Fabrication and classical characterisation of an integrated optic controlled phase gate

Abstract

Optical quantum computing (QC) increasingly uses integrated optics based experiments which permit circuit compactness and phase stability. However, despite the rapid adaptations of integrated waveguide devices for quantum photonics, initial gate demonstrations operate in post-selection, thus not allowing scaling of a quantum circuit beyond the depth of a single gate. Recently, a number of quantum circuits have been demonstrated using the femtosecond laser direct write (FLDW) technique. This technique induces refractive index change in glass substrates which can form three-dimensional waveguide devices. Here we demonstrate a potentially scalable waveguide gate for QC, a controlled-phase gate or Knill gate, produced using the FLDW technique. This gate produces a phase shift on a target qubit conditional on the state of a control qubit, as shown in Fig. 1(a). It requires four photons for operation, two of which act as the target and control path-encoded qubits and two ancillas which herald the successful operation of the circuit.