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Microoptics Conference

Photonic Quantum Computing

Mark G. Thompson

Published Sep 24, 2023• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Many efforts around the world are now pursuing the ambitious goal of utility-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computing. Consistent themes are emerging across the field, as teams attempt to scale from existing small systems to the millions of qubits needed for useful applications. Systems partitioning, manufacturability, cooling power, networking, and control electronics are recurring challenges across all qubit technologies. PsiQuantum has pursued a photonic approach, based on qubits implemented using optical photons propagating in lithographically fabricated waveguides. In this talk we will give a broad overview of recent progress, framed against these major scaling challenges. We will describe the basic requirements for photonic quantum computing, the advantages and disadvantages of our approach, and the current state of maturity of the technology.

DOI
10.23919/moc58607.2023.10302854

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Many efforts around the world are now pursuing the ambitious goal of utility-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computing. Consistent themes are emerging across the field, as teams attempt to scale from existing small systems to the millions of qubits needed for useful applications. Systems partitioning, manufacturability, cooling power, networking, and control electronics are recurring challenges across all qubit technologies. PsiQuantum has pursued a photonic approach, based on qubits implemented using optical photons propagating in lithographically fabricated waveguides. In this talk we will give a broad overview of recent progress, framed against these major scaling challenges. We will describe the basic requirements for photonic quantum computing, the advantages and disadvantages of our approach, and the current state of maturity of the technology.
Quantum computing promises to transform almost every industry, and as such there is currently a huge industrial and academic effort to realize the world’s first useful quantum computer, requiring ~1,000,000 physical qubits. Of the various technological approaches being pursued, photons are particularly appealing due to their low noise properties, ease of manipulation and compatibility with existing and established CMOS manufacturing techniques – through silicon photonics. In this talk I will outline the photonic approach to quantum computing, introducing the integrated quantum photonic circuit and highlighting routes to a scalable quantum technology platform.
It is increasingly accepted that all commercially useful quantum computing applications require error-correction and therefore at least 1 million physical qubits. The manufacturing capability and expertise of the semiconductor industry are needed to deliver a commercially useful quantum computer on any reasonable time or money scale. In this talk, we will show how unique technology in the areas of silicon photonics and quantum system architecture enable the path to manufacturability and scalability of a fault-tolerant, general-purpose 1-milliion qubit quantum computer.
General purpose quantum computers will utilize millions of physical qubits, thus requiring an underlying qubit technology that can be manufactured at scale. Integrated silicon photonics is an intrinsically scalable and manufacturable platform where all necessary gates are available to manipulate qubits, encoded in photons, with very high fidelity and low noise. In this talk, we will discuss architectures for fault-tolerant quantum computing with photonics in the newly-introduced fusion-based quantum computing paradigm. Fusion-based quantum computing presents a new framework for fault-tolerant quantum computation, focused on the efficient integration of quantum error correction and physical-level hardware operations. Its primitives, small entangled resource states and projective entangling gates, make it particularly useful in an integrated photonics platform, offering significant architectural simplifications and reducing requirements on physical level operations.
Abstract In the pursuit of scalable and fault-tolerant quantum computing architectures, photonic-based systems have emerged as a leading frontier. This comprehensive review examines recent advances across key industry and academic players—including iPronics, Jiuzhang (USTC), ORCA Computing, Photonic Inc., PsiQuantum, Quandela, Quix Quantum, TundraSystems, TuringQ, and Xanadu—analyzing their photonic quantum processors, current performance benchmarks, architectural designs, quantum software ecosystems, and strategies toward developing large-scale fault-tolerant photonic quantum computers. The article highlights groundbreaking experiments that leverage the unique advantages of photonic technologies and underscoring their transformative potential in the NISQ and early fault‑tolerant regimes. With the global photonics market projected to reach USD 837.8 billion by 2025, this work captures photonic quantum computing’s pivotal moment in the early fault-tolerant era, offering forward‑looking insights into how photonic quantum computers may reshape the future of quantum technologies.
Integrated photonic quantum chips have emerged as a promising platform for realizing fault-tolerant photonic quantum computers. Compared with bulk-optics systems, integrated photonics offer compact device footprints, enhanced programmability, and exceptional stability, attributes that are essential for executing large-scale and computationally demanding quantum tasks. In this review, we provide a comprehensive overview of recent advances in both discrete-variable and continuous-variable universal photonic quantum computation. We survey progress in fault-tolerant architectures and state-of-the-art integrated platforms and highlight the key challenges that must be addressed to scale photonic systems toward full fault tolerance. Finally, we outline future opportunities and research directions aimed at bridging the gap between current proof-of-principle demonstrations and fully scalable quantum microprocessors.