Proposal for weaving light-matter qubits listed among "most cited papers"

ScienceWatch.com, a science metrics service from Thomson Reuters, has identified work by CQT’s Dimitris Angelakis and Alastair Kay as among the most cited papers in quantum computing in the two years to December 2009.

The paper, “Weaving light-matter qubits into a one way quantum computer” (New J. Phys. 10, 023012 (2008), arXiv:0707.3946), describes a four-step procedure for creating a cluster state in a hybrid light-matter system. Dimitris and his collaborators had earlier proposed using photons in a similar hybrid light-matter system as a new technology for quantum simulations (Phys. Rev. A 76, 031805 (2007)).

By ScienceWatch.com’s count, the paper extending the idea to cluster state quantum computing was tenth among the most cited papers of the past two years to have “quantum comput*” in the title (download the full list here). The concept of cluster state quantum computing, in which algorithms are implemented through a sequence of measurements on a large entangled state of many qubits, is considered a promising route to a scalable quantum computer. It’s an exciting alternative to the more standard circuit model of quantum computing. The qubits in the hybrid light-matter system consist of photons-trapped in micro-cavities interacting with atoms.

More recently, Dimitris and his group members have been considering hollow-core photonic crystal fibers as a promising technology for the experimental implementation of these ideas (arXiv:1006.1644). The CQT researchers look forward to their proposals being tested in the lab.
In this animation, blue spheres represent qubits and dotted lines represent operations being performed to entangle them. Click next to scroll through the four steps the paper proposes to create a two-dimensional cluster state, described by the researchers as “weaving” because of the way the qubits interact with their next-nearest neighbours first in one direction and then in the other.