Abstract

Quantum information science aims to harness uniquely quantum mechanical properties to enhance measurement, information and communication technologies, as well as to explore fundamental aspects of quantum physics. Of the various approaches to quantum computing [1], photons are particularly appealing for their low-noise properties and ease of manipulation at the single qubit level [2]. Encoding quantum information in photons is also an appealing approach to other quantum technologies [3], including quantum communication, metrology [4] and measurement [5]. We have developed an integrated waveguide approach to photonic quantum circuits for high performance, miniaturization and scalability [6–10]. We have begun to address the challenges of scaling up quantum circuits using new insights into how controlled operations can be efficiently realised [11], and demonstrated Shor’s algorithm with consecutive CNOT gates [12] and the iterative phase estimation algorithm [13]. We have shown how quantum circuits can be reconfigured, using thermo-optic phase shifters to realise a highly reconfigurable quantum circuit able to perform almost any function on two photonic qubits [14], and electro-optic phase shifters in lithium niobate to rapidly manipulate the path and polarisation of telecomm wavelength single photons [15]. We have addressed miniaturisation using multimode interference coupler architectures to directly implement NxN Hadamard operations and the ‘Boson sampling problem’ [16], and by using high refractive index contrast materials such as SiO_xN_y, in which we have implemented quantum walks of correlated photons [17], and Si [18], in which we have demonstrated generation of orbital angular momentum states of light [19]. We have incorporated microfluidic channels for the delivery of samples to measure the concentration of a blood protein with entangled states of light [20]. We have begun to address the integration of superconducting single photon detectors [21] and diamond [22,23] and non-linear [24–6] single photon sources. Finally, we give an overview of recent work on fundamental aspects of quantum measurement, including a quantum version of Wheeler’s delayed choice experiment [27].

© 2013 IEEE