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  • Open Access

Resource-efficient universal photonic processors based on time-multiplexed hybrid architectures

Jonas Lammers1,*, Laura Ares2, Federico Pegoraro1, Philip Held1, Benjamin Brecht1, Jan Sperling2, and Christine Silberhorn1

  • 1Paderborn University, Integrated Quantum Optics, Institute for Photonic Quantum Systems (PhoQS), Warburger Str. 100, 33098 Paderborn, Germany
  • 2Paderborn University, Theoretical Quantum Science, Institute for Photonic Quantum Systems (PhoQS), Warburger Str. 100, 33098 Paderborn, Germany

  • *Contact author: jonas.lammers@uni-paderborn.de
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Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 054011 – Published 5 May, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/x99y-2sms

Abstract

For the ever-growing field of quantum information processing, large-scale, efficient multiport interferometers serving as photonic processors are required. In this context, the suitability of quantum walks as the interferometric base for universal computation has been theoretically proven. In this work, we bridge the gap between theoretical proposals and state-of-the-art experimental capabilities by providing the recipe for the implementation of a universal photonic processor in discrete-time quantum walks. Specifically, we present the protocol for translating arbitrary linear transformations into the coin and step operator of a quantum walk and map these to the experimental parameters of the established time-multiplexed platform [A. Schreiber et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 050502 (2010)]. We show that our interface is highly scalable and resource efficient due to the hybrid encoding consisting of multiple degrees of freedom. Finally, we prove that our system is highly resilient against experimental imperfections and show that it compares favorably against existing architectures.

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Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 054011– Published 5 May, 2026
  • Received 26 September 2025
  • Revised 29 January 2026
  • Accepted 2 April 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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