Implementation of Atom-Photon Interfaces for Quantum Networking

Considerable effort is being made to realize all the elements required for a distributed quantum network [1]. Ideally such a network would be composed of individual nodes acting as quantum gates/memories, connected together by optical links. Recent work in cavity-QED has shown that it is possible to deterministically create single photons. The narrow bandwidth (MHz) and coherence properties of these photons can be controlled to create atom-photon, as well as photon-photon entanglement [2]. The goals of our work are to build on photon sources for implementing the quantum memories and state mapping schemes required in a quantum network.