Universal Classical Optical Computing Inspired by Quantum Information Process

Quantum computing has attracted much attention in recent decades, since it is believed to solve certain problems substantially faster than traditional computing methods. Theoretically, such an advance can be obtained by networks of the quantum operators in universal gate sets, one famous example of which is formed by quantum Control-not gate and single qubit gates. However, realizing a device that performs practical quantum computing is tricky. This is because it requires a scalable qubit system with long coherence time and good controls, which is harsh for most current platforms. Here, it is demonstrated that the information process based on a relatively stable system—classical optical system, can be considered as an analogy of universal quantum computing. By encoding the information via the polarization state of classical beams, the optical computing elements that correspond to the universal gate set are presented and their combination for a general information process is theoretically illustrated. Taking the analogy of two-qubit processor as an example, it is experimentally verified that the proposal works well. Considering the potential of optical system for reliable and low-energy-consuming computation, the results open a new way toward advanced information processing with high quality and efficiency.