Questions regarding prog.circuit_drawer() and 𝐿𝐴𝑇𝐸𝑋 Qcircuit package

Photonic Software Strawberry Fields
1

Hi,

Could you provide me with a concrete example/tutorial for the usage of prog.circuit_drawer()? I also don’t know how to properly install the 𝐿𝐴𝑇𝐸𝑋 Qcircuit package and use it. I would like to use both to draw my photonic quantum circuits in Strawberry fields.

There are three relevent links I found from Strawberry fields website, but none of them can help me to tackle the issue. By the way, I really love qml.draw_mpl() function in Pennylane.

Thanks,
HYW

2

Hi @HYW , it’s great to hear you love the qml.draw_mpl() feature in PennyLane :heart:

Unfortunately we don’t have a Strawberry Fields equivalent. As you correctly identified you’ll need to use prog.draw_circuit() to generate some LaTeX code that you will then need to compile using Overleaf or some other tool to actually see your circuit. Below is an example of how you can do this. For this example I chose to install texlive-pictures, which includes qcircuit and other packages (see details here). However you can install qcircuit directly if you prefer.

# Install Strawberry Fields
!pip install strawberryfields scipy==1.13
# Install texlive-pictures (which includes qcircuit)
!apt-get install texlive-pictures

Now you can create your circuit

# create a 3-mode quantum program

import strawberryfields as sf
from strawberryfields import ops

prog = sf.Program(3)

# Note that some measurements and gates aren't supported
with prog.context as q:
    ops.Sgate(0.54) | q[0]
    ops.Sgate(0.54) | q[1]
    ops.Sgate(0.54) | q[2]
    ops.BSgate(0.43, 0.1) | (q[1], q[2])

# Generate the LaTeX code needed to draw the circuit
prog.draw_circuit()

This will create a file (by default in the circuit_tex folder) which contains some LaTeX code. You will then need to run this code using a tool such as Overleaf in order to see the rendered image.

I hope this helps!

3

Thank you very much Catalina.

My laptop is a MacPro so I don’t know how to install texlive-pictures using the command you provided, !apt-get install texlive-pictures. I also don’t know how to download the correct file from the website https://packages.debian.org/sid/tex/texlive-pictures
Debian -- Package Download Selection -- texlive-pictures_2024.20250309-1_all.deb

Thanks,
HYW

4

Hi @HYW ,

If you’re able to use Google Colab or qBraid that might be easier. You can then copy the code just as I shared it.