Coherent fluorescence resonance energy transfer: Construction of nonlocal multiparticle entangled states and quantum computing

Institut de Physique de la Matière Condensée, Université de Lausanne CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland

Received: 6 August 2002
Accepted: 25 April 2003

Abstract

The coherent Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) combined with Scanning Near-Field Optical Microscopy (SNOM) are proposed for the creation of complex and nonlocal entangled states involving hundreds of atoms. Micro- and milli-second decoherence times of the electron excitation occur for rare-earth dopant ions in crystals at low temperatures, and we show that the characteristic coherent FRET distances for such systems are of the order of 20. Thus, both position and time precision necessary for the quantum manipulation can be attained by modern SNOM technology. Potential applications for quantum computing are discussed.