# Generation and sampling of quantum states of light in a silicon chip

## TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the on-chip generation and processing of up to eight-photon quantum states in silicon photonics, implementing various boson sampling protocols and benchmarking a molecular vibronic spectra algorithm, advancing scalable quantum photonic computing.

## Contribution

It introduces integrated silicon photonic circuits capable of generating and processing multiple quantum states with different sampling protocols, enabling scalable quantum algorithms.

## Key findings

- Achieved on-chip generation of up to eight-photon quantum states.
- Implemented multiple boson sampling protocols in a single silicon chip.
- Benchmarked a quantum algorithm for molecular vibronic spectra.

## Abstract

Implementing large instances of quantum algorithms requires the processing of many quantum information carriers in a hardware platform that supports the integration of different components. While established semiconductor fabrication processes can integrate many photonic components, the generation and algorithmic processing of many photons has been a bottleneck in integrated photonics. Here we report the on-chip generation and processing of quantum states of light with up to eight photons in quantum sampling algorithms. Switching between different optical pumping regimes, we implement the Scattershot, Gaussian and standard boson sampling protocols in the same silicon chip, which integrates linear and nonlinear photonic circuitry. We use these results to benchmark a quantum algorithm for calculating molecular vibronic spectra. Our techniques can be readily scaled for the on-chip implementation of specialised quantum algorithms with tens of photons, pointing the way to efficiency advantages over conventional computers.