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New Journal of Physics

Demonstration of a photonic router via quantum walks

Huixia Gao, Kunkun Wang, Dengke Qu, Quan Lin, Peng Xue

Published May 1, 2023• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract Motivated by the need for quantum computers to communicate between multiple, well separated qubits, we introduce the task of routing the quantum state from one input mode to a superposition of several output modes coherently. We report an experimental demonstration of a deterministic photonic routing protocol applied to an entangled state. We show in a quantum walk architecture, quantum networks perfectly route entangled states from an initial input mode to an arbitrary output mode coherently and deterministically. Our results demonstrate the key principle of a perfect router, opening a route toward data routing and transferring for quantum computing systems. The routing algorithm in our work can be applied to a wide range of physical systems, which provides a way for effective design of efficient routing protocols on practical quantum networks.

DOI
10.1088/1367-2630/acd270

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Abstract Motivated by the need for quantum computers to communicate between multiple, well separated qubits, we introduce the task of routing the quantum state from one input mode to a superposition of several output modes coherently. We report an experimental demonstration of a deterministic photonic routing protocol applied to an entangled state. We show in a quantum walk architecture, quantum networks perfectly route entangled states from an initial input mode to an arbitrary output mode coherently and deterministically. Our results demonstrate the key principle of a perfect router, opening a route toward data routing and transferring for quantum computing systems. The routing algorithm in our work can be applied to a wide range of physical systems, which provides a way for effective design of efficient routing protocols on practical quantum networks.
The transfer of data is a fundamental task in information systems. Microprocessors contain dedicated data buses that transmit bits across different locations and implement sophisticated routing protocols. Transferring quantum information with high fidelity is a challenging task, due to the intrinsic fragility of quantum states. Here we report on the implementation of the perfect state transfer protocol applied to a photonic qubit entangled with another qubit at a different location. On a single device we perform three routing procedures on entangled states, preserving the encoded quantum state with an average fidelity of 97.1%, measuring in the coincidence basis. Our protocol extends the regular perfect state transfer by maintaining quantum information encoded in the polarization state of the photonic qubit. Our results demonstrate the key principle of perfect state transfer, opening a route towards data transfer for quantum computing systems.
For several decades, scientists have been aware of significant benefits allowing quantum information processing technologies to surpass their classical counterparts. Recent technological development allows these benefits to be tested experimentally and in some cases also implemented in practical devices. So far the majority of experimental quantum networks was limited to peer-to-peer communications between two parties. Practical implementation of quantum communications networks, however, needs to address the problem of scalability to serve large numbers of users. Similarly to classical computer networks, their quantum counterparts would require routing protocols to direct the signal from its source to destination. Devices implementing these routing protocols are called quantum routers and have recently been subject of an intense research. In this paper, we report on experimental implementation of a linear-optical quantum router. Our device allows single-photon polarization-encoded qubits to be routed coherently into two spatial output modes depending on the state of two identical control qubits. The polarization qubit state of the routed photon is maintained during the routing operation. The success probability of our scheme can be increased up to 25% making it the most efficient linear-optical quantum router developed to this date.
Motivated by the need for quantum computers to communicate between multiple, well separated qubits, we introduce the task of quantum routing for distributing quantum states, and generating entanglement, between these sites. We describe regular families of coupled quantum networks which perfectly route qubits between arbitrary pairs of nodes with a high transmission rate. The ability to route multiple states simultaneously and the regularity of the networks vastly improve the utility of this scheme in comparison to the task of state transfer, leading us to propose an implementation in optical lattices.
The router is a key element for a network. We describe a scheme to realize genuine quantum routing of single-photon pulses based on cascading of conditional quantum gates in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer and report a proof-of-principle experiment for its demonstration using linear optics quantum gates. The polarization of the control photon routes in a coherent way the path of the signal photon while preserving the qubit state of the signal photon represented by its polarization. We demonstrate quantum nature of this router by showing entanglement generated between the initially unentangled control and signal photons, and confirm that the qubit state of the signal photon is well preserved by the router through quantum process tomography.
We show that a perfect state transfer of an arbitrary unknown two-qubit state can be achieved via a discrete-time quantum walk with various settings of coin flips and extend this method to the distribution of an arbitrary unknown multiqubit entangled state between every pair of sites in the multidimensional network. Furthermore, we study the routing of quantum information on this network in a quantum-walk architecture, which can be used as quantum information processors to communicate between separated qubits.
A quantum router is an elementary building block for quantum-information processing. It directs the incoming quantum signal to different routes with phase coherence. To realize scalable quantum routing, a single particle needs to deterministically and coherently route the paths of a flying qubit, which requires nonlinear interaction at the single quantum level and complicated path-data qubit control so far beyond the experimental reach. Here we demonstrate a deterministic quantum router working at microwave frequencies based on superconducting circuits, which can naturally integrate with a leading platform for quantum computing. We encode the quantum signal into a weak coherent pulse and use an entanglement witness to rigorously verify the generated entanglement between the control qubit and the path of the data qubit, thus proving quantum coherence of the routing operation. Our experiment lays the foundation for useful applications of quantum routers in quantum networks and quantum random-access memories.