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arXiv:1403.4857 · Science Advances

Quantum walks and wavepacket dynamics on a lattice with twisted photons

Filippo Cardano, Francesco Massa, Hammam Qassim, Ebrahim Karimi, Sergei Slussarenko, Domenico Paparo, Corrado de Lisio, Fabio Sciarrino, Enrico Santamato, Robert W. Boyd, Lorenzo Marrucci

Published Mar 6, 2015• 206 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The "quantum walk" has emerged recently as a paradigmatic process for the dynamic simulation of complex quantum systems, entanglement production and quantum computation. Hitherto, photonic implementations of quantum walks have mainly been based on multipath interferometric schemes in real space. We report the experimental realization of a discrete quantum walk taking place in the orbital angular momentum space of light, both for a single photon and for two simultaneous photons. In contrast to previous implementations, the whole process develops in a single light beam, with no need of interferometers; it requires optical resources scaling linearly with the number of steps; and it allows flexible control of input and output superposition states. Exploiting the latter property, we explored the system band structure in momentum space and the associated spin-orbit topological features by simulating the quantum dynamics of Gaussian wavepackets. Our demonstration introduces a novel versatile photonic platform for quantum simulations.

DOI
10.1126/sciadv.1500087

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The "quantum walk" has emerged recently as a paradigmatic process for the dynamic simulation of complex quantum systems, entanglement production and quantum computation. Hitherto, photonic implementations of quantum walks have mainly been based on multipath interferometric schemes in real space. We report the experimental realization of a discrete quantum walk taking place in the orbital angular momentum space of light, both for a single photon and for two simultaneous photons. In contrast to previous implementations, the whole process develops in a single light beam, with no need of interferometers; it requires optical resources scaling linearly with the number of steps; and it allows flexible control of input and output superposition states. Exploiting the latter property, we explored the system band structure in momentum space and the associated spin-orbit topological features by simulating the quantum dynamics of Gaussian wavepackets. Our demonstration introduces a novel versatile photonic platform for quantum simulations.
The has emerged recently as a paradigmatic process for the dynamic simulation of complex quantum systems, entanglement production and quantum computation. Hitherto, photonic implementations of quantum walks have mainly been based on multi-path interferometric schemes in real space. Here, we report the experimental realization of a discrete quantum walk taking place in the orbital angular momentum space of light, both for a single photon and for two simultaneous photons. In contrast to previous implementations, the whole process develops in a single light beam, with no need of interferometers; it requires optical resources scaling linearly with the number of steps; and it allows flexible control of input and output superposition states. Exploiting the latter property, we explored the system band structure in momentum space and the associated spin-orbit topological features by simulating the quantum dynamics of Gaussian wavepackets. Our demonstration introduces a novel versatile photonic platform for quantum simulations.
Abstract Quantum walks represent paradigmatic quantum evolutions, enabling powerful applications in the context of topological physics and quantum computation. They have been implemented in diverse photonic architectures, but the realization of two-particle dynamics on a multidimensional lattice has hitherto been limited to continuous-time evolutions. To fully exploit the computational capabilities of quantum interference it is crucial to develop platforms handling multiple photons that propagate across multidimensional lattices. Here, we report a discrete-time quantum walk of two correlated photons in a two-dimensional lattice, synthetically engineered by manipulating a set of optical modes carrying quantized amounts of transverse momentum. Mode-couplings are introduced via the polarization-controlled diffractive action of thin geometric-phase optical elements. The entire platform is compact, efficient, scalable, and represents a versatile tool to simulate quantum evolutions on complex lattices. We expect that it will have a strong impact on diverse fields such as quantum state engineering, topological quantum photonics, and Boson Sampling.
Photons can carry spin angular momentum (SAM) and orbital angular momentum (OAM), which can be used to realize a qubit system and a high-dimension system, respectively. This spin-orbital system is very suitable for implementing one-dimensional discrete-time quantum random walks. We propose a simple scheme of quantum walks on the spin-orbital angular momentum space of photons, where photons walk on the infinite OAM space controlled by their SAM. By employing the recent invention of an optical device, the so-called ``qqq-plate,'' our scheme is more simple and efficient than others because there is no Mach-Zehnder interferometer in the scheme.
The manipulation of the spatial structure of a light beam has many application in both classical and quantum physics. The possibility to exploit high dimensional degrees of freedom carried by a light beam can be employed, among the various applications, for simulating the dynamics on quantum particles in multidimensional spaces. Coupling these degrees of freedom, like the orbital angular momentum or the transverse linear momentum, with the polarization of light (also associated with the spin) allows to implement quantum walks on one and two dimensional lattices. This work presents a series of experiments where these implementations of photonic quantum walks were realized exploiting patterned liquid crystal devices. In particular, the experimental setup allows to investigate interesting effects of the non-trivial topological features of the simulated processes, and test methods for the experimental measurement of topological invariants. This research has also led to the introduction of a novel method of characterizing unknown structured light beams and to the study of the stability of polarization singularities in laser beams.
The possibility of fine-tuning the couplings between optical modes is a key requirement in photonic circuits for quantum simulations. In these architectures, emulating the long-time evolution of particles across large lattices requires sophisticated setups that are often intrinsically lossy. Here we report ultra-long photonic quantum walks across several hundred optical modes, obtained by propagating a light beam through very few closely stacked liquid-crystal metasurfaces. By exploiting spin–orbit effects, these implement space-dependent polarization transformations that mix circularly polarized optical modes carrying quantized transverse momentum. As each metasurface implements long-range couplings between distant modes, by using only a few of them we simulate quantum walks up to 320 discrete steps without any optical amplification, far beyond state-of-the-art experiments. To showcase the potential of this method, we experimentally demonstrate that in the long time limit a quantum walk affected by dynamical disorder generates maximal entanglement between two system partitions. Our platform grants experimental access to large-scale unitary evolutions while keeping optical losses at a minimum, thereby paving the way to massive multi-photon multi-mode quantum simulations.
Emerged as the quantum counterpart of classical random walks, quantum walks are established precious resources in a variety of quantum sciences. Recent studies have shown that quantum walks may be characterized by topological invariants, in close analogy to condensed matter systems exhibiting topological order. Exploiting these features, quantum walks are currently used to simulate topological systems and to probe their exotic features. Here we present the implementation of a one-dimensional quantum walk protocol based on the orbital angular momentum of light, manifesting the topological phases that characterize time-periodic systems (Floquet topological insulators) showing chiral symmetry. By considering the orbital angular momentum spectrum of a light beam undergoing this quantum evolution, we show that the associated statistical moments have marked differences in distinct phases and contain information on the system topology. While varying a control parameter determining the value of the invariants, these moments in the large step-number limit exhibit a sharp variation at the phase changes. We show that these phenomena arise from the singular behavior of the dispersion relation at the transition points. The extension of our results to systems featuring different symmetries, or characterized by higher spatial dimensions, may unveil novel intriguing features associated with these complex systems.