Universal quantum computation with the Orbital Angular Momentum of a single photon

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that a single photon’s orbital angular momentum can be used to perform universal quantum computation using simple optical components, offering a new approach to quantum information processing.

Contribution

It introduces a method to achieve universal quantum computation with a single photon’s orbital angular momentum encoded data, using optical elements like beamsplitters, phase shifters, holograms, and quantum interrogation.

Findings

Any quantum unitary operator can be constructed with the proposed setup.

The approach offers a potentially scalable method for quantum computation.

Challenges include efficient readout of the quantum information.

Abstract

We prove that a single photon with quantum data encoded in its orbital angular momentum can be manipulated with simple optical elements to provide any desired quantum computation. We will show how to build any quantum unitary operator using beamsplitters, phase shifters, holograms and an extraction gate based on quantum interrogation. The advantages and challenges of these approach are then discussed, in particular the problem of the readout of the results.