Photonic quantum computing: Shor’s algorithm and the road to fault-tolerance

Abstract

This work describes the implementation of a compiled version of Shor's algorithm in a photonic system by utilizing single photons and by employing the nonlinearity induced by measurement. This study also demonstrates the core processes, coherent control, and resultant entangled states that are required in a full-scale implementation of Shor's algorithm. Results show that the performance of quantum algorithm is not the same as the performance of the underlying quantum circuit, and stress the importance of developing techniques for characterising quantum algorithms.