Generating universal resource states for measurement-based quantum computation out of laser light
October 28, 2019 - Leanne Yanabu
Of the many ways of making a quantum computer, the measurement-based approach is perhaps the best suited to quantum optics platforms. In this paradigm, the task of implementing a quantum algorithm is broken into two steps:
- Generate a fixed large-scale quantum state with a specific entanglement structure, known as a “cluster state”
- Implement the desired algorithm by a specific adaptive sequence of single-site measurements on the individual subsystems that make up the state
An international team of researchers, including Dr. Rafael Alexander from CQuIC, have demonstrated the first experimental generation of a cluster state (specifically, a continuous-variable cluster state) that is both large scale and has a two-dimensional entanglement structure. Both of these are requirements for large-scale measurement-based quantum computation.
This breakthrough, which appeared in Science, was achieved by a team of experimentalists at the University of Tokyo, lead by Professor Akira Furusawa.
The full experimental team involved (lead author) Warit Asavanant, Yu Shiozawa, Hiroki Emura, Baramee Charoensombutamon, Dr. Shota Yokoyama, Dr. Shuntaro Takeda, Dr. Jun-ichi Yoshikawa, and Prof. Akira Furusawa. Design of this experiment developed through collaboration between Dr. Alexander, Dr. Nicolas Menicucci at RMIT, Dr. Shota Yokoyama and Dr. Hidehiro Yonezawa at UNSW-Canberra, and Warit Asavanant, and Prof. Furusawa at the University of Tokyo.
