Timing constraints imposed by classical digital control systems on photonic implementations of measurement-based quantum computing

Abstract

Most of the architectural research on photonic implementations of measurement-based quantum computing (MBQC) has focused on the quantum resources involved in the problem with the implicit assumption that these will provide the main constraints on system scaling. However, the `flying-qubit' architecture of photonic MBQC requires specific timing constraints that need to be met by the classical control system. This classical control includes, for example: the amplification of the signals from single-photon detectors to voltage levels compatible with digital systems; the implementation of a control system which converts measurement outcomes into basis settings for measuring subsequent cluster qubits, in accordance with the quantum algorithm being implemented; and the digital-to-analog converter (DAC) and amplifier systems required to set these measurement bases using a fast phase modulator. In this paper, we analyze the digital system needed to implement arbitrary one-qubit rotations and controlled-NOT (CNOT) gates in discrete-variable photonic MBQC, in the presence of an ideal cluster state generator, with the main aim of understanding the timing constraints imposed by the digital logic on the analog system and quantum hardware. We use static timing analysis of a Xilinx FPGA (7 series) to provide a practical upper bound on the speed at which the adaptive measurement processing can be performed, in turn constraining the photonic clock rate of the system. Our work points to the importance of co-designing the classical control system in tandem with the quantum system in order to meet the challenging specifications of a photonic quantum computer.

arXiv comment21 pages, 11 figures. Comments welcome! This work has been submitted to the IEEE for possible publication

References in corpus (20)

• Supplementary information for "Quantum supremacy using a programmable superconducting processor"
• A Quantum Engineer's Guide to Superconducting Qubits
• Noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) algorithms
• Measurement-based quantum computation with cluster states
• Quantum algorithms: an overview
• Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors: physics and applications
• Resource-efficient linear optical quantum computation
• Blueprint for a Scalable Photonic Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computer
• Almost-linear time decoding algorithm for topological codes
• From three-photon GHZ states to ballistic universal quantum computation
• Control and readout of a superconducting qubit using a photonic link
• Superconducting nanowire for single-photon detection: progress, challenges and opportunities
• Percolation, renormalization, and quantum computing with non-deterministic gates
• Simplified Josephson-junction fabrication process for reproducibly high-performance superconducting qubits
• Fusion-based quantum computation
• One-way Quantum Computation - a tutorial introduction
• Scalable Cryogenic Read-out Circuit for a Superconducting Nanowire Single-Photon Detector System
• Physical-depth architectural requirements for generating universal photonic cluster states
• A local and scalable lattice renormalization method for ballistic quantum computation
• Loss-tolerant teleportation on large stabilizer states

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Towards compact high-efficiency grating couplers for visible wavelength photonics
• Engineering cm-scale true push-pull electro-optic modulators in a suspended GaAs photonic integrated circuit platform by exploiting the orientation induced asymmetry of the Pockels $r_{41}$ coefficient
• Timing constraints due to real-time graph traversal algorithms on incomplete cluster states in photonic measurement-based quantum computing