Conversion from single photon to single electron spin using electrically controllable quantum dots

Polarization is a fundamental property of light and could provide various solutions to the development of secure optical communications with high capacity and high speed. In particular, the coherent quantum state conversion between single photons and single electron spins is a prerequisite for long-distance quantum communications and distributed quantum computation. Electrically defined quantum dots have already been proven to be suitable for scalable solid state qubits by demonstrations of single-spin coherent manipulations and two-qubit gate operations. Thus, their capacity for quantum information technologies would be considerably extended by the achievement of entanglement between an electron spin in the quantum dots and a photon. In this review paper, we show the basic technologies for trapping single electrons generated by single photons in quantum dots and for detecting their spins using the Pauli effect with sensitive charge sensors.