Semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) are able to confine single charges on the nanoscale in all three dimensions of space, making them excellent systems for exploring quantum phenomena. In particular, QDs have demonstrated outstanding performance as sources of entangled and indistinguishable photon pairs, properties highly desired in the fields of quantum communication and -information processing. Here I report on the advances of QDs as potential resources for photonic quantum networks, which allow to overcome the fundamental range limitations of single photon-based applications. After an introduction to the underlying mechanisms of entangled photon pair generation, I demonstrate several building blocks of quantum networks, with quantum key distribution as a prime application.
Quantum cryptography can provide security guarantees against adversaries with unlimited computational power, which motivates research towards a quantum internet. However, widely used Poisson-distributed sources limit the maximal security level and communication rate of such quantum networks. This can be overcome by quantum dot single-photon sources. We show that quantum dots provide additional security benefits based on the tunability of number state coherence. We identify the optimal quantum dot setting for the main quantum-cryptographic primitives and benchmark their performance. Our work is extended by results on network-based blind quantum computing with classical clients, which will make secure quantum computing more accessible.
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