Quantum Noise in Large-Scale Coherent Nonlinear Photonic Circuits

Ongoing advances in semiconductor fabrication are expected to enable nonlinear optical circuits to operate at extremely low switching energies, where quantum effects become important. This work describes semiclassical simulations to study the effects of quantum noise in large digital logic circuits containing hundreds of optical components. The authors find that the amplitudes of quantum fluctuations do not increase as signals propagate through the circuit, which is promising for scaling up devices.