Open AccessFidelity Restorable Universal Linear Optics
Author(s) -
Tsakyridis Apostolos,
Giamougiannis George,
Totovic Angelina,
Pleros Nikos
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
advanced photonics research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2699-9293
DOI - 10.1002/adpr.202200001
Subject(s) - astronomical interferometer , beam splitter , computer science , singular value decomposition , unitary matrix , fidelity , interferometry , matrix (chemical analysis) , unitary transformation , photonics , benchmark (surveying) , unitary state , algorithm , physics , optics , quantum , telecommunications , quantum mechanics , materials science , laser , geodesy , law , political science , composite material , geography
Universal multiport interferometers that can be programmed to perform any unitary or linear transformation turn into an important building block for both classical and quantum photonics. These interferometers typically utilize the mathematical framework of U(2) unitary matrix decomposition techniques and comprise a mesh of 2 × 2 beam splitters and phase shifters. All of them are, however, inherently fidelity limited as their U(2)‐based deployment approach leads to imbalanced path losses without supporting any fidelity restoration mechanism. Herein, a novel Universal Generalized Mach–Zehnder Interferometer (UGMZI) architecture is presented that migrates from U(2) decomposition techniques and adopts a recursive U(N) decomposition, exploiting cascaded size‐augmenting N × N beam splitters and phase shifters. The design can natively support fidelity restoration and safeguard absolute fidelity, while outperforming the state‐of‐the‐art designs also with respect to phase‐error‐induced fidelity performance properties. Finally, it is demonstrated that its fidelity restoration properties turn the design into the optimal architecture for constructing any real/complex‐valued matrix via the singular value decomposition (SVD) scheme.