Xanadu reports on-chip generation of error-resistant photonic qubits
Describing its results as the first demonstration of such qubits on a chip, the company says the experiment generated specific quantum states that enable logic operations at room temperature and are suitable for networking with standard fibre connections
Quantum computing company Xanadu has announced it has achieved a significant milestone in the development of scalable quantum hardware by generating error-resistant photonic qubits on an integrated chip platform. The company has published its results, which it describes as a foundational result in its roadmap and the first-ever demonstration of such qubits on a chip, in the journal Nature.
This development builds on Xanadu’s recent announcement of the Aurora system, which it says demonstrated – for the first time – all key components required to build a modular, networked, and scalable photonic quantum computer. The company says this latest demonstration further strengthens the scalability pillar of its architecture.
According to Xanadu, the quantum states produced in this experiment, known as GKP states, consist of superpositions of many photons to encode information in an error-resistant manner – an essential requirement for future fault-tolerant quantum computers. The company reports that these states allow logic operations to be performed using deterministic, room-temperature-compatible techniques, and they are uniquely well-suited for networking across chips using standard fibre connections.
Xanadu says this demonstration of generating photonic qubits was enabled by a number of key technological achievements from its hardware team, including the development of photon-number-resolving detectors with detection efficiencies above 99 percent, the fabrication of customised ultra-low-loss silicon nitride waveguides on 300 mm wafer platforms, and the implementation of in-house state-of-the-art optical packaging.
“GKP states are, in a sense, the optimal photonic qubit, since they enable logic gates and error correction at room temperature and using relatively straightforward, deterministic operations,” says Zachary Vernon, CTO of hardware at Xanadu. “This demonstration is an important empirical milestone showing our recent successes in loss reduction and performance improvement across chip fabrication, component design, and detector efficiency.”
The next hurdle towards a utility-scale photonic quantum computer, Xanadu says, is the further reduction of optical loss to allow for higher-quality GKP states suitable for fault-tolerance. To this end the company plans to further optimise fabrication and photonics packaging processes to alleviate optical loss across its platform.
