Photonic module: An on-demand resource for photonic entanglement

Photonic entanglement has a wide range of applications in quantum computation and communication. Here we introduce a device: the photonic module, which allows for the rapid, deterministic preparation of a large class of entangled photon states. The module is an application independent, "plug and play" device, with sufficient flexibility to prepare entanglement for all major quantum computation and communication applications in a completely deterministic fashion without number-discriminated photon detection. We present two alternative constructions for the module, one using free-space components and one in a photonic band-gap structure. The natural operation of the module is to generate states within the stabilizer formalism and we present an analysis on the cavity requirements to experimentally realize this device. © 2007 The American Physical Society.