High-dimensional quantum Fourier transform of twisted light

Abstract

The Fourier transform proves indispensable in the processing of classical information as well as in the quantum domain, where it finds many applications ranging from state reconstruction to prime factoring. An implementation scheme of the $d$-dimensional Fourier transform acting on single photons is known that uses the path encoding and requires $O(d \log d)$ optical elements. In this paper we present an alternative design that uses the orbital angular momentum as a carrier of information and needs only $O(\sqrt{d}\log d)$ elements, rendering the path-encoded design inefficient. The advantageous scaling and the fact that our approach uses only conventional optical elements allows for the implementation of a 256-dimensional Fourier transform with the existing technology. Improvements to our design, as well as explicit setups for low dimensions, are also presented.