Continuous quantum walk in a 1-dimensional plasmonic lattice structure based on metal strip waveguides.

Abstract

We experimentally studied a continuous time evolution of a "plasmonic" walker in a 1-dimensional lattice structure based on long-range surface plasmon polariton waveguides. The plasmonic walker exhibited a typical time evolution of a 1-dimensional quantum walk, which indicates that the plasmonic system is a potential platform to construct quantum walk simulators. By comparing experimental results to numerical simulations, the fidelity of the plasmonic quantum walk simulator is estimated to be > 0.96, which demonstrates that the plasmonic system can be a feasible platform for large-scale and high dimensional quantum walk simulators.