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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Two-detector reconstruction of multiphoton states in linear optical networks

Tudor-Alexandru Isdrailǎ1 and Jun-Yi Wu1,2,3,*

  • *Contact author: junyiwuphysics@gmail.com
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Phys. Rev. Research 7, L042026 – Published 28 October, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/cv1s-4yht

Abstract

We propose a method for partial state reconstruction of multiphoton states in multimode (N-photon M-mode) linear optical networks (LONs) employing only two bucket photon-number-resolving detectors. The reconstructed Heisenberg-Weyl-reduced density matrix captures quantum coherence and symmetry with respect to Heisenberg-Weyl operators. Employing deterministic quantum computing with one qubit (DQC1) circuits, we reduce the detector requirement from M to 2, while the requirement on measurement configurations is retained 2M3−2M. To ensure physicality, maximum likelihood estimation is incorporated into the DQC1 reconstruction process, with numerical simulations demonstrating the efficiency of our approach and its robustness against interferometer noises. This method offers a resource-efficient solution for state characterization in large-scale LONs to advance photonic quantum technologies.

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Phys. Rev. Research 7, L042026– Published 28 October, 2025
  • Received 10 February 2025
  • Accepted 17 September 2025
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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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