Harmonizing continuous noise to build a modular photonic quantum computer

Yong‐Su Kim, Heedeuk Shin, Joonsuk Huh

Montasir Qasymeh, Hichem Eleuch

Coherent quantum microwave transmission is key to realizing modular superconducting quantum computers and distributed quantum networks. However, a large number of incoherent photons are thermally generated in the microwave frequency spectrum. Hence, coherent transmission of microwave fields has long been believed to be infeasible without refrigeration. In this work, we propose a novel method for coherent microwave transmission using a typical microwave waveguide at room temperature. The proposed scheme considers two cryogenic nodes (i.e., a transmitter and a receiver) connected by a room-temperature microwave waveguide. At the receiver side, we implement a cryogenic loop antenna coupled to an LC harmonic oscillator inside the output port of the waveguide, while the LC harmonic oscillator is located outside the waveguide. The loop antenna converts the quantum microwave fields (which contain both signal and thermal noise photons) to a quantum voltage across the coupled LC harmonic oscillator. We show that by properly designing the loop antenna, the number of detected noise photons can be significantly less than one. Simultaneously, the detected signal photons can be maintained at a sufficient number greater than one by transmitting a proper number of photons at the input port of the waveguide. For example, we show that for a 10 GHz microwave signal, when using a room-temperature transmission waveguide of 5m length, 35 coherent photons are detected across the LC circuit by transmitting 32x10^4 signal photons at the input port of the waveguide. Interestingly, the number of detected noise photons is maintained as small as 6.3x10^-3. The microwave transmission scheme proposed in this work paves the way towards realizing practical modular quantum computers with a simple architecture.

Yun Zheng, Xinyu Jia, Jianwei Wang

J. Eli Bourassa, Rafael N. Alexander, Ben Q. Baragiola +1 more

Photonics is the platform of choice to build a modular, easy-to-network quantum computer operating at room temperature. However, no concrete architecture has been presented so far that exploits both the advantages of qubits encoded into states of light and the modern tools for their generation. Here we propose such a design for a scalable fault-tolerant photonic quantum computer informed by the latest developments in theory and technology. Central to our architecture is the generation and manipulation of three-dimensional resource states comprising both bosonic qubits and squeezed vacuum states. The proposal exploits state-of-the-art procedures for the non-deterministic generation of bosonic qubits combined with the strengths of continuous-variable quantum computation, namely the implementation of Clifford gates using easy-to-generate squeezed states. Moreover, the architecture is based on two-dimensional integrated photonic chips used to produce a qubit cluster state in one temporal and two spatial dimensions. By reducing the experimental challenges as compared to existing architectures and by enabling room-temperature quantum computation, our design opens the door to scalable fabrication and operation, which may allow photonics to leap-frog other platforms on the path to a quantum computer with millions of qubits.

Cheryl Seow

J. Eli Bourassa, Rafael N. Alexander, Michael Vasmer +10 more

Photonics is the platform of choice to build a modular, easy-to-network quantum computer operating at room temperature. However, no concrete architecture has been presented so far that exploits both the advantages of qubits encoded into states of light and the modern tools for their generation. Here we propose such a design for a scalable fault-tolerant photonic quantum computer informed by the latest developments in theory and technology. Central to our architecture is the generation and manipulation of three-dimensional resource states comprising both bosonic qubits and squeezed vacuum states. The proposal exploits state-of-the-art procedures for the non-deterministic generation of bosonic qubits combined with the strengths of continuous-variable quantum computation, namely the implementation of Clifford gates using easy-to-generate squeezed states. Moreover, the architecture is based on two-dimensional integrated photonic chips used to produce a qubit cluster state in one temporal and two spatial dimensions. By reducing the experimental challenges as compared to existing architectures and by enabling room-temperature quantum computation, our design opens the door to scalable fabrication and operation, which may allow photonics to leap-frog other platforms on the path to a quantum computer with millions of qubits.