Testing multi-photon interference on a silicon chip

Bryn A. Bell, Guillaume S. Thekkadath, Renyou Ge, Xinlun Cai, Ian A. Walmsley
2019 Optics Express  
Multi-photon interference in large multi-port interferometers is key to linear optical quantum computing and in particular to boson sampling. Silicon photonics enables complex interferometric circuits with many components in a small footprint and has the potential to extend these experiments to larger numbers of interfering modes. However, loss has generally limited the implementation of multi-photon experiments in this platform. Here, we make use of high-efficiency grating couplers to combine
more » ... right and pure quantum light sources based on ppKTP waveguides with silicon circuits. We interfere up to 5 photons in up to 15 modes, verifying genuine multi-photon interference by comparing the results against various models including partial distinguishability between photons.
doi:10.1364/oe.27.035646 pmid:31878733 fatcat:ef72zb65ibdvjm7wttquo6ruga