Scalable Quantum Networks with Atoms and Photons H. Jeff Kimble, William L. Valentine Professor and Professor of Physics, Caltech

In the new science of quantum information, distributed quantum networks are playing an increasingly important role, including for quantum computation, communication, and metrology. Quantum information is generated, processed, and stored locally in quantum nodes. These nodes are linked by quantum channels that transport quantum states from site to site with high fidelity, and that distribute entanglement across the entire network. Even with relatively modest processing capabilities, such an envisioned quantum internet could accomplish tasks that are otherwise impossible within the realm of classical physics. Certainly, current laboratory capabilities are primitive relative to those required for the robust and scalable implementation of sophisticated network protocols. Nevertheless, in recent years there have been important advances in optical physics with single atoms and photons that demonstrate fundamental primitives for quantum networks. Recent research in this area by the Caltech Quantum Optics Group will be reviewed, including the coherent mapping of entanglement to and from a quantum memory, the realization of a new paradigm for cavity QED, and the reversible transfer of a coherent state of light to and from a single trapped atom.