Picosecond Schrödinger cat states for ultrafast optical quantum processing

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2606.24002v1
• Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2026 23:17:45 GMT
• Title: Picosecond Schrödinger cat states for ultrafast optical quantum processing
• Abstract summary: Non-Gaussian states are essential resources for universal, fault-tolerant optical quantum computing.<n>We demonstrate multi-photon generalized photon subtraction in picosecond optical wave packets.
• Score: 0.18553325470600032
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: Non-Gaussian states are essential resources for universal, fault-tolerant optical quantum computing, but their generation rate remains limited by low heralding probabilities and operation in nanosecond temporal modes. Here, we demonstrate multi-photon generalized photon subtraction in picosecond optical wave packets, establishing the state-generation capability required for high-rate operation by addressing the temporal-mode bottleneck that has constrained the achievable rate. Two interfering ultrashort squeezed vacua are heralded by photon-number-resolving detection with a high-speed transition-edge sensor and characterized by pulsed homodyne detection matched to 10-ps temporal modes at a 5-MHz pump repetition rate. We reconstruct Wigner functions without loss correction that exhibit up to four distinct negative regions for four-photon heralding, together with an effective cat-state amplitude of $α_{\mathrm{eff}} = 1.69$. This amplitude approaches the range of practical relevance for fault-tolerant cat-code architectures and for adaptive breeding toward logical-qubit generation, while the picosecond temporal mode establishes a platform compatible with high-rate, scalable time-multiplexed photonic architectures.

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