article published Jonas Lammers author Laura Ares author Federico Pegoraro author 88928 Philip Held author 68236 Benjamin Brecht author 271500000-0003-4140-0556 Jan Sperling author 751270000-0002-5844-3205 Christine Silberhorn author 26263 623 department 15 department 170 department 706 department 429 department <jats:p>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.</jats:p> American Physical Society (APS)2026 eng 2331-701910.1103/x99y-2sms 255 J. Lammers, L. Ares, F. Pegoraro, P. Held, B. Brecht, J. Sperling, C. Silberhorn, Physical Review Applied 25 (2026). @article{Lammers_Ares_Pegoraro_Held_Brecht_Sperling_Silberhorn_2026, title={Resource-efficient universal photonic processors based on time-multiplexed hybrid architectures}, volume={25}, DOI={<a href="https://doi.org/10.1103/x99y-2sms">10.1103/x99y-2sms</a>}, number={5054011}, journal={Physical Review Applied}, publisher={American Physical Society (APS)}, author={Lammers, Jonas and Ares, Laura and Pegoraro, Federico and Held, Philip and Brecht, Benjamin and Sperling, Jan and Silberhorn, Christine}, year={2026} } Lammers, Jonas, et al. “Resource-Efficient Universal Photonic Processors Based on Time-Multiplexed Hybrid Architectures.” <i>Physical Review Applied</i>, vol. 25, no. 5, 054011, American Physical Society (APS), 2026, doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1103/x99y-2sms">10.1103/x99y-2sms</a>. J. Lammers <i>et al.</i>, “Resource-efficient universal photonic processors based on time-multiplexed hybrid architectures,” <i>Physical Review Applied</i>, vol. 25, no. 5, Art. no. 054011, 2026, doi: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1103/x99y-2sms">10.1103/x99y-2sms</a>. Lammers, Jonas, Laura Ares, Federico Pegoraro, Philip Held, Benjamin Brecht, Jan Sperling, and Christine Silberhorn. “Resource-Efficient Universal Photonic Processors Based on Time-Multiplexed Hybrid Architectures.” <i>Physical Review Applied</i> 25, no. 5 (2026). <a href="https://doi.org/10.1103/x99y-2sms">https://doi.org/10.1103/x99y-2sms</a>. Lammers, J., Ares, L., Pegoraro, F., Held, P., Brecht, B., Sperling, J., &#38; Silberhorn, C. (2026). Resource-efficient universal photonic processors based on time-multiplexed hybrid architectures. <i>Physical Review Applied</i>, <i>25</i>(5), Article 054011. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1103/x99y-2sms">https://doi.org/10.1103/x99y-2sms</a> Lammers J, Ares L, Pegoraro F, et al. Resource-efficient universal photonic processors based on time-multiplexed hybrid architectures. <i>Physical Review Applied</i>. 2026;25(5). doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1103/x99y-2sms">10.1103/x99y-2sms</a> 655752026-05-07T07:00:08Z2026-05-07T07:01:09Z