Photons Walking the Line: A Quantum Walk with Adjustable Coin Operations

A. Schreiber, K. N. Cassemiro, V. Potoček, A. Gábris, P. J. Mosley, E. Andersson, I. Jex, and Ch. Silberhorn
Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 050502 – Published 4 February 2010

Abstract

We present the first robust implementation of a coined quantum walk over five steps using only passive optical elements. By employing a fiber network loop we keep the amount of required resources constant as the walker’s position Hilbert space is increased. We observed a non-Gaussian distribution of the walker’s final position, thus characterizing a faster spread of the photon wave packet in comparison to the classical random walk. The walk is realized for many different coin settings and initial states, opening the way for the implementation of a quantum-walk-based search algorithm.

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  • Received 12 October 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.050502

©2010 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

A. Schreiber1, K. N. Cassemiro1,*, V. Potoček2, A. Gábris2,†, P. J. Mosley1,‡, E. Andersson3, I. Jex2, and Ch. Silberhorn1

  • 1Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Günther-Scharowsky-Strasse 1/Bau 24, 91058 Erlangen, Germany
  • 2Department of Physics, FNSPE, Czech Technical University in Prague, Břehová 7, 115 19 Praha, Czech Republic
  • 3SUPA, School of EPS, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, United Kingdom

  • *Katiuscia.Cassemiro@mpl.mpg.de
  • Secondary address: Research Institute for Solid State Physics and Optics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences,H-1525 Budapest, P. O. Box 49, Hungary.
  • Present address: Centre for Photonics and Photonic Materials, Department of Physics, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath, BA2 7AY, United Kingdom.

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Issue

Vol. 104, Iss. 5 — 5 February 2010

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