Peter Shadbolt

Universal linear optics

Complex quantum optical circuitry Encoding and manipulating information in the states of single photons provides a potential platform for quantum computing and communication. Carolan et al. developed a reconfigurable integrated waveguide device fabricated in a glass chip (see the Perspective by Rohde and Dowling). The device allowed for universal linear optics transformations on six wave-guides using 15 integrated Mach-Zehnder interferometers, each of which was individually programmable. Functional performance in a number of applications in optics and quantum optics demonstrates the versatility of the devices reprogrammable architecture. Science, this issue p. 711; see also p. 696 A reconfigurable optical circuit provides a platform for a photonically-based quantum computer. [Also see Perspective by Rohde and Dowling] Linear optics underpins fundamental tests of quantum mechanics and quantum technologies. We demonstrate a single reprogrammable optical circuit that is sufficient to implement all possible linear optical protocols up to the size of that circuit. Our six-mode universal system consists of a cascade of 15 Mach-Zehnder interferometers with 30 thermo-optic phase shifters integrated into a single photonic chip that is electrically and optically interfaced for arbitrary setting of all phase shifters, input of up to six photons, and their measurement with a 12-single-photon detector system. We programmed this system to implement heralded quantum logic and entangling gates, boson sampling with verification tests, and six-dimensional complex Hadamards. We implemented 100 Haar random unitaries with an average fidelity of 0.999 ± 0.001. Our system can be rapidly reprogrammed to implement these and any other linear optical protocol, pointing the way to applications across fundamental science and quantum technologies.

Generating, manipulating and measuring entanglement and mixture with a reconfigurable photonic circuit

Researchers demonstrate a reconfigurable integrated quantum photonic circuit. The device comprises a two-qubit entangling gate, several Hadamard-like gates and eight variable phase shifters. The set-up is used to generate entangled states, violate a Bell-type inequality with a continuum of partially entangled states and demonstrate the generation of arbitrary one-qubit mixed states.

A quantum delayed-choice experiment.

Delaying Quantum Choice Photons can display wavelike or particle-like behavior, depending on the experimental technique used to measure them. Understanding this duality lies at the heart of quantum mechanics. In two reports, Peruzzo et al. (p. 634) and Kaiser et al. (p. 637; see the Perspective on both papers by Lloyd) perform an entangled version of John Wheelers delayed-choice gedanken experiment, in which the choice of detection can be changed after a photon passes through a double-slit to avoid the measurement process affecting the state of the photon. The original proposal allowed the wave and particle nature of light to be interchanged after the light had entered the interferometer. By contrast in this study, entanglement allowed the wave and particle nature to be interchanged after the light was detected and revealed the quantum nature of the photon, for example, it displays wave- and particle-like behavior simultaneously. Quantum entanglement is used to probe the nature of the photon. Quantum systems exhibit particle- or wavelike behavior depending on the experimental apparatus they are confronted by. This wave-particle duality is at the heart of quantum mechanics. Its paradoxical nature is best captured in the delayed-choice thought experiment, in which a photon is forced to choose a behavior before the observer decides what to measure. Here, we report on a quantum delayed-choice experiment in which both particle and wave behaviors are investigated simultaneously. The genuinely quantum nature of the photon’s behavior is certified via nonlocality, which here replaces the delayed choice of the observer in the original experiment. We observed strong nonlocal correlations, which show that the photon must simultaneously behave both as a particle and as a wave.

A variational eigenvalue solver on a photonic quantum processor

Quantum computers promise to efficiently solve important problems that are intractable on a conventional computer. For quantum systems, where the physical dimension grows exponentially, finding the eigenvalues of certain operators is one such intractable problem and remains a fundamental challenge. The quantum phase estimation algorithm efficiently finds the eigenvalue of a given eigenvector but requires fully coherent evolution. Here we present an alternative approach that greatly reduces the requirements for coherent evolution and combine this method with a new approach to state preparation based on ansätze and classical optimization. We implement the algorithm by combining a highly reconfigurable photonic quantum processor with a conventional computer. We experimentally demonstrate the feasibility of this approach with an example from quantum chemistry—calculating the ground-state molecular energy for He–H+. The proposed approach drastically reduces the coherence time requirements, enhancing the potential of quantum resources available today and in the near future.

On the experimental verification of quantum complexity in linear optics

Scalable methods employing a random unitary chip and a quantum walk chip are developed to experimentally verify correct operation for large-scale boson sampling. Experimental analysis reveals that the resulting statistics of the output of a linear interferometer fed by indistinguishable single-photon states exhibits true non-classical characteristics.

Testing foundations of quantum mechanics with photons

Starting with wave-particle duality, experiments with light have played a major role in the development of quantum theory. Advances in photonic technologies allow for improved tests of quantum complementarity, delayed-choice and nonlocality.

Guaranteed violation of a Bell inequality without aligned reference frames or calibrated devices

Bell tests — the experimental demonstration of a Bell inequality violation — are central to understanding the foundations of quantum mechanics, and are a powerful diagnostic tool for the development of quantum technologies. To date, Bell tests have relied on careful calibration of measurement devices and alignment of a shared reference frame between two parties — both technically demanding tasks. We show that neither of these operations are necessary, violating Bell inequalities (i) with certainty using unaligned, but calibrated, measurement devices, and (ii) with near-certainty using uncalibrated and unaligned devices. We demonstrate generic quantum nonlocality with randomly chosen measurements on a singlet state of two photons, implemented using a reconfigurable integrated optical waveguide circuit. The observed results demonstrate the robustness of our schemes to imperfections and statistical noise. This approach is likely to have important applications both in fundamental science and quantum technologies, including device-independent quantum key distribution.

Towards practical quantum metrology with photon counting

Jonathan C. F. Matthews∗, †, , Xiao-Qi Zhou∗, , Hugo Cable∗‡, , Peter J. Shadbolt∗, , Dylan J. Saunders, Gabriel A. Durkin, Geoff J. Pryde§, , Jeremy L. O’Brien¶, 1 1 Centre for Quantum Photonics, H. H. Wills Physics Laboratory and Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Bristol, Merchant Venturers Building, Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1UB, UK. 2 Centre for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore 3 Centre for Quantum Dynamics and Centre for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology, Griffith University, Brisbane 4111, Australia 4 Google/NASA QuAIL, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California 94035, USA (Dated: May 11, 2014)

Quantum-enhanced tomography of unitary processes

A fundamental task in photonics is to characterize an unknown optical process, defined by properties such as birefringence, spectral response, thickness and flatness. Among many ways to achieve this, single-photon probes can be used in a method called quantum process tomography (QPT). However, the precision of QPT is limited by unavoidable shot noise when implemented using single-photon probes or laser light. In situations where measurement resources are limited, for example, where the process (sample) to be probed is very delicate such that the exposure to light has a detrimental effect on the sample, it becomes essential to overcome this precision limit. Here we devise a scheme for process tomography with a quantum-enhanced precision by drawing upon techniques from quantum metrology. We implement a proof-of-principle experiment to demonstrate this scheme—four-photon quantum states are used to probe an unknown arbitrary unitary process realized with an arbitrary polarization rotation. Our results show a substantial reduction of statistical fluctuations compared to traditional QPT methods—in the ideal case, one four-photon probe state yields the same amount of statistical information as twelve single probe photons.

Witnessing eigenstates for quantum simulation of Hamiltonian spectra

We introduce the concept of an eigenstate witness and use it to find energies of quantum systems with quantum computers. The efficient calculation of Hamiltonian spectra, a problem often intractable on classical machines, can find application in many fields, from physics to chemistry. We introduce the concept of an “eigenstate witness” and, through it, provide a new quantum approach that combines variational methods and phase estimation to approximate eigenvalues for both ground and excited states. This protocol is experimentally verified on a programmable silicon quantum photonic chip, a mass-manufacturable platform, which embeds entangled state generation, arbitrary controlled unitary operations, and projective measurements. Both ground and excited states are experimentally found with fidelities >99%, and their eigenvalues are estimated with 32 bits of precision. We also investigate and discuss the scalability of the approach and study its performance through numerical simulations of more complex Hamiltonians. This result shows promising progress toward quantum chemistry on quantum computers.