Light Chip Plays Quantum Pinball ⚡ экспресс
An integrated 3D photonic chip with 128 modes is presented, featuring a reprogrammable architecture based on continuously coupled waveguides and thermo-optic control. The device implements unitary transformations at a scale previously inaccessible to integrated quantum optics. Using indistinguishable single photons demultiplexed from a quantum dot source, boson sampling was performed for 4 photons with analysis of output distributions. Random number generation via boson sampling was experimentally confirmed, with results matching theoretical models. The work demonstrates the scalability, stability, and control precision of integrated photonics for quantum computing.
A glass chip with 128 waveguides works like a quantum pinball machine. Instead of balls — photons, instead of flippers — microheaters that change routes on the fly. The task is simple: launch up to four identical particles and see where they end up. This puzzle, boson sampling, is beyond regular computers, so it became a test of quantum supremacy.
Scott Aaronson proposed it in 2011 as a paradox that could bypass supercomputers. The practical value is huge: the distribution of photons at the chip's output, Qolossus 3D, is genuinely random, not pseudo-random like in laptops. Such randomness is ideal for encryption — it can't be predicted.
Amazingly, the chip needs no bulky coolers: the quantum game runs at room temperature. Here, heat is not a hindrance but a tool.
🎯 Boson sampling resembles pinball, where even knowing all the settings, you can't predict the final position of the balls — no supercomputer can handle this task.
🎬 If in movies quantum computers crack codes, the Qolossus 3D chip does the opposite: it creates randomness that no hacker can break.