Mitigating quantum operation infidelity through engineering the distribution of photon losses

Multiport interferometers can be constructed out of two-port components in various ways. We study how this choice affects the quality of the operations performed by the interferometer, through the asymmetry of optical losses in the multiport. We find that some operations benefit from asymmetrically designed interferometers. Our results point to a fundamental tradeoff between lowering infidelity and achieving high success rates, which are key considerations in quantum information processing applications. Our results challenge the common understanding that balanced losses are always optimal for quantum information processing tasks.