Experimental realisation of generalised qubit measurements based on quantum walks

Abstract

We report an experimental implementation of a single-qubit generalised measurement scenario(POVM) based on a quantum walk model. The qubit is encoded in a single-photon polarisation. The photon performs a quantum walk on an array of optical elements, where the polarisation-dependent translation is performed via birefringent beam displacers and a change of the polarisation is implemented with the help of wave-plates. We implement: (i) Trine-POVM, i.e., the POVM elements uniformly distributed on an equatorial plane of the Bloch sphere; (ii) Symmetric-Informationally- Complete (SIC) POVM; and (iii) Unambiguous Discrimination of two non-orthogonal qubit states.