Microcavity controlled coupling of excitonic qubits

Controlled non-local energy and coherence transfer enables light harvesting in photosynthesis and non-local logical operations in quantum computing. This process is intuitively pictured by a pair of mechanical oscillators, coupled by a spring, allowing for a reversible exchange of excitation. On a microscopic level, the most relevant mechanism of coherent coupling of distant quantum bits—like trapped ions, superconducting qubits or excitons confined in semiconductor quantum dots—is coupling via the electromagnetic field. Here we demonstrate the controlled coherent coupling of spatially separated quantum dots via the photon mode of a solid state microresonator using the strong exciton–photon coupling regime. This is enabled by two-dimensional spectroscopy of the sample’s coherent response, a sensitive probe of the coherent coupling. The results are quantitatively understood in a rigorous description of the cavity-mediated coupling of the quantum dot excitons. This mechanism can be used, for instance in photonic crystal cavity networks, to enable a long-range, non-local coherent coupling.