Sorting quantum systems efficiently

Measuring the state of a quantum system is a fundamental process in quantum mechanics and plays an essential role in quantum information and quantum technologies. One method to measure a quantum observable is to sort the system in different spatial modes according to the measured value, followed by single-particle detectors on each mode. Examples of quantum sorters are polarizing beam-splitters (PBS) – which direct photons according to their polarization – and Stern-Gerlach devices. Here we propose a general scheme to sort a quantum system according to the value of any d-dimensional degree of freedom, such as spin, orbital angular momentum (OAM), wavelength etc. Our scheme is universal, works at the single-particle level and has a theoretical efficiency of 100%. As an application we design an efficient OAM sorter consisting of a single multi-path interferometer which is suitable for a photonic chip implementation.