NOON states are path entangled states which can be exploited to enhance phase resolution in interferometric measurements. In the present paper we analyze the quantum states obtained by optical parametric amplification of polarization NOON states. First we study, theoretically and experimentally, the amplification of a 2-photon state by a collinear Quantum Injected Optical Parametric Amplifier (QIOPA). We compared the stimulated emission regime with the spontaneous one, studied by Sciarrino et al. (PRA 77, 012324), finding comparable visibilities between the two cases but an enhancement of the signal in the stimulated case. As a second step, we show that the collinear amplifier cannot be successfully used for amplifying N-photon states with N>2 due to the intrinsic λ/4 oscillation pattern of the crystal. To overcome this limitation, we propose to adopt a scheme for the amplification of a generic state based on a non-collinear QIOPA and we show that the state obtained by the amplification process preserves λ/N feature and exhibits a high resilience to losses. Furthermore, an asymptotic unity visibility can be obtained when correlation functions with sufficiently high order M are analyzed.
We examine the behavior of a Non Gaussian state like NOON state under phase insensitive amplification. We derive analytical result for the density matrix of the NOON state for arbitrary gain of the amplifier. We consider cases of both symmetric and antisymmetric amplification of the two modes of the NOON state. We quantitatively evaluate the loss of entanglement by the amplifier in terms of the logarithmic negativity parameter. We find that NOON states are more robust than their Gaussian counterparts.
We propose a linear optical scheme that can conditionally generate high NOON states using polarization modes. This scheme provides advantages over the previous proposals on path-entangled NOON states in view of success probability or required resources of optical elements. We also investigate two experimental schemes feasible within existing technology that can produce the NOON-like or the NOON state for N = 4.
Indistinguishable photons play a key role in quantum optical information technologies. We characterize the output of an ultra-bright photon-pair source using multi-particle tomography [R. B. A. Adamson et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 043601 (2007)] and separately identify coherent errors, decoherence, and distinguishability. We demonstrate generation of high-quality indistinguishable pairs and polarization NOON states with 99% fidelity to an ideal NOON state. Using a NOON state we perform a super-resolving angular measurement with 90% visibility.
Polarization squeezing is shown to occur in non-degenerate parametric amplification of coherent light and the degree of squeezing at interaction time $T$ can be as large as $1-e^{-2T}$. This gives $86.4\%$ polarization squeezing for $T=1$ and $98.2\%$ for $T=2$. One simple case when this occurs is on taking initially plane polarized light having equal amplitudes in the two modes that finally has equal intensities of two circular polarizations. This suggest the experimental settings of parameters to achieve this extent of polarization squeezing in coherent light.
We study polarization squeezing of a light beam initially in the coherent state using the nonlinear interaction hamiltonian $ H=k\big(\hat a_{x}^{\dagger2}+{\hat a_{x}}^2\big)$. For the degree of polarization squeezing, we use a definition written in the final form by the authors and also used in earlier papers. We find that the polarization squeezing can be very high and the degree of polarization squeezing can be less than unity by a very small amount. We achieve the polarization squeezing even for very low beam intensity under some conditions involving phase angles in the polarization modes…
Non-deterministic noiseless amplification of a single mode can circumvent the unique challenges to amplifying a quantum signal, such as the no-cloning theorem, and the minimum noise cost for deterministic quantum state amplification. However, existing devices are not suitable for amplifying the fundamental optical quantum information carrier, a qubit coherently encoded across two optical modes. Here, we construct a coherent two-mode amplifier, to demonstrate the first heralded noiseless linear amplification of a qubit encoded in the polarization state of a single photon. In doing so, we increa…
Polarization dependent loss (PDL) is a serious problem that hinders the transfer of polarization qubits through quantum networks. Recently it has been shown that the detrimental effects of PDL on qubit fidelity can be compensated for with the introduction of an additional passive PDL element that rebalances the polarization modes of the transmitted qubit. This procedure works extremely well when the output of the system is postselected on photon detection. However, in cases where the qubit might be needed for further analysis this procedure introduces unwanted vacuum terms into the state. Here…
We report the implementation of a highly sensitive beam displacer based on the concept of weak value amplification that allows to displace the centroid of a Gaussian beam a distance much smaller than its beam width without the need to use movable optical elements. The beam's centroid position can be displaced by controlling the linear polarization of the output beam, and the dependence between the centroid's position and the angle of polarization is linear.
Light fields can be amplified by measuring the field amplitude reflected at a beam splitter of reflectivity R and adding a coherent amplitude proportional to the measurement result to the transmitted field. By applying the quantum optical realization of this amplification scheme to single photon inputs, it is possible to clone the polarization states of photons. We show that optimal cloning of single photon polarization is possible when the gain factor of the amplification is equal to the inverse squareroot of 1-R.
Fock-state preparation based on amplitude amplification in cavity QED
Joint Quantum Institute, NIST/University of Maryland（联合量子研究所，美国国家标准与技术研究院/马里兰大学）；Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science, NIST/University of Maryland（联合量子信息与计算科学中心，美国国家标准与技术研究院/马里兰大学）；Microsystems and Nanotechnology Division, Physical Measurement Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology（微系统与纳米技术部，物理测量实验室，美国国家标准与技术研究院）
We study experimentally parametric amplification in the continuous regime using a transverse-degenerate type-II Optical Parametric Oscillator operated below threshold. We demonstrate that this device is able to amplify either in the phase insensitive or phase sensitive way first a single mode beam, then a multimode image. Furthermore the total intensities of the amplified image projected on the signal and idler polarizations are shown to be correlated at the quantum level.
The theoretical cross section for Compton scattering of maximally entangled Bell photons has yet to be rigorously confirmed by experiments. Test cases of Bell states for use in Compton scattering experiments can now be expanded given reports of creating all 4 Bell states in the hard X-ray regime by the process of spontaneous parametric down-conversion. We outline an experiment and apply a matrix method to parameterize Compton scattering theory using the phase matching angles. When the azimuths of two hypothetical photon counters are recorded at angles of 0 degrees and 90 degrees, and the ratio…
Based upon standard angular momentum theory, we develop a framework to investigate polarization squeezing and multipartite entanglement of a quantum light field. Both mean polarization and variances of the Stokes parameters are obtained analytically, with which we study recent observation of triphoton states [L. K. Shalm {\it et al}, Nature \textbf{457}, 67 (2009)]. Our results show that the appearance of maximally entangled NOON states accompanies with a flip of mean polarization and can be well understood in terms of quantum Fisher information.
It is demonstrated that in one-dimensional Ising chain with nearest-neighbor interactions, irradiated by a weak resonant transverse field, a stimulated wave of flipped spins can be triggered by a flip of a single spin. This analytically solvable model illustrates mechanisms of quantum amplification and quantum measurement.
We report on the use of an interferometric weak value technique to amplify very small transverse deflections of an optical beam. By entangling the beam's transverse degrees of freedom with the which-path states of a Sagnac interferometer, it is possible to realize an optical amplifier for polarization independent deflections. The theory for the interferometric weak value amplification method is presented along with the experimental results, which are in good agreement. Of particular interest, we measured the angular deflection of a mirror down to 560 femtoradians and the linear travel of a pie…
We measure a transverse momentum kick in a Sagnac interferometer using weak-value amplification with two postselections. The first postselection is controlled by a polarization dependent phase mismatch between both paths of a Sagnac interferometer and the second postselection is controlled by a polarizer at the exit port. By monitoring the darkport of the interferometer, we study the complementary amplification of the concatenated postselections, where the polarization extinction ratio is greater than the contrast of the spatial interference. In this case, we find an improvement in the amplifi…
A stimulated wave of polarization, which implements a simple mechanism of quantum amplification, is experimentally demonstrated in a chain of four J-coupled nuclear spins, irradiated by a weak radio-frequency transverse field. The "quantum domino" dynamics, a wave of flipped spins triggered by a flip of the first spin, has been observed in fully $^{13}$C-labeled sodium butyrate.
The dynamic feature of monochromatic bi-modal chaotic optical field, enriched with orthogonally-polarized basis-modes propagating collinearly and undergoing Degenerate Parametric Amplification, is investigated to demonstrate Squeezing in Hidden Optical-Polarization states. The Variance (Noise) of Hidden Optical-Polarization Parameters showing squeezing therein is numerically studied by identifying a Squeezing - Function. This squeezing in HOPS is seen to depend critically on interaction time and an Onset-time responsible for the same is demarcated.
We use weak-value amplification to enhance the polarization-sensitive fast-light effect from induced Raman absorption in hot rubidium vapor. We experimentally demonstrate that projecting the output signal into an appropriate polarization state enables a pulse advancement of 4.2 μs, which is 15 times larger than that naturally caused by dispersion. More significantly, we show that combining weak-value amplification with the dispersive response of an atomic system provides a clear advantage in terms of the maximum pulse advancement achievable for a given value of loss. This technique has potenti…
The standard process for the production of strongly squeezed states of light is optical parametric amplification (OPA) below threshold in dielectric media such as LiNbO3 or periodically poled KTP. Here, we present a graphical description of squeezed light generation via OPA. It visualizes the interaction between the nonlinear dielectric polarization of the medium and the electromagnetic quantum field. We explicitly focus on the transfer from the field's ground state to a squeezed vacuum state and from a coherent state to a bright squeezed state by the medium's secondorder nonlinearity, respect…
We demonstrate that a phase-independent quantum amplifier of a polarization qubit is a complementary amplifier of the heralded qubit amplifier [N. Gisin, S. Pironio and N. Sangouard, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 070501 (2010)]. It employs the multi-functional cloner in 1 to 2 copying regime, capable of providing approximate copies of qubits given by various probability distributions, and is optimized for distributions with axial symmetry. Direct applications of the proposed solution are possible in quantum technologies, doubling the range where quantum information is coherently broadcast. It also out…
We show the utility of the weak value amplification to observe the quantum interference between two close lying atomic coherent states in a post-selected atomic cat state, produced in a system of $N$ identical two-level atoms weakly interacting with a single photon field. Through the observation of the negative parts of the Wigner distribution of the post-selected atomic cat state, we find that the post-selected atomic cat state becomes more nonclassical when the post-selected polarization state of the single photon field tends toward becoming orthogonal to its pre-selected state. We show that…
Circular dichroism (CD) is a widely used technique for investigating optically chiral molecules, especially for biomolecules. It is thus of great importance that these parameters be estimated precisely so that the molecules with desired functionalities can be designed. In order to surpass the limits of classical measurements, we need to probe the system with quantum light. We develop quantum Fisher information matrix (QFIM) for precision estimates of the circular dichroism and the optical rotary dispersion for a variety of input quantum states of light. The Cramer-Rao bounds, for all four chir…
In a non-reciprocal optical amplifier, gain depends on whether the light propagates forwards or backwards through the device. Typically, one requires either the magneto-optical effect, a temporal modulation, or an optical nonlinearity to break reciprocity. By contrast, here, we demonstrate non-reciprocal amplification of fibre-guided light using Raman gain provided by spin-polarized atoms that are coupled to the nanofibre waist of a tapered fibre section. The non-reciprocal response originates from the propagation direction-dependent local polarization of the nanofibre-guided mode in conjuncti…
Quantum metrology bears a great promise in enhancing measurement precision, but is unlikely to become practical in the near future. Its concepts can nevertheless inspire classical or hybrid methods of immediate value. Here, we demonstrate NOON-like photonic states of m quanta of angular momentum up to m=100, in a setup that acts as a "photonic gear", converting, for each photon, a mechanical rotation of an angle θ into an amplified rotation of the optical polarization by mθ, corresponding to a "super-resolving" Malus' law. We show that this effect leads to single-photon angular measurements wi…
Improving the phase resolution of interferometry is crucial for high-precision measurements of various physical quantities. Systematic phase errors dominate the phase uncertainties in most realistic optical interferometers. Here we propose and experimentally demonstrate a weak measurement scheme to considerably suppress the phase uncertainties by the direct amplification of phase shift in optical interferometry. Given an initial ultra-small phase shift between orthogonal polarization states, we observe the phase amplification effect with a factor of 388. Our weak measurement scheme provides a …
A monochromatic double-mode coherent light endowed with orthogonally polarized photons propagating collinearly is studied in Degenerate Parametric Amplification. Generation of Hidden Optical- Polarized States is shown by non-zero values of Index of Hidden Optical-Polarization. Squeezing in HOPS is demonstrated by recognizing a Squeezing function. The Non-Classical feature of HOPS is observed by 'degree of Hidden Optical-Polarization' which attains non-classical value 'greater than unity'. The dynamical nature of Generation, Squeezing and Non-Classicality are numerically presented.
We study polarization squeezing of a pure photon number state which is obviously polarized but the mere change in the basis of polarization leads to simultaneous polarization squeezing in all the components of Stokes operator vector except those falling along or perpendicular to the direction of polarization state, is observed. We use the most general definition of polarization squeezing and discuss the experimental feasibility of the result. We also observe that a squeezing operation like non-degenerate parametric amplification of the state does not reveal simultaneous squeezing in all Stokes…
In a recent paper we have described an optical implementation of a measure-once one-way quantum finite automaton recognizing a well-known family of unary periodic languages, accepting words not in the language with a given error probability. To process input words, the automaton exploits the degree of polarization of single photons and, to reduce the acceptance error probability, a technique of confidence amplification using the photon counts is implemented. In this paper, we show that the performance of this automaton may be further improved by using strategies that suitably consider both the…
We consider the use of cyclic weak measurements to improve the sensitivity of weak-value amplification precision measurement schemes. Previous weak-value experiments have used only a small fraction of events, while discarding the rest through the process of "post-selection". We extend this idea by considering recycling of events which are typically unused in a weak measurement. Here we treat a sequence of polarized laser pulses effectively trapped inside an interferometer using a Pockels cell and polarization optics. In principle, all photons can be post-selected, which will improve the measur…
Experiments based on free space platform have demonstrated that the weak value amplification (WVA) technique can provide high sensitivity and precision for optical sensing and metrology. To promote this technique for real-world applications, it is more suitable to implement WVA based on optical fiber platform due to the lower cost, smaller scale and higher stability. In contrast to the free space platform, the birefringence in optical fiber is strong enough to cause polarization cross talk, and the amplitude-type noise must be taken into account. By theoretical analysis and experimental demons…
Integrated quantum optics has drastically reduced the size of table-top optical experiments to the chip-scale, allowing for demonstrations of large-scale quantum information processing and quantum simulation. However, despite these advances, practical implementations of quantum photonic circuits remain limited because they consist of large networks of waveguide interferometers that path encode information which do not easily scale. Increasing the dimensionality of current quantum systems using higher degrees of freedom such as transverse spatial field distribution, polarization, time, and freq…
Optical metasurfaces open new avenues for precise wavefront control of light for integrated quantum technology. Here, we demonstrate a hybrid integrated quantum photonic system that is capable to entangle and disentangle two-photon spin states at a dielectric metasurface. By interfering single-photon pairs at a nanostructured dielectric metasurface, a path-entangled two-photon NOON state with circular polarization is generated that exhibits a quantum HOM interference visibility of 86 $\pm$ 4%. Furthermore, we demonstrate nonclassicality and phase sensitivity in a metasurface-based interferomet…
