Simple source for large linear cluster photonic states

Abstract

The experimental realization of many-body entangled states is one of the main goals of quantum technology as these states are a key resource for quantum computation and quantum sensing. However, increasing the number of photons in an entangled state has been proved to be a painstakingly hard task. This is a result of the non-deterministic emission of current photon sources and the distinguishability between photons from different sources. Moreover, the generation rate and the complexity of the optical setups hinder scalability. Here we present a new scheme that is compact, requires a very modest amount of components, and avoids the distinguishability issues by using only one single-photon source. States of any number of photons are generated with the same configuration, with no need for increasing the optical setup. The basic operation of this scheme is experimentally demonstrated and its sensitivity to imperfections is considered.