The orbital angular momentum (OAM) of photons provides a pivotal resource for carrying out high-dimensional classical and quantum information processing due to its unique discrete high-dimensional nature. The cyclic transformation of a set of orthogonal OAM modes is an essential building block for universal high-dimensional information processing. Its realization in the quantum domain is the universal quantum Pauli-X gate. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate a cyclic transformation of six OAM modes with an averaged efficiency higher than 96% by exploiting a nonreciprocal Mach-Zehnder interferometer. Our system is simple and can, in principle, be scaled to more modes. By improving phase stabilization and inputting quantum photonic states, this method can perform universal single-photon quantum Pauli-X gate, thus paving the way for scalable high-dimensional quantum computation.
@article{arxiv.2404.14690,
title = {Scalable cyclic transformation of orbital angular momentum modes based on a nonreciprocal Mach-Zehnder interferometer},
author = {Y. F. Yang and M. Y. Chen and F. P. Li and Y. P. Ruan and Z. X. Li and M. Xiao and H. Zhang and K. Y. Xia},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2404.14690},
year = {2024}
}