Fig. 1: Modular architecture for generating optical links using programmable photonic integrated meshes.

a Diagram of the basic requirements for optically-heralded entanglement generation between two generic atomic qubits. The key components are initialization and control of the computational and auxiliary memory states, an optical transition emitting a photon entangled with the computational states into indistinguishable waveguide modes, a 50:50 beam splitter, and single-photon detectors. b Schematic of the components in a as functional blocks. c Implementation of the block schematic using modular components: an N-atom qubit chiplet is connected to an N × M binary optical switch for photon routing, then connected to an N × N Mach–Zehnder mesh (MZM). The N × N photonic mesh performs the optical phase correction, routing to detectors, and path-erasure functions. This hardware group generates a sub-lattice of the overall quantum state. d Render of a sub-lattice module of functions in c showing external connections to other modules with red, green, and yellow connectors. e Implementation of how interconnects are formed between modules using another N × N MZM, which links the sub-lattices. f Render of the interconnecting module of the functions in e) that links two external connections (colored here in red). g, h An example of how a large-scale cubic lattice may be generated when each sub-lattice module generates a cubic unit cell.