In an article published in Science Advances [1], Prof. Pavlos Savvidis (Westlake University & IESL's Visiting Researcher), Dr David Petrosyan (Research Director) and their younger colleagues and collaborators report on the experimental realization and characterization of a novel platform for analog quantum computation with semiconductor exciton-polaritons. In this system, a condensate of polaritons is confined by a spatially-patterned pump laser in an annular trap that supports energy-degenerate counter-circulating vortex modes with laser-controlled coupling. The qubit states are formed by the symmetric and antisymmetric superpositions of the vortex modes. By engineering the potential, coherent dynamics of the qubit and its initialization in the desired state can be performed with high precision. The authors also discuss potential avenues to realize controllable interactions between such qubits to implement quantum gates and algorithms analogous to quantum computation with standard qubits.

[1] Barrat et al., Sci. Adv. 10, eado4042 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.ado4042 [1]