for constructing sufficiently large photonic cluster states propose fusing many smaller resource states generated by a series of quantum emitters. However, the fusion process is inherently probabilistic with a 50% success probability in standard guise. A recent proposal has shown that, in the limit of low loss, the probability of achieving successful fusion may be boosted to near unity by redundantly encoding the vertices of linear graph states using Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states [Quantum 7, 992 (2023)]. Here we present a protocol for deterministically generating redundantly encoded photonic resource states using single quantum emitters, and study the impact of protocol errors and photonic losses on the generated resource states and type-II photonic fusion. Our work provides a route for efficiently constructing complex entangled photonic qubit states for photonic quantum computing and quantum repeaters.
Multiqubit entangled photonic graph states are an important ingredient for all-photonic quantum computing, repeaters, and networking. Preparing them using probabilistic stitching of single photons using linear optics presents a formidable resource challenge due to multiplexing needs. Quantum emitters provide a viable solution to prepare photonic graph states, as they enable deterministic production of photons entangled with emitter qubits and deterministic two-qubit interactions among emitters. A handful of emitters often suffice to generate useful-size graph states that would otherwise require millions of emitters used as single photon sources, using the linear-optics method. Photon loss, however, impedes the emitter method due to a large circuit depth and hence loss accrual on the photons of the graph state produced, given the typically large number of slow two-qubit controlled-not (cnot) gates between emitters. We propose an algorithm that can trade the number of emitters with the graph-state depth, while minimizing the number of emitter cnot gates. We apply our algorithm to generate a repeater graph state (RGS) for an alternative all-photonic repeater protocol, which achieves a far superior rate-distance trade-off compared to using the least number of emitters needed to generate the RGS. Yet it needs five orders of magnitude fewer emitters than the multiplexed linear-optics method---with each emitter used as a photon source---to achieve a desired rate-distance performance.