"Careful retooling of laser beams allows scientists to harness photons for performing quantum calculations.
The optical parametric oscillator used as the quantum light source.
Quantum computers are built from qubits: physical objects with properties that have one of two possible results when measured. The prototypical example is an electron, whose spin will always show as either clockwise or counterclockwise.
Now physicists have demonstrated an alternative foundation for quantum computers called qumodes, which were first proposed in 2001. Their measured properties — in this case, the brightness of a light pulse — can vary along a continuum instead of consisting of just two discrete possibilities1.
To create qumodes, Shunya Konno at the University of Tokyo and his collaborators carefully modified laser pulses by removing one photon at a time and creating interference between pairs of pulses. They then demonstrated that the resulting pulses had the properties that would be required, both to perform ‘digital’ quantum computations and to correct errors in those computations.
This means that, with further work, a few photonic qumodes could perform the same kinds of quantum algorithm that require hundreds or even thousands of qubits in ordinary quantum computers.
Theoretical studies have suggested that qumode-based photonic quantum computers could be faster than qubit-based machines, and easier to build at large scales without becoming impractically prone to computational errors." [1]
1. Nature 626, 11 (2024)
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