APPARATUS FOR TWO-DIMENSIONAL PHOTONIC SIMULATION BY MEANS OF PANCHARATNAM-BERRY PHASE PLATES

摘要

Apparatus for the photonic simulation of a quantum walk in a two-dimensional space, comprising a series of evolution stages (10) arranged consecutively along a reference axis (z) and configured to be crossed by a radiation beam (B), each evolution stage (10) comprisingi) a unitary operator (11) configured to transform a polarization state of the incoming radiation beam (B) into a combination of a right circular polarized state |R〉 and a left circular polarized state |L〉, andii) a shift operator (12, 13) configured to discretely shift the transverse moment k_t of the incoming radiation beam (B), along at least one direction (k_x, k_y) in a two-dimensional Fourier space associated with a real plane (x, y) orthogonal to the reference axis (z),an optical sensor (30) configured to detect a grid of spots generated by the radiation beam (B) upon application of the evolution stages (10), the intensity pattern of the grid of spots being indicative of a probability distribution associated with the quantum walk.