Generation of non-Gaussian states of light using nonlinear materials

光在室温下不会退相干，而且围绕它已经建立了非常重要的工业能力，这一事实使光子学成为建造量子计算机的有力竞争者。这些计算机有一天可以解决化学和材料科学中的问题，这些问题是任何现在或未来的经典超级计算机都无法解决的。此外，光子量子计算的光源、探测器、材料或算法的设计进展将立即使光已经占主导地位的其他领域受益，如通信和计量学。我的研究项目旨在开发支撑下一代明亮光源的理论，这些光源是构建量子计算机和量子通信中继器所需的。第一个目标是推动在预示状态生成方面可以实现的极限。我的研究计划将通过解决如何在单时间模式中产生压缩光的基本问题来显着扩展这个空间，该模式适用于涉及多对模式的一般预示方案。在获得了单时间模式压缩光的最佳协议之后，我的小组的第二个目标是与工业合作伙伴合作，开发机器学习工具，以找到最佳的干涉电路，这些电路可用于创建用于纠错的有用状态。第三个目标是开发新的分类算法，以加快任何预告方案所需的探测器的读出速度。作为一个长期目标，我们的目标是利用新材料和平台超越压缩光，并提出新的建议，以确定性地产生非高斯光，可以以容错的方式编码量子信息。这将消除在许多量子协议的生成阶段进行预告和检测的需要。我们将利用被称为张量网络的工具来研究光子系统，其中色散，损耗和非线性是关键因素，并将这些工具作为高质量和高性能的科学软件来实现。该计划的研究结果将直接应用于光子量子信息处理和我们模拟光子系统中复杂量子非线性动力学的能力。完成后，该计划将培养3名博士和1名硕士学生，他们在光子学，量子光学，量子计算以及量子软件和工程方面具有广泛的技能。这些技能将是非常需要的，以支持加拿大的量子和光子技术产业的优先领域。

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.