Photon distillation schemes with reduced resource costs based on multiphoton Fourier interference

Improving the indistinguishability of single photons is a crucial prerequisite for achieving large-scale photonic quantum computation. Photon distillation uses quantum interference to enhance the quality of single photons, sacrificing multiple photons to generate one photon with enhanced indistinguishability. By studying multiphoton interference in Fourier matrices, we find photon distillation schemes that require fewer photons to achieve the same improvement in indistinguishability, compared to the state of the art. These results may find application as a component in large-scale photonic quantum computers.