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Quantum photonics

Quantum optics on a chip

Nature Photonics volume 3, pages 317–319 (2009)Cite this article

Researchers have demonstrated a reconfigurable photonic circuit on a chip that can create a four-photon entangled state. The scalability and compactness of the device opens the door towards practical quantum computation.

In the latest work from the quantum photonics group at the University of Bristol, described on page 346 of this issue, Jonathan Matthews and colleagues report the construction of a reconfigurable quantum optical circuit on a chip and the control of entangled states with up to four photons1. The heart of their device is a simple heating element that changes the phase in one arm of an interferometer. This circuit serves as a building block for potentially constructing arbitrarily large quantum optical circuits, an important step in the quest for quantum computation2.

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Figure 1: The new device and its proposed use for general interferometers.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dominic W. Berry is in the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada.,

    Dominic W. Berry

  2. Howard M. Wiseman is in the Centre for Quantum Dynamics at Griffith University, Nathan, Brisbane, Queensland 4111, Australia.,

    Howard M. Wiseman

Authors
  1. Dominic W. Berry
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  2. Howard M. Wiseman
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Correspondence to Howard M. Wiseman.

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Berry, D., Wiseman, H. Quantum optics on a chip. Nature Photon 3, 317–319 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2009.84

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2009.84

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