Entanglement of static and flying qubits in degenerate mesoscopic systems

Abstract

The entanglement of flying qubits with static qubits in the solid state is important in the development of quantum computing. It has recently been shown theoretically that the spin-dependent scattering of a propagating electron from a bound electron is sufficient to give full entanglement between the qubits embodied in their respective spins [J. H. Jefferson et al., Europhys. Lett. 74, 764 (2006); D. Gunlycke et al., J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 18, S851 (2006)]. In this paper a generalized, real-space Anderson model is introduced for a quasi-one-dimensional structure consisting of a binding site coupled to ideal leads. Degeneracy of both the binding site and the leads is incorporated to represent, for example, conduction band degeneracy in carbon nanotubes. The model is used to calculate the spin-dependent scattering behavior and resultant static-flying qubit entanglement created by the scattering process. Degeneracy (and more generally, multiplicity) in the binding site gives rise to inelastic scattering processes. In the elastic scattering regime, a degenerate binding site gives rise to antiresonant structures in the transmission spectrum. Additional degeneracy in the leads restricts this effect to the second set of leads, raising the possibility of spin filtration, though this is eliminated in the inelastic scattering regime. Degeneracy in the binding site also gives rise to multiple resonances in transmission that will improve the probability of obtaining entangled pairs relative to the nondegenerate case. This effect is maximized when the components of the degenerate binding site are symmetrically coupled to the leads.