@article{65575, abstract = {{For the ever-growing field of quantum information processing, large-scale, efficient multiport interferometers serving as photonic processors are required. In this context, the suitability of quantum walks as the interferometric base for universal computation has been theoretically proven. In this work, we bridge the gap between theoretical proposals and state-of-the-art experimental capabilities by providing the recipe for the implementation of a universal photonic processor in discrete-time quantum walks. Specifically, we present the protocol for translating arbitrary linear transformations into the coin and step operator of a quantum walk and map these to the experimental parameters of the established time-multiplexed platform [A. Schreiber , Phys. Rev. Lett. , 050502 (2010)]. We show that our interface is highly scalable and resource efficient due to the hybrid encoding consisting of multiple degrees of freedom. Finally, we prove that our system is highly resilient against experimental imperfections and show that it compares favorably against existing architectures.}}, author = {{Lammers, Jonas and Ares, Laura and Pegoraro, Federico and Held, Philip and Brecht, Benjamin and Sperling, Jan and Silberhorn, Christine}}, issn = {{2331-7019}}, journal = {{Physical Review Applied}}, number = {{5}}, publisher = {{American Physical Society (APS)}}, title = {{{Resource-efficient universal photonic processors based on time-multiplexed hybrid architectures}}}, doi = {{10.1103/x99y-2sms}}, volume = {{25}}, year = {{2026}}, } @article{66094, abstract = {{The two-qubit controlled-not (C-NOT) gate is an essential component for gate-based quantum circuits. In fact, its operation, combined with single qubit rotations allows to realise any quantum circuit. Several strategies have been adopted in order to build quantum gates. Among them, photonics offers the dual advantage of excellent isolation from the environment and ease of manipulation at the single qubit level. Here we adopt a scalable time-multiplexed approach in order to build a fully reconfigurable architecture capable of implementing a post-selected C-NOT gate with a fidelity of (93.8 ± 1.4)%. We then show how our time-multiplexed platform can be employed to combine a C-NOT and a single qubit gate in order to generate the four Bell states.}}, author = {{Pegoraro, Federico and Held, Philip and Lammers, Jonas and Brecht, Benjamin and Silberhorn, Christine}}, issn = {{2041-1723}}, journal = {{Nature Communications}}, keywords = {{Photonic Quantum Computing, Time-multiplexing, Quantum Information}}, number = {{1}}, publisher = {{Springer Science and Business Media LLC}}, title = {{{Demonstration of a quantum C-NOT gate in a time-multiplexed fully reconfigurable photonic processor}}}, doi = {{10.1038/s41467-026-74861-9}}, volume = {{17}}, year = {{2026}}, } @article{45850, abstract = {{Interference between single photons is key for many quantum optics experiments and applications in quantum technologies, such as quantum communication or computation. It is advantageous to operate the systems at telecommunication wavelengths and to integrate the setups for these applications in order to improve stability, compactness and scalability. A new promising material platform for integrated quantum optics is lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI). Here, we realise Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) interference between telecom photons from an engineered parametric down-conversion source in an LNOI directional coupler. The coupler has been designed and fabricated in house and provides close to perfect balanced beam splitting. We obtain a raw HOM visibility of (93.5 ± 0.7) %, limited mainly by the source performance and in good agreement with off-chip measurements. This lays the foundation for more sophisticated quantum experiments in LNOI.}}, author = {{Babel, Silia and Bollmers, Laura and Massaro, Marcello and Luo, Kai Hong and Stefszky, Michael and Pegoraro, Federico and Held, Philip and Herrmann, Harald and Eigner, Christof and Brecht, Benjamin and Padberg, Laura and Silberhorn, Christine}}, issn = {{1094-4087}}, journal = {{Optics Express}}, keywords = {{Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics}}, number = {{14}}, publisher = {{Optica Publishing Group}}, title = {{{Demonstration of Hong-Ou-Mandel interference in an LNOI directional coupler}}}, doi = {{10.1364/oe.484126}}, volume = {{31}}, year = {{2023}}, } @article{42648, abstract = {{In real photonic quantum systems losses are an unavoidable factor limiting the scalability to many modes and particles, restraining their application in fields as quantum information and communication. For this reason, a considerable amount of engineering effort has been taken in order to improve the quality of particle sources and system components. At the same time, data analysis and collection methods based on post-selection have been used to mitigate the effect of particle losses. This has allowed for investigating experimentally multi-particle evolutions where the observer lacks knowledge about the system's intermediate propagation states. Nonetheless, the fundamental question how losses affect the behaviour of the surviving subset of a multi-particle system has not been investigated so far. For this reason, here we study the impact of particle losses in a quantum walk of two photons reconstructing the output probability distributions for one photon conditioned on the loss of the other in a known mode and temporal step of our evolution network. We present the underlying theoretical scheme that we have devised in order to model controlled particle losses, we describe an experimental platform capable of implementing our theory in a time multiplexing encoding. In the end we show how localized particle losses change the output distributions without altering their asymptotic spreading properties. Finally we devise a quantum civilization problem, a two walker generalisation of single particle recurrence processes.}}, author = {{Pegoraro, Federico and Held, Philip and Barkhofen, Sonja and Brecht, Benjamin and Silberhorn, Christine}}, issn = {{0031-8949}}, journal = {{Physica Scripta}}, number = {{3}}, publisher = {{IOP Publishing}}, title = {{{Dynamic conditioning of two particle discrete-time quantum walks}}}, doi = {{10.1088/1402-4896/acbcaa}}, volume = {{98}}, year = {{2023}}, } @article{30921, abstract = {{Quantum walks function as essential means to implement quantum simulators, allowing one to study complex and often directly inaccessible quantum processes in controllable systems. In this contribution, the notion of a driven Gaussian quantum walk is introduced. In contrast to typically considered quantum walks in optical settings, we describe the operation of the walk in terms of a nonlinear map rather than a unitary operation, e.g., by replacing a beam-splitter-type coin with a two-mode squeezer, being a process that is controlled and driven by a pump field. This opens previously unattainable possibilities for quantum walks that include nonlinear elements as core components of their operation, vastly extending their range of applications. A full framework for driven Gaussian quantum walks is developed, including methods to dynamically characterize nonlinear, quantum, and quantum-nonlinear effects. Moreover, driven Gaussian quantum walks are compared with their classically interfering and linear counterparts, which are based on classical coherence of light rather than quantum superpositions. In particular, the generation and boost of highly multimode entanglement, squeezing, and other quantum effects are studied over the duration of the nonlinear walk. Importantly, we prove the quantumness of the evolution itself, regardless of the input state. A scheme for an experimental realization is proposed. Furthermore, nonlinear properties of driven Gaussian quantum walks are explored, such as amplification that leads to an ever increasing number of correlated quantum particles, constituting a source of new walkers during the walk. Therefore, a concept for quantum walks is proposed that leads to—and even produces—directly accessible quantum phenomena, and that renders the quantum simulation of nonlinear processes possible.}}, author = {{Held, Philip and Engelkemeier, Melanie and De, Syamsundar and Barkhofen, Sonja and Sperling, Jan and Silberhorn, Christine}}, issn = {{2469-9926}}, journal = {{Physical Review A}}, number = {{4}}, publisher = {{American Physical Society (APS)}}, title = {{{Driven Gaussian quantum walks}}}, doi = {{10.1103/physreva.105.042210}}, volume = {{105}}, year = {{2022}}, }