Paul Hilaire is a quantum physicist specializing in the physical implementation of quantum error correction for quantum communication and fault-tolerant quantum computing. His recent work focuses on photonic quantum systems, where he has contributed to the development of fault-tolerant architectures leveraging photonic platforms. He earned his Ph.D. in experimental quantum optics at CNRS, then transitioned to theoretical research as a postdoctoral fellow at Virginia Tech, and later served as Lead Quantum Error Correction Scientist at Quandela. In 2025, he joined Télécom Paris as a junior professor within the QURIOSITY team.
Enhanced Fault-tolerance in Photonic Quantum Computing: Comparing the Floquet Code and the Surface Code in Tailored Architecture
Fault-tolerant quantum computing is crucial for realizing large-scale quantum computation, and the interplay between hardware architecture and quantum error-correcting codes is a key consideration. We present a comparative study of two quantum error-correcting codes, the surface code and the honeycomb Floquet code, implemented on variants of the spin-optical quantum computing architecture, enabling a direct comparison of the codes using consistent noise models. Our results demonstrate that the honeycomb Floquet code significantly outperforms the surface code in this setting. Notably, we achieve a photon loss threshold of 6.4% for the honeycomb Floquet code implementation, to our knowledge the highest reported for photonic platforms to date without large-scale multiplexing. This finding is particularly significant given that photon loss is the primary source of errors in photon-mediated quantum computing.
