Experimental boson sampling

Author(s)

Max Tillmann, Borivoje Dakic, Rene Heilmann, Stefan Nolte, Alexander Szameit, Philip Walther

Abstract

Universal quantum computers¹ promise a dramatic increase in speed over classical computers, but their full-size realization remains challenging². However, intermediate quantum computational models^{3, 4, 5}

have been proposed that are not universal but can solve problems that

are believed to be classically hard. Aaronson and Arkhipov⁶

have shown that interference of single photons in random optical

networks can solve the hard problem of sampling the bosonic output

distribution. Remarkably, this computation does not require

measurement-based interactions^{7, 8} or adaptive feed-forward techniques⁹.

Here, we demonstrate this model of computation using laser-written

integrated quantum networks that were designed to implement unitary

matrix transformations. We characterize the integrated devices using an in situ reconstruction method and observe three-photon interference^{10, 11, 12}

that leads to the boson-sampling output distribution. Our results set a

benchmark for a type of quantum computer with the potential to

outperform a conventional computer through the use of only a few photons

and linear-optical elements¹³.

Organisation(s)

Quantum Optics, Quantum Nanophysics and Quantum Information

External organisation(s)

Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena

Journal

Nature Photonics

Volume

7

Pages

540-544

No. of pages

5

ISSN

1749-4885

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1038/NPHOTON.2013.102

Publication date

07-2013

Peer reviewed

Yes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

103026 Quantum optics, 103025 Quantum mechanics, 103040 Photonics

Keywords

Portal url

https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/experimental-boson-sampling(4e66b559-81d7-49f9-b879-96017242c4d5).html