Entangled photon-pair sources based on spontaneous parametric processes are widely used in photonic quantum information experiments. In this paper, we clarify the relationship between average photon-pair number and the visibility of two-photon interference (TPI) using those entanglement sources. We consider sources that generate distinguishable and indistinguishable entangled photon pairs, assuming coincidence measurements that use threshold detectors. We present formulas for the TPI visibility of a polarization entanglement that take account of all the high-order multi-pair emission events. Moreover, we show that the formulas can be approximated with simple functions of the average pair number when the photon collection efficiency is small. As a result, we reveal that an indistinguishable entangled pair provides better visibility than a distinguishable one.
We study effects of phase fluctuations on phase sensitivity and visibility of a class of robust path-entangled photon Fock states (known as mm' states) as compared to the maximally path-entangled N00N states in presence of realistic phase fluctuations such as turbulence noise. Our results demonstrate that the mm' states, which are more robust than the N00N state against photon loss, perform equally well when subject to such fluctuations. We show that the phase sensitivity with parity detection for both of the above states saturates the quantum Cramer-Rao bound in presence of such noise, sugges…
Quantum mechanical wave-particle duality is quantified in terms of a trade-off relation between the fringe visibility and the which-way distinguishability in an interference experiment. This relation is recently generalized by Banaszek et. al., (Nature Communications 4, 2594, 2013) when the particle is equipped with an internal degree of freedom such as spin. Here, we extend the visibility-distinguishability trade-off relation to quantum interference of a particle possessing an internal degree of freedom, when the which-way detector state is entangled with an ancillary system. We introduce an …
We obtain a four-photon polarization-entangled state with a visibility as high as (95.35\pm 0.45)% directly from a single down-conversion source. A success probability of (81.54\pm 1.38)% is observed by applying this entangled state to realize a four-party quantum communication complexity scenario (QCCS), which comfortably surpass the classical limit of 50%. As a comparison, two Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) pairs are shown to implement the scenario with a success probability of (73.89\pm 1.33)%. This four-photon state can be used to fulfill decoherence-free quantum information processing and …
We experimentally investigate a double-pass parametric down-conversion scheme for producing pulsed, polarization-entangled photon pairs with high visibility. The amplitudes for creating photon pairs on each pass interfere to compensate for distinguishing characteristics that normally degrade two-photon visibility. The result is a high-flux source of polarization-entangled photon pulses that does not require spectral filtering. We observe quantum interference visibility of over 95% without the use of spectral filters for 200 femtosecond pulses, and up to 98.1% with 5 nm bandwidth filters.
Complementarity between one- and two-particle visibility in discrete systems can be extended to bipartite quantum-entangled Gaussian states. The meaning of the two-particle visibility originally defined by Jaeger, Horne, Shimony, and Vaidman with the use of an indirect method that first corrects the two-particle probability distribution by adding and subtracting other distributions with varying degree of entanglement, however, deserves further analysis. Furthermore, the origin of complementarity between one-particle visibility and two-particle visibility is somewhat elusive and it is not entir…
We demonstrate experimentally the frequency time entanglement of photon pairs produced in a CW pumped quasi phased matched AlGaAs superlattice waveguide. A visibility of 96.0+-0.7% without background subtraction has been achieved, which corresponds the violation of Bell inequality by 52 standard deviations.
We present a dissipative protocol to engineer two $^{87}Rb$ atoms into a form of three-dimensional entangled state via spontaneous emission. The combination of coupling between ground states via microwave fields and dissipation induced by spontaneous emission make the current scheme deterministic and a stationary entangled state can always be achieved without state initialization. Moreover, this scheme can be straightforwardly generalized to preparation of an $N$-dimensional entangled state in principle.
To acquire the best path-entangled photon Fock states for robust quantum optical metrology with parity detection, we calculate phase information from a lossy interferometer by using twin entangled Fock states. We show that (a) when loss is less than 50% twin entangled Fock states with large photon number difference give higher visibility while when loss is higher than 50% the ones with less photon number difference give higher visibility; (b) twin entangled Fock states with large photon number difference give sub-shot-noise limit sensitivity for phase detection in a lossy environment. This res…
We demonstrate pulsed operation of a bidirectionally pumped polarization Sagnac interferometric down-conversion source and its generation of narrowband, high-visibility polarization-entangled photons. Driven by a narrowband, mode-locked pump at 390.35 nm, the phase-stable Sagnac source with a type-II phase-matched periodically poled KTiOPO$_4$ crystal is capable of producing 0.01 entangled pair per pulse in a 0.15-nm bandwidth centered at 780.7 nm with 1 mW of average pump power at a repetition rate of 31.1 MHz. We have achieved a mean photon-pair generation rate of as high as 0.7 pair per pul…
We propose a class of path-entangled photon Fock states for robust quantum optical metrology, imaging, and sensing in the presence of loss. We model propagation loss with beam-splitters and derive a reduced density matrix formalism from which we examine how photon loss affects coherence. It is shown that particular entangled number states, which contain a special superposition of photons in both arms of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, are resilient to environmental decoherence. We demonstrate an order of magnitude greater visibility with loss, than possible with N00N states. We also show that t…
We have experimentally evaluated the non-classical relation between measurement errors in a joint measurement of two non-commuting polarizations by using entangled photon pairs as a probe. The joint measurement was realized by filtering polarization directions that are sensitive to both of the two target polarizations and the same filtering procedures were applied independently to the two photons of an entangled pair. Since the statistically independent measurement errors of two identical measurements performed on entangled pairs will reduce an overall visibility of the correlation by the squa…
A class of centrosymmetric molecules support excitons with a well-defined quasi-angular momentum. Cofacial arrangements of these molecules can be engineered so that quantum cutting produces a pair of excitons with angular momenta that are maximally entangled. The Bell state constituents can subsequently travel in opposite directions down molecular chains as ballistic wave packets. This is a direct excitonic analog to the entangled polarization states produced by the spontaneous parametric downconversion of light. As in optical settings, the ability to produce Bell states should enable foundati…
Starting from the standard Hamiltonian describing the optical non-linear process of spontaneous parametric down-conversion, we theoretically show that the generated entangled photon-pairs carry non-negligible orbital angular momentum in the degrees of freedom of relative movement in the type-II cases due to spatial symmetry breaking. We also show that the orbital angular momentum carried by photon-pairs in these degrees of freedom escapes detection in the traditional measurement scheme, which demands development of new techniques for further experimental investigations.
We present an experimental proposal for the generation of photon triplets based on third-order spontaneous para- metric downconversion in thin optical fibers. Our analysis includes expressions for the quantum state, which de- scribes the photon triplets and for the generation rate in terms of all experimental parameters. We also present, for a specific source design, numerically calculated generation rates.
Considering the paradigmatic case of a cloud of two-level atoms interacting through common vacuum modes, we show how cooperative spontaneous emission, which is at the origin of superradiance, leads the system to long-lived entangled states at late times. These subradiant modes are characterized by an entanglement between all particles, independently of their geometrical configuration. While there is no threshold on the interaction strength necessary to entangle all particles, stronger interactions lead to longer-lived entanglement.
We demonstrate non-degenerate down-conversion at 810 and 1550 nm for long-distance fiber based quantum communication using polarization entangled photon pairs. Measurements of the two-photon visibility, without dark count subtraction, have shown that the quantum correlations (raw visibility 89%) allow secure quantum cryptography after 100 km of non-zero dispersion shifted fiber using commercially available single photon detectors. In addition, quantum state tomography has revealed little degradation of state negativity, decreasing from 0.99 at the source to 0.93 after 100 km, indicating minima…
We report the generation of polarization entangled photon pairs in the 1550-nm wavelength band using spontaneous four-wave mixing in a dispersion-shifted fiber loop. The use of the fiber-loop configuration made it possible to generate polarization entangled states very stably. With accidental coincidences subtracted, we obtained coincidence fringes with >90 % visibilities, and observed a violation of Bell's inequality by seven standard deviations. We also confirmed the preservation of the quantum correlation between the photons even after they had been separated by 20 km of optical fiber.
We describe an experimental demonstration of a novel three-photon NOON state generator using a single source of photons based on spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC). The three-photon number-entangled state is deterministically generated by the detection of a heralding photon. Interference fringes measured with an emulated three-photon absorber reveal the three-photon de Broglie wavelength and exhibit visibility > 70% without background subtraction.
In most configurations aimed at generating entangled photons based on spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC), the generated pairs of photons are required to be entangled in only one degree of freedom. Any distinguishing information coming from the other degrees of freedom that characterize the photon should be suppressed to avoid correlations with the degree of freedom of interest. However, this suppression is not always possible. Here, we show how the frequency information available affects the purity of the two-photon state in space, revealing a correlation between the frequency and t…
We propose an application of quantum temporal imaging to restoring the indistinguishability of the signal and the idler photons produced in type-II spontaneous parametric down-conversion with a pulsed broadband pump. It is known that in this case, the signal and the idler photons have different spectral and temporal properties. This effect deteriorates their indistinguishability and the visibility of the Hong-Ou-Mandel interference, respectively. We demonstrate that inserting a time lens in one arm of the interferometer and choosing properly its magnification factor restores perfect indistingu…
Using two crystals for spontaneous parametric down-conversion in a parallel setup, we observe two-photon interference with high visibility. The high visibility is consistent with complementarity and the absence of which-path information. The observations are explained as effects of entanglement or equivalently in terms of interfering probability amplitudes, and also by the calculation of a second-order field correlation function in the Heisenberg picture. The latter approach brings out explicitly the role of the vacuum fields in the down-conversion at the crystals and in the photon coincidence…
Many quantum advantages in metrology and communication arise from interferometric phenomena. Such phenomena can occur on ultrafast time scales, particularly when energy-time entangled photons are employed. These have been relatively unexplored as their observation necessitates time resolution much shorter than conventional photon counters. Integrating nonlinear optical gating with conventional photon counters can overcome this limitation and enable subpicosecond time resolution. Here, using this technique and a Franson interferometer, we demonstrate high-visibility quantum interference with tw…
Generation and characterization of entanglement are crucial tasks in quantum information processing. A hypothesis testing scheme for entanglement has been formulated. Three designs were proposed to test the entangled photon states created by the spontaneous parametric down conversion. The time allocations between the measurement vectors were designed to consider the anisotropic deviation of the generated photon states from the maximally entangled states. The designs were evaluated in terms of the p-value based on the observed data. It has been experimentally demonstrated that the optimal time …
We address the intrinsic multimode nature of the quantum state of light obtained by pulsed spontaneous parametric downconversion and develop a theoretical model based only on experimentally accessible quantities. We exploit the pairwise entanglement as a resource for conditional multimode measurements and derive closed formulas for the detection probability and the density matrix of the conditional states. We present a set of experiments performed to validate our model in different conditions that are in excellent agreement with experimental data. Finally, we evaluate nonGaussianity of the con…
We have studied the purity of entangled photon-pairs generated in a dispersion-shifted fiber at various temperatures. Two-photon interference with visibility > 98% is observed at 77K, without subtraction of the background Raman photons.
Advances in quantum photonics have shown that chip-scale quantum devices are translating from the realm of basic research to applied technologies. Recent developments in integrated photonic circuits and single photon detectors indicate that the bottleneck for fidelity in quantum photonic processes will ultimately lie with the photon sources. We present and demonstrate a silicon nanophotonic chip capable of emitting telecommunication band photon pairs that exhibit the highest raw degree of time-energy entanglement from a micro/nanoscale source, to date. Biphotons are generated through cavity-en…
We experimentally demonstrate that paired photons generated in different sections of a down-conversion cone, when some of the interacting waves show Poynting vector walk-off, carry different spatial correlations, and therefore a different degree of spatial entanglement. This is shown to be in agreement with theoretical results. We also discuss how this azimuthal distinguishing information of the down-conversion cone is relevant for the implementation of quantum sources aimed at the generation of entanglement in other degrees of freedom, such as polarization.
We demonstrate a simple, robust, and ultrabright parametric down-conversion source of polarization-entangled photons based on a polarization Sagnac interferometer. Bidirectional pumping in type-II phase-matched periodically poled KTiOPO4 yields a measured flux of 5 000 polarization-entangled pairs/s per mW of pump power in a 1-nm bandwidth at 96.8% quantum-interference visibility. The common-path arrangement of the Sagnac interferometer eliminates the need for phase stabilization for the biphoton output state.
We report measurements of time-frequency entangled photon pairs and heralded single photons at telecommunications wavelengths, generated using a periodically-poled, lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI) waveguide pumped optically by a diode laser. We achieve a high Coincidences-to-Accidentals Ratio (CAR) at high pair brightness, a low value of the conditional self-correlation function [$g^{(2)}$(0)], and high two-photon energy-time Franson interferometric visibility, which demonstrate the high quality of the entangled photon pairs and heralded single photons.
This paper reports the first demonstration of the generation and distribution of entangled photon pairs in the 1.5-um band using spontaneous four-wave mixing in a cooled fiber. Noise photons induced by spontaneous Raman scattering were suppressed by cooling a dispersion shifted fiber with liquid nitrogen, which resulted in a significant improvement in the visibility of two-photon interference. By using this scheme, time-bin entangled qubits were successfully distributed over 60 km of optical fiber with a visibility of 76%, which was obtained without removing accidental coincidences.
We report the realisation of a fibred polarisation entangled photon-pair source at 1560 nm based on a type-II non linear interaction and working in the picosecond regime. By taking advantage of a set of filters, we deterministically separate the photons and project them into wavelength separable states. A standard entanglement measurement with a net interference visibility close to 1, proves the relevance of our approach as an enabling technology for entanglement-based quantum communication.
Spontaneous down conversion in metal-dielectric interface in case of oblique laser excitation is considered. In this case it is possible to generate pairs of polarization entangled surface plasmon polaritons with high efficiency if to use excitation angle corresponding to the Kretschmann configuration for generated plasmons. The efficiency can be additionally enlarged if to use properly nanostructured metallic film allowing one to directly excite surface plasmon polaritons and to fulfill phase matching condition of them with generated surface plasmon polaritons.
We probe the principle of complementarity by performing a double-slit experiment based on entangled photons created by spontaneous parametric down-conversion from a pump mode in a TEM01-mode. Our setup brings out the need for a careful selection of the signal-idler photon pairs for our study of visibility and distinguishability. Indeed, when the signal photons interfering at the double-slit belong to this double-hump mode we obtain almost perfect visibility of the interference fringes and no "which-slit" information is available. However, when we break the symmetry between the two maxima of th…
Deterministic sources of high-fidelity entangled qubit pairs encoded in the dual-rail photonic basis, i.e., presence of a single photon in one of two orthogonal modes, are a key enabling technology of many applications of quantum information processing, including high-rate high-fidelity quantum communications over long distances. The most popular and mature sources of such photonic entanglement, e.g., those that leverage spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) or spontaneous four-wave mixing (sFWM), generate an entangled (so-called, continuous-variable) quantum state that contains contri…
We suggest the generation of photon pairs in a thermally induced nonlinear periodically-poled silica fiber by spontaneous parametric down-conversion. Photons are generated directly in eigenstates of optical angular momentum. Photons in a pair can be entangled in these states as well as in frequencies. We identify suitable spatial and polarization modes giving an efficient nonlinear interaction. By changing the pump field properties both narrow- and broad-band down-converted fields can be obtained.
We present a novel yet simple approach to produced multiple entangled photon pairs through spontaneous parametric downconversion. We have developed Gaussian masks to subdivide the pump beam before passing it through a nonlinear medium. In this way, we are able to observe simultaneous separate down-converted emission cones with spatial overlap. The technique we employ can be used to greatly increase the dimensionality of entangled photonic systems generated from spontaneous parametric down conversion, affording greater scalability to optical quantum computing than previously explored.
We present an analysis of noisy atomic channels involving qutrits. We choose a three-level atom with V-configuration to be the qutrit state. Gell-Mann matrices and a generalized Bloch vector (8-dimensional) are used to describe the qutrit density operator. We introduce quantum quasi-distributions for qutrits that provide a simple description of entanglement. Studying the time-evolution for the atomic variables we find the Kraus representation of spontaneous emission quantum channel (SE channel). Furthermore, we consider a generalized Werner state of two qutrits and investigate the separability…
Two entangled two-level Unruh-DeWitt detectors, which are in rest, spontaneously loose entanglement when at least any one of them is not isolated from the environment quantum fields. For eternal interaction between the detectors and environment, the spontaneous emission from the detectors' exited states and vacuum fluctuations of field influence this negative effect. Consequently, it suggests that two entangled qubits become less communicated during their free-fall towards the black hole horizon.
We report on the theoretical investigation of photonic crystal cavities etched on a suspended membrane for the generation of polarization entangled photon pairs using the biexciton cascade in a single quantum dot. The implementation of spontaneous emission enhancement effect increases the entanglement visibility, while the concomitant preferential funneling of the emission in the cavity mode increases the collection of both entangled photons. We demonstrate and quantify that standard cavity designs present a polarization dependent emission diagram, detrimental to entanglement. The optimization…
We demonstrate phase super-resolution in the absence of entangled states. The key insight is to use the inherent time-reversal symmetry of quantum mechanics: our theory shows that it is possible to \emph{measure}, as opposed to prepare, entangled states. Our approach is robust, requiring only photons that exhibit classical interference: we experimentally demonstrate high-visibility phase super-resolution with three, four, and six photons using a standard laser and photon counters. Our six-photon experiment demonstrates the best phase super-resolution yet reported with high visibility and resol…
We have demonstrated a high-flux source of polarization-entangled photons using a type-II phase-matched periodically-poled KTP parametric downconverter in a collinearly propagating configuration. We have observed quantum interference between the single-beam downconverted photons with a visibility of 99% and a measured coincidence flux of 300/s/mW of pump. The Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt version of Bell's inequality was violated with a value of 2.711 +/- 0.017.
Precision measurements are important across all fields of science. In particular, optical phase measurements can be used to measure distance, position, displacement, acceleration and optical path length. Quantum entanglement enables higher precision than would otherwise be possible. We demonstrate an optical phase measurement with an entangled four photon interference visibility greater than the threshold to beat the standard quantum limit--the limit attainable without entanglement. These results open the way for new high-precision measurement applications.
Tanabe et al (Phys. Rev. A {\bf 82} 040101(R) 2010) have experimentally demonstrated that the emission properties of unstable atoms in entangled and product states are different. The authors define an apparent decay time as a fitting parameter which falls below the lifetime of the single atom for entangled pairs. We argue that their results about coincidence time spectra are correct, but those concerning lifetimes cannot be considered conclusive because they assume the emission of photons by the two atoms to be independent processes, a doubtful hypothesis for entangled states. We suggest an im…
The violation of Bell's inequalities in Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen experiments has been demonstrated for photons and ions. In all experiments of this kind the relation between visibility, efficiency, and Bell violation is generally unknown. In this paper we show that simulations based on a local hidden variables models for entangled photons provide this information. It is established that these properties are closely related by the way, in which photons are detected after a polarizer beam splitter. On this basis we suggest controlled experiments which, for the first time, subject the superpositio…
We experimentally demonstrate a source of polarization entangled photon-pairs based on a single periodically-poled potassium titanyl phosphate (PPKTP) crystal pumped with a broadband, free running laser diode.The crystal is placed within a linear beam-displacement interferometer, and emits photon-pairs based ontype-0 spontaneous parametric downconversion (SPDC). We observe pair rates of 0.56 Mpairs/s/mW in a single spatial mode with a polarization visibility of 97.7% over a spectral range of 100 nm. This experiment demonstrates a pathway towards observing Gigacount rates of polarization entang…
N00N states -- maximally path-entangled states of N photons -- exhibit spatial interference patterns sharper than any classical interference pattern. This is known as super-resolution. However, even with perfectly efficient number-resolving detectors, the detection efficiency of all previously demonstrated methods to measure such interference decreases exponentially with the number of photons in the N00N state, often leading to the conclusion that N00N states are unsuitable for spatial measurements. Here, we create spatial super-resolution fringes with two-, three-, and four-photon N00N states…
We describe an experimentally straightforward method for preparing an entangled W state of up to 100 qubits. Our repeat-until-success protocol relies on detection of single photons from collective spontaneous emission in free space. Our method allows entanglement preparation in a wide range of qubit implementations that lack entangling qubit-qubit interactions. We give detailed numerical examples for entanglement of neutral atoms in optical lattices and of nitrogen-vacancy centres in diamond. The simplicity of our method should enable preparation of mesoscopic entangled states in a number of p…
We demonstrate optical interferometry beyond the limits imposed by the photon wavelength using 'triggered' entangled photon pairs from a semiconductor quantum dot. Interference fringes of the entangled biphoton state reveals a periodicity half of that obtained with the single photon, and much less than that of the pump laser. High fringe visibility indicates that biphoton interference is less sensitive to decoherence than interference of two sequential single photons. The results suggest that quantum interferometry may be possible using a semiconductor LED-like device.
We demonstrate time-bin entanglement generation in telecom wavelength using a 7 μm radius Si micro-ring resonator pumped by a continuous wave laser. The resonator structure can enhance spontaneous four wave mixing, leading to a photon pair generation rate of about 90-100 Hz with a laser pump power of as low as -3.92 dBm (0.41 mW). We succeed in observing time-bin entanglement with the visibility over 92%. Moreover, wavelength-tunability of the entangled photon pair is demonstrated by changing the operation temperature.
We propose a dissipative scheme to prepare a three-dimensional entangled state for two atoms trapped in separate coupled cavities. Our work shows that both atomic spontaneous emission and cavity decay, which are two typical obstacles in unitary-dynamics-based schemes, could be utilized as resources for high-dimensional entangled state preparation without specifying initial state and controlling time precisely. Final numerical simulation with one group of experimental parameters indicates that the performance of our scheme is better than the unitary-dynamics-based scheme.
We show that polarization entangled photons at x-ray energies can be generated via spontaneous parametric down conversion. Each of the four Bell states can be generated by choosing the angle of incidence and polarization of the pumping beam.
The generation of entangled photon pairs by parametric down--conversion from solid state CW lasers with small coherence time is theoretically and experimentally analyzed. We consider a compact and low-cost setup based on a two-crystal scheme with Type-I phase matching. We study the effect of the pump coherence time over the entangled state visibility and over the violation of Bell's inequality, as a function of the crystals length. The full density matrix is reconstructed by quantum tomography. The proposed theoretical model is verified using a purification protocol based on a compensation cry…
We demonstrate a bright, narrowband, compact, quasi-phase-matched single-crystal source generating path-polarization-entangled photon pairs at 810 nm and 1550 nm at a maximum rate of 3 Mcounts/(s THz mW) after coupling to single-mode fiber, and with two-photon interference visibility above 90%. While the source can already be used to implement quantum communication protocols such as quantum key distribution, this work is also instrumental for narrowband applications such as entanglement transfer from photonic to atomic qubits, or entanglement of photons from independent sources.
We present an efficient tool capable of measuring the spectral correlations between photons emerging from a Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer. We show that for our spectrally factorizable spontaneous downconversion source the Hong-Ou-Mandel interference visibility decreases as the photons frequency spread is increased to a maximum of 165 nm. Unfiltered, we obtained a visibility of $92.0 \pm 0.2 \%$. The maximum visibility was $97 \pm 0.2 \%$ after applying filtering. We show that the tool can be useful for the study of spectral correlations that impair high-visibility and high-fidelity multi-sourc…
We have experimentally realized a technique to generate, control and measure entangled qutrits, 3-dimensional quantum systems. This scheme uses spontaneous parametric down converted photons and unbalanced 3-arm fiber optic interferometers in a scheme analogous to the Franson interferometric arrangement for qubits. The results reveal a source capable of generating maximally entangled states with a net state fidelity, F = 0.985 $\pm$ 0.018. Further the control over the system reveals a high, net, 2-photon interference fringe visibility, V = 0.919 $\pm$ 0.026. This has all been done at telecom wa…
We describe spontaneous parametric down-conversion experiments in which induced coherence across two coupled interferometers results in high-visibility single-photon interference. Opening additional photon channels allows "which-path" information and reduces the visibility of the singlephoton interference, but results in nearly perfect visibility when photons are counted in coincidence. A simplified theoretical model accounts for these complementary observations and attributes them directly to the relations among the vacuum fields at the different crystals.
