Timestamp boson sampling

Abstract

Quantum advantage, benchmarking the computational power of quantum machines outperforming all classical computers in a specific task, represents a crucial milestone in developing quantum computers and has been driving different physical implementations since the concept was proposed. A boson sampling machine, an analog quantum computer that only requires multiphoton interference and single-photon detection, is considered to be a promising candidate to reach this goal. However, the probabilistic nature of photon sources and the inevitable loss in evolution network make the execution time exponentially increasing with the problem size. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a timestamp boson sampling scheme that can effectively reduce the execution time for any problem size. By developing a time-of-flight storage technique with a precision up to picosecond level, we are able to detect and record the complete time information of 30 individual modes out of a large-scale 3D photonic chip. We perform the three-photon injection and one external trigger experiment to demonstrate that the timestamp protocol works properly and effectively reduce the execution time. We further verify that timestamp boson sampler is distinguished from other samplers in the case of limited datasets through the three heralded single photons injection experiment. The timestamp protocol can speed up the sampling process, which can be widely applied in multiphoton experiments at low-sampling rate. The approach associated with newly exploited resource from time information can boost all the count-rate-limited experiments, suggesting an emerging field of timestamp quantum optics.

Integrated Photonic Computing beyond the von Neumann Architecture

“…Signal photons are validated through the coincidences with the triggers. (b) Adapted with permission from ref . Copyright 2022 The Authors, .…”

“…Generally, the time stamp of the validated signal photons reflects the probability of photons arriving at the output ports of the photonic chip. The relation is given by the following equation: p i = τ i − 1 ∑ i τ i − 1 where τ i is the time stamp of the photon detected at the output port i , and p i is the normalized probability. In our proposed protocol, the time stamps of the first (few) photons can be used to reconstruct the probability distribution according to eq , which greatly reduces the number of photons needed to accumulate at the output in comparison with the photon-counting protocol.…”

“…We conceive a potential application scenario where quantum technology could bring a reduction in energy consumption of a photonic computer. As shown in Figure , the photonic computing system consists of a heralded single-photon source, a photonic chip, and a readout unit that is composed of avalanche photodiodes (APDs) and a time-of-flight storage (ToFS) module. − The single-photon source generates correlated photon pairs, which are labeled as signal photons and idler photons, respectively. Signal photons are coupled into the photonic chip and evolve in the embedded photonic circuits to execute a computation task.…”

“…The correlated photon pairs from the single-photon source are termed as signal photons and idler photons, respectively. (b) A photonic chip is bonding to an array of APDs, which are connected to the ToFS module . Signal photons are injected into the photonic chip.…”

Research progress of integrated optical quantum computing

“…此 外由于与非门的通用性, 这使得推广量子与非门表 示任意的布尔函数成为可能. I n P r e s s 时至今日, 已经有大量的玻色采样实验及其 变体被实现, 例如随机散射玻色采样(scattershot boson sampling) [75] 、高斯玻色采样(Gaussian boson sampling) [76] 、 时 间 戳 玻 色 采 样 (timestamp Boson sampling) [77] 等, 他们都旨在进一步降低玻 色采样实验的难度并提高计算复杂度. 在2020年, 九章一号 [11] 通过超低损耗, 集成化的多摸干涉 仪和外置的高亮度量子光源, 构建了76个光子, 100个模式的量子计算原型机, 宣称通过高斯玻色 采样实验实现了量子优越性, 开起了玻色采样实验 的新阶段.…”