Optomechanical transducers for quantum-information processing

We discuss the implementation of optical quantum networks where the interface between stationary and photonic qubits is realized by optomechanical transducers K. Stannigel et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 220501 (2010). This approach does not rely on the optical properties of the qubit and thereby enables optical quantum communication applications for a wide range of solid-state spin- and charge-based systems. We present an effective description of such networks for many qubits and give a derivation of a state transfer protocol for long-distance quantum communication. We also describe how to mediate local on-chip interactions by means of the optomechanical transducers that can be used for entangling gates. We finally discuss experimental systems for the realization of our proposal.