Linear-optics-based high-dimensional quantum gate with qudits

Implementing quantum logic gates with linear optical elements is a key approach in photon-based quantum information processing (QIP) due to its operational convenience and experimental flexibility. The adoption of high-dimensional (H-D) quantum computing with qudit encoding over conventional 2-D qubit encoding offers higher information encoding capability. In this paper, we present a linear-optics-based two-qudit 4×4-D (16-D) controlled-SUM (CSUM) gate for photon systems, where the polarization degrees of freedom (DoFs) of two photons encode the 4-D control qudit and the polarization and spatial DoFs of another single photon encode the 4-D target qudit. The 16-D CSUM gate demonstrates an efficiency of 1/243 and a theoretical average fidelity of 0.98395. Additionally, the H-D CSUM gate neither requires ancillary photons and pre-shared entanglement nor presents complex quantum circuits, thus significantly reducing the experimental overhead and enhancing its feasibility with current technology.