Programmable pixel-mode linear interferometers using multi-plane light conversion
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arXiv
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| Autori principali: | , , , , , |
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| Natura: | Preprint |
| Pubblicazione: |
2026
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| _version_ | 1866914399732629504 |
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| author | Sureka, Mushkan Ozer, Itay He, Wenhua Grace, Michael R. Cui, Chaohan Guha, Saikat |
| author_facet | Sureka, Mushkan Ozer, Itay He, Wenhua Grace, Michael R. Cui, Chaohan Guha, Saikat |
| contents | Programmable linear optical interferometers are a core primitive in optical signal processing, quantum information processing, and photonic computing. Existing photonic-integrated implementations realize arbitrary $M$-mode unitaries using Mach--Zehnder-interferometer meshes whose footprint and accumulated loss scale with $O(M^2)$ optical components. Here we analyze and experimentally demonstrate a programmable architecture for implementing linear optical transformations directly on spatially tiled free-space pixel modes using multi-plane light conversion (MPLC). In this architecture, $M$ spatial modes arranged on a transverse lattice undergo a unitary transformation and are mapped to $M$ output modes of identical geometry through a sequence of programmable phase masks separated by free-space propagation segments. Numerical simulations show that arbitrary $M$-mode unitaries can be compiled to a desired high fidelity using a number of phase planes that scales approximately linearly with $M$. Using a spatial-light-modulator-based MPLC, we experimentally demonstrate programmable interferometers acting on up to $16$ spatial pixel modes, including tunable beamsplitters, Hadamard unitaries, spatial permutations, boosted-Bell-measurement unitaries, and partial unitaries on select subsets of modes. These results establish MPLC-based pixel-mode interferometers as a promising architecture for programmable linear optics with applications in classical and quantum optical interconnects, photonic switching, and quantum information processing. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_15836 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Programmable pixel-mode linear interferometers using multi-plane light conversion Sureka, Mushkan Ozer, Itay He, Wenhua Grace, Michael R. Cui, Chaohan Guha, Saikat Optics Quantum Physics Programmable linear optical interferometers are a core primitive in optical signal processing, quantum information processing, and photonic computing. Existing photonic-integrated implementations realize arbitrary $M$-mode unitaries using Mach--Zehnder-interferometer meshes whose footprint and accumulated loss scale with $O(M^2)$ optical components. Here we analyze and experimentally demonstrate a programmable architecture for implementing linear optical transformations directly on spatially tiled free-space pixel modes using multi-plane light conversion (MPLC). In this architecture, $M$ spatial modes arranged on a transverse lattice undergo a unitary transformation and are mapped to $M$ output modes of identical geometry through a sequence of programmable phase masks separated by free-space propagation segments. Numerical simulations show that arbitrary $M$-mode unitaries can be compiled to a desired high fidelity using a number of phase planes that scales approximately linearly with $M$. Using a spatial-light-modulator-based MPLC, we experimentally demonstrate programmable interferometers acting on up to $16$ spatial pixel modes, including tunable beamsplitters, Hadamard unitaries, spatial permutations, boosted-Bell-measurement unitaries, and partial unitaries on select subsets of modes. These results establish MPLC-based pixel-mode interferometers as a promising architecture for programmable linear optics with applications in classical and quantum optical interconnects, photonic switching, and quantum information processing. |
| title | Programmable pixel-mode linear interferometers using multi-plane light conversion |
| topic | Optics Quantum Physics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.15836 |