Photonic chips have advantages in terms of scalability and the ease with which individual qubits can be manipulated. When compared to other physical systems, light-based qubits, or photons, may be easier to manipulate and maintain coherence. As a result, they are attractive candidates for developing scalable quantum processors for specific types of computations.
Scientists have taken a significant step toward developing computers capable of simulating complex natural phenomena at the quantum level. While these types of simulations are too difficult or impossible for traditional computers to handle, photonics-based quantum computing systems may offer a solution.
A team of researchers from the University of Rochester’s Hajim School of Engineering & Applied Sciences created a new chip-scale optical quantum simulation system that could aid in the development of such a system. The findings were published in Nature Photonics by a team led by Qiang Lin, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and optics.
For the first time, we have been able to produce a quantum-correlated synthetic crystal. Our approach significantly extends the dimensions of the synthetic space, enabling us to perform simulations of several quantum-scale phenomena such as random walks of quantum entangled photons.
Qiang Lin
Lin’s team ran the simulations in a synthetic space that mimics the physical world by varying the frequency, or color, of quantum entangled photons over time. This method differs from traditional photonics-based computing methods in that photon paths are not controlled, and it also significantly reduces the physical footprint and resource requirements.
“For the first time, we have been able to produce a quantum-correlated synthetic crystal,” says Lin. “Our approach significantly extends the dimensions of the synthetic space, enabling us to perform simulations of several quantum-scale phenomena such as random walks of quantum entangled photons.”
The concept of quantum simulators could be related to the “scalable quantum simulations on a photonic chip” that you mentioned. Quantum simulators are specialized quantum computers that are designed to simulate the behavior of complex quantum systems that are difficult to model with traditional computers. These simulators could be built on a variety of quantum platforms, including photonic chips.
According to the researchers, this system can be used as a foundation for more complex simulations in the future.
“Though the systems being simulated are well understood, this proof-of-principle experiment demonstrates the power of this new approach for scaling up to more complex simulations and computation tasks, something we are very excited to investigate in the future,” says Usman Javid ’23 PhD (optics), the lead author on the study.
