Generation and sampling of quantum states of light in a silicon chip
Abstract
Implementing large instances of quantum algorithms1-5 requires the processing of many quantum information carriers in a hardware platform that supports the integration of different components6. Although established semiconductor fabrication processes can integrate many photonic components7, the generation and algorithmic processing of many photons has been a bottleneck in integrated photonics. Here, we report the on-chip generation and algorithmic processing of quantum states of light with up to eight photons. Switching between different optical pumping regimes, we implement the scattershot8,9, Gaussian10 and standard boson sampling3,11-14 protocols in the same silicon chip, which integrates linear and nonlinear photonic circuitry. We use these results to benchmark a quantum algorithm for calculating molecular vibronic spectra4. Our techniques can be readily scaled for the on-chip implementation of specialized quantum algorithms with tens of photons, pointing the way to efficiency advantages over conventional computers15.
- Publication:
-
Nature Physics
- Pub Date:
- July 2019
- DOI:
- 10.1038/s41567-019-0567-8
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1812.03158
- Bibcode:
- 2019NatPh..15..925P
- Keywords:
-
- Quantum Physics;
- Physics - Optics
- E-Print:
- doi:10.1038/s41567-019-0567-8