Transition from quantum-to-classical random walk distributions with spin–orbit modes

Quantum walks (QW) offer a speed-up advantage over random walks in quantum search applications. We present an experimental study of the transition from quantum-to- classical random walk using an emulation of the decoherence process for polarization qubits that exploits maximally non- separable spin-orbit modes of an intense laser beam for the first, to the best of our knowledge, time. We are able to continuously control the input polarization mode in an all-optical quantum walk circuit to observe transitions associated with quantum, quantum stochastic, and classical random walk distributions. The results are in agreement with theoretical expectations. (c) 2024 Optica Publishing Group. All rights, including for text and data mining (TDM), Artificial Intelligence (AI) training, and similar technologies, are reserved.