Generation of non-Gaussian states of light using nonlinear materials

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The fact that light does not decohere at room temperature and that there is already very significant industrial capacity built around it makes photonics a strong contender to build quantum computers. These computers could one day solve problems in chemistry and material science that are simply beyond the reach of any present or future classical supercomputer. Moreover, progress in the design of sources, detectors, materials or algorithms for photonic quantum computing will immediately benefit other areas where light already dominates, like communication and metrology. My research program aims at developing the theory underpinning the next generation of bright light sources needed for building quantum computers and quantum repeaters for communication. A first goal is to push the limits of what can be achieved in terms of heralded state generation. My research program will expand this space significantly by solving the fundamental problem of how to generate squeezed light in a single-temporal mode that is appropriate for general heralding schemes involving more than a pair of modes. Having obtained optimal protocols for single-temporal mode squeezed light, a second goal of my group, in collaboration with partners in industry, will be to develop machine-learning tools to find optimal interferometric circuits that can be used to create useful states for error correction. A third goal is to develop new classification algorithms to speed-up the readout of the detectors necessary for any heralding scheme. As a longer term goal, we aim at taking advantage of new materials and platforms to go beyond squeezed light and develop new proposals to deterministically generate non-Gaussian light that can encode quantum information in a fault tolerant manner. This will do away with the need for heralding and detection at the generation stage of many quantum protocols. We will leverage tools known as tensor networks to study photonic systems where dispersion, loss and nonlinearity are critical factors and will implement these tools as high quality and performance scientific software. The findings of this program will have direct applications in photonic quantum information processing and our ability to simulate complex quantum nonlinear dynamics in photonic systems. At completion, the program will have trained 3 PhD and 1 MSc students with a broad set of skills in photonics, quantum optics, quantum computing, and quantum software and engineering. These skills will be highly needed to support priority areas in Canada's quantum and photonic technology industries.