Quantum computing over the rainbow: from scalable qumodes to scalable fault-tolerant qubits

Photonic quantum computing presents a viable and fascinating path to fault-tolerant quantum computing. I will present our endeavor and results toward this goal, using the paradigm of measurement-based quantum computing. Working the quantum optics of the multitude of resonant cavity (qu)modes of an optical parametric oscillator, we have generated cluster entangled states with 60 characterized qumodes (out of 10,000 likely present). On the theory side, we have shown that scalable hypercubic cluster states can be generated with relatively scarce experimental resources, such as one OPO and one electro-optic modulator. I will also show that judicious use of photon-number-resolving detection should enable us to leverage the massive scalability of these Gaussian continuous-variable cluster states by de-Gaussifying them into identical cluster states of Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill qubits, paving the way to foliated topological error codes.

Bio:

Olivier Pfister received the B.S. in Physics from Université de Nice, France, in 1987, and the M.S. and the Ph.D. in Physics from Université Paris-Nord, France, in 1989 and 1993. In 1994, he was a lecturer at INM, Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, in Paris. He was then a research associate with John L. Hall at JILA, University of Colorado (1994-97) and with Daniel J. Gauthier at Duke University (1997-99). In 1999, he joined the faculty of the University of Virginia, where he is a professor of physics and of electrical and computer engineering. Olivier Pfister is a fellow of the American Physical Society and a member of Optica, IEEE, and SPIE. His general research area is atomic, molecular, and optical physics, with past interests in quantum measurements at the ultimate precision, ultrahigh resolution laser spectroscopy, symmetry effects in small molecules, nonlinear optics for optical frequency chains, and two-photon lasers. His current research interest is quantum computing with light. He is also a co- founder and CTO of quantum computing startup QC82, Inc.