We discuss the possibility of quantum interferences and entanglement of photons which exist at different intervals of time, i.e., one photon being recorded before the other has been created. The corresponding two-photon correlation function is shown to violate Bell's inequalities.
We produce polarization entangled states with variable degree of entanglement for twin photons. Entanglement in polarization is coupled to entanglement in position that produces transverse coincidence interference fringes. We show both theoretically and experimentally that, due to this coupling, we can use the interference pattern to measure the polarization degree of entanglement.
With quantum interference of two-path spontaneous emissions, we propose a novel scheme to coherently control the atom--photon momentum entanglement through atomic internal coherence. A novel phenomenon called ``momentum phase entanglement'' is reported, and we found, under certain conditions, that more controllable entangled state can be produced with super--high degree of entanglement.
We study a general theory on the interference of two-photon wavepacket in a beam splitter. We find that the symmetry of two-photon spectrum plays an important role in the manners of interference. We distinguish the coalescence and anti-coalescence interferences, and prove that the anti-coalescence interference is the signature of photon entanglement.
A complementarity relation is shown between the visibility of interference and bipartite entanglement in a two qubit interferometric system when the parameters of the quantum operation change for a given input state. The entanglement measure is a decreasing function of the visibility of interference. The implications for quantum computation are briefly discussed.
We consider a pair of three-level atoms interacting with the vacuum. The process of disentanglement due to spontaneous emission and the role of quantum interference between principal transitions in this process, are analysed. We show that the presence of interference can slow down disentanglement. In the limit of maximal interference, some part of initial entanglement can survive.
The separability of the continuous-variable EPR state can be tested with Hanbury-Brown and Twiss type interference. The second-order visibility of such interference can provide an experimental test of entanglement. It is shown that time-resolved interference leads to the Hong, Ou and Mandel deep, that provides a signature of quantum non-separability for pure and mixed EPR states. A Hanbury-Brown and Twiss type witness operator can be constructed to test the quantum nature of the EPR entanglement.
Second-order interference and Hanbury-Brown and Twiss type experiments can provide an operational framework for the construction of witness operators that can test classical and nonclassical properties of a Gaussian squeezed state (GSS), and provide entanglement witness operators to study the separability properties of correlated Gaussian squeezed sates.
We analyze the effect of position dependent excitation phase on the properties of entanglement between two qubits formed in atomic systems. We show that the excitation phase induces a vacuum mediated quantum interference in the system that affects the dynamical behavior of entanglement between the qubits. It is also found that the quantum interference leads to a coherent population transfer between the symmetric and antisymmetric states which can considerably modify the dynamics of two-qubit entanglement and can even prevent finite time disentanglement (sudden death) under certain conditions.
We investigate the generation and the evolution of two-mode continuous-variable (CV) entanglement from system of a microwave-driven V-type atom in a quantum beat laser. By taking into account the effects of spontaneously generated quantum interference between two atomic decay channels, we show that the CV entanglement with large mean number of photons can be generated in our scheme, and the property of the filed entanglement can be adjusted by properly modulating the frequency detuning of the fields. More interesting, it is found that the entanglement can be significantly enhanced by the spont…
We propose to use Stokes parameter as an entanglement witness for correlated EPR mixed states of light. Such states can be generated with a beam splitter acting on two mixed squeezed states of light. Stokes witness operators are closely related to the Hanbury-Brown and Twiss interference and can be used to test entanglement in balanced homodyne experiments involving fluctuations of quantum quadratures of the electric field.
Entanglement and quantum interference are key ingredients in a variety of quantum information processing tasks. Harnessing the generation and characterization of entanglement in high-dimensional state spaces is a necessary prerequisite towards practical quantum protocols. Here, we use quantum interference on a beam splitter to engineer hyperentanglement in polarization and discrete frequency degrees of freedom (DOF). We show how independent measurements of polarization and frequency DOF allow for the verification of high-dimensional entanglement in the combined state space. These results may i…
A "strongly" interacting, and entangling, heavy, non recoiling, external particle effects a significant change of the environment. Described locally, the corresponding entanglement event is a generalized electric Aharonov Bohm effect, that differs from the original one in a crucial way. We propose a gedanken interference experiment. The predicted shift of the interference pattern is due to a self induced or "private" potential difference experienced while the particle is in vacuum. We show that all non trivial Born Oppenheimer potentials are "private" potentials. We apply the Born Oppenheimer …
Two-photon interference effects, such as the Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) effect, can be used to characterize to what extent two photons are identical. Identical photons are necessary for both linear optics quantum computing and single-photon quantum cryptography. We study here how storage and delay of photons in coupled cavity arrays, which inevitably will lead to changes in the photons' spectral and temporal profiles, affects their HOM interference. In addition we consider various types of entanglement that occur naturally in such a context.
We propose a simple and realizable method using a two-particle interferometer for the experimental measurement of pairwise entanglement, assuming some prior knowledge about the quantum state. The basic idea is that the properties of the density matrix can be revealed by the single- and two-particle interference patterns. The scheme can easily be implemented with polarized entangled photons.
Inspired by laser operation, we address the question of whether stimulated emission into polarization entangled modes can be achieved. We describe a state produced by stimulated emission of the singlet Bell state and propose a setup for creating it. As a first important step towards an entangled-photon laser we demonstrate experimentally interference-enhanced polarization entanglement.
In this paper, photonic entanglement and interference are described and analyzed with the language of quantum information process. Correspondingly, a photon state involving several degrees of freedom is represented in a new expression based on the permutation symmetry of bosons. In this expression, each degree of freedom of a single photon is regarded as a qubit and operations on photons as qubit gates. The two-photon Hong-Ou-Mandel interference is well interpreted with it. Moreover, the analysis reveals the entanglement between different degrees of freedom in a four-photon state from parametr…
Based on constructive interference in Sagnac waveguide loop, an efficient scheme is proposed for selective frequency conversion and multifrequency modes W entanglement via input-output formalism. We can adjust the probability amplitudes of output photons by choosing parameter values properly. The tunable probability amplitude will lead to the generation of output photon with a selectable frequency and W photonic entanglement of different frequencies modes in a wide range of parameter values. Our calculations show the present scheme is robust to the deviation of parameters and spontaneous decay…
Entanglement verification and measurement is essential for experimental tests of quantum mechanics and also for quantum communication and information science. Standard methods of verifying entanglement in a bipartite mixed state require detection of both particles and involve coincidence measurement. We present a method that enables us to verify and measure entanglement in a two-photon mixed state without detecting one of the photons, i.e., without performing any coincidence measurement or postselection. We consider two identical sources, each of which can generate the same two-photon mixed st…
A sufficient condition for entanglement in two-mode continuous systems is constructed based on interference visibility and the uncertainty of the total particle number. The observables to be measured (particle numbers and particle number variances) are relatively easily accessible experimentally. The method may be used to detect entanglement in light fields or in Bose-Einstein condensates. In contrast to the standard approach based on entanglement witnesses, the condition is expressed in terms of an inequality which is nonlinear in expectation values.
High-dimensional quantum entanglement is currently one of the most prolific fields in quantum information processing due to its high information capacity and error resilience. A versatile method for harnessing high-dimensional entanglement has long been hailed as an absolute necessity in the exploration of quantum science and technologies. Here we exploit Hong-Ou-Mandel interference to manipulate discrete frequency entanglement in arbitrary-dimensional Hilbert space. The generation and characterization of two-, four- and six-dimensional frequency entangled qudits are theoretically and experime…
We discuss an experimentally amenable class of two-particle states of motion giving rise to nonlocal spatial interference under position measurements. Using the concept of modular variables, we derive a separability criterion which is violated by these non-Gaussian states. While we focus on the free motion of material particles, the presented results are valid for any pair of canonically conjugate continuous variable observables and should apply to a variety of bipartite interference phenomena.
Using spontaneous parametric down conversion and a 50:50 beam splitter, we generate coaxial polarization-entangled photon pairs, of which the two photons are far separated from each other. The photons are then sent one by one through one port of a modified Mach-Zehnder interferometer. We observe interference fringes with a periodicity half of the single-photon wavelength, independent of the distance between the photons. This feature can find applications in quantum-enhanced measurement.
We show that vacuum induced coherence in three level atomic systems can lead to preservation of bi-partite entanglement, when two such atoms are prepared as two initially entangled qubits each independently interacting with their respective vacuum reservoirs. We explicitly calculate the time evolution of concurrence for two different Bell states and show that a large amount of entanglement can survive in the long time limit. The amount of entanglement left among the two qubits depends strongly on the ratio of the non- orthogonal transitions in each qubit and can be more than 50%
We investigate the relation between indistinguishability and quantum entanglement in Hong- Ou-Mandel-interference experiments theoretically and relate these quantum mechanical principles to the theorem of entanglement monogamy. Employing Glaubers theory of quantum coherence we compute the detection statistics in HOM-interference of frequency entangled photons, and find a new additional term in the coincidence detection probability, which is related to the spectral indistinguishability of the considered photons that arises from finite bandwidth effects, and therefore is relevant in the limit of…
A measurement scheme of atomic qubits pinned at given positions is studied by analyzing the interference pattern obtained when they emit photons spontaneously. In the case of two qubits, a well-known relation is revisited, in which the interference visibility is equal to the concurrence of the state in the infinite spatial separation limit of the qubits. By taking into account the super-radiant and sub-radiant effects, it is shown that a state tomography is possible when the qubit spatial separation is comparable to the wavelength of the atomic transition. In the case of three qubits, the rela…
Particle identity and entanglement are two fundamental quantum properties that work as major resources for various quantum information tasks. However, it is still a challenging problem to understand the correlation of the two properties in the same system. While recent theoretical studies have shown that the spatial overlap between identical particles is necessary for nontrivial entanglement, the exact role of particle indistinguishability in the entanglement of identical particles has never been analyzed quantitatively before. Here, we theoretically and experimentally investigate the behavior…
We describe two-photon absorption processes excited by entangled pairs, but not by non-entangled pairs of the same energy and polarization. Photon states are selected for destructive interference in the non-entangled process between different sequences of absorption via multiple intermediate states. A non-zero entangled absorption cross section is obtained by varying the entanglement time and pair delay parameters. Detailed energy and polarization requirements are derived for Rb 5S1/2 --> 5D3/2 transitions. Applications to Quantum Steganography and Quantum Key Distribution are discussed.
Integrated quantum photonic waveguide circuits are a promising approach to realizing future photonic quantum technologies. Here, we present an integrated photonic quantum technology platform utilising the silicon-on-insulator material system, where quantum interference and the manipulation of quantum states of light are demonstrated in components orders of magnitude smaller than in previous implementations. Two-photon quantum interference is presented in a multi-mode interference coupler, and manipulation of entanglement is demonstrated in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, opening the way to an a…
The role of interference and entanglement in quantum neural processing is discussed. It is argued that on contrast to the quantum computing the problem of the use of exponential resources as the payment for the absense of entanglement does not exist for quantum neural processing. This is because of corresponding systems, as any modern classical artificial neural systems, do not realize functions precisely, but approximate them by training on small sets of examples. It can permit to implement quantum neural systems optically, because in this case there is no need in exponential resources of opt…
Sources of entanglement are an enabling resource in quantum technology, and pushing the limits of generation rate and quality of entanglement is a necessary pre-requisite towards practical applications. Here, we present an ultra-bright source of polarization-entangled photon pairs based on time-reversed Hong-Ou-Mandel interference. By superimposing four pair-creation possibilities on a polarization beam splitter, pairs of identical photons are separated into two spatial modes without the usual requirement for wavelength distinguishability or non-collinear emission angles. Our source yields hig…
We address the interaction of two Gaussian states interferring at a beam splitter and analyze the correlations exhibited by the resulting bipartite system. We demonstrate that nonlocal correlations (entanglement) arise if and only if the fidelity between the two input Gaussian states falls under a threshold value depending only on their purities and on the transmissivity of the beam splitter. Our result clarifies the role of squeezing as a prerequisite for entanglement and provide a tool to optimize the generation of entanglement by passive devices.
In this paper we study the evolution of the two two-level atoms interacting with a single-mode quantized radiation field, namely, two-atom multiphoton Jaynes-Cummings model when the radiation field and atoms are initially prepared in the superpostion of displaced number states and excited atomic states, respectively. For this system we investigate the atomic inversion, Wigner function, phase distribution and entanglement.
An addition rule of impure density operators, which provides a pure state density operator, is formulated. Quantum interference including visibility property is discussed in the context of the density operator formalism. A measure of entanglement is then introduced as the norm of the matrix equal to the difference between a bipartite density matrix and the tensor product of partial traces. Entanglement for arbitrary quantum observables for multipartite systems is discussed. Star-product kernels are used to map the formulation of the addition rule of density operators onto the addition rule of …
We present a proposal for heralded entanglement between two quantum dots via Hong--Ou--Mandel effect. Each of the quantum dots, drived off-resonance by two lasers, can be entangled with the coherent cavity mode. The output photons from the two coherent cavity modes interfering by a beamsplitter, we could entangle the two QDs with nearly unit success probability. Our scheme requires neither direct coupling between qubits nor the detection of single photons. Moreover the quantum dots do not need to have the same frequencies and coupling constants.
We show that the quantum interference between downconverted photon pairs and photons from coherent laser light can produce a maximally path entangled N-photon output component with a fidelity greater than 90% for arbitrarily high photon numbers. A simple beam splitter operation can thus transform the 2-photon coherence of down-converted light into an almost optimal N-photon coherence.
In the history of quantum mechanics, much has been written about the double-slit experiment, and much debate as to its interpretation has ensued. Indeed, to explain the interference patterns for sub-atomic particles, explanations have been given not only in terms of the principle of complementarity and wave-particle duality but also in terms of quantum consciousness and parallel universes. In this paper, the topic will be discussed from the perspective of spin-coupling in the hope of further clarification. We will also suggest that this explanation allows for a realist interpretation of the Af…
The time-energy entanglement of down-converted photon pairs is particularly difficult to characterize because direct measurements of photon arrival times are limited by the temporal resolution of photon detection. Here, we explore an alternative possibility of characterizing the temporal coherence of two-photon wavefunctions using single photon interference with weak coherent light. Specifically, this method makes use of the fact that down-conversion generates a coherent superposition of vacuum and two-photon states, so that the coincidence count rates for photon pairs after interference with …
We present a scheme to achieve maximally entangled states, controlled phase-shift gate, and SWAP gate for two superconducting-quantum-interference-device (SQUID) qubits, by placing SQUIDs in a microwave cavity. We also show how to transfer quantum information from one SQUID qubit to another. In this scheme, no transfer of quantum information between the SQUIDs and the cavity is required, the cavity field is only virtually excited and thus the requirement on the quality factor of the cavity is greatly relaxed.
We propose a scheme to explore two-photon high-dimensional entanglement associated with a transverse pattern by means of two-photon interference in a beamsplitter. We find that the topological symmetry of the angular spectrum of the two-photon state governs the nature of the two-photon interference. We prove that the anti-coalescence interference is the signature of two-photon entanglement. On the basis of this feature, we propose a special Mach-Zehnder interferometer incorporated with two spiral phase plates which can change the interference from a coalescence to an anti-coalescence type only…
In this theoretical study we demonstrate that entangled states are able to significantly extend the functionality of Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) interferometers. By generating a coherent superposition of parametric-down-conversion photons and spatial entanglement in the input channel, the coincidence probability measured at the output changes from a typical HOM-type dip (photon bunching) into much richer patterns including an anti-bunching peak and rapid oscillation fringes with twice the optical frequency. The considered system should be realizable on a single chip using current waveguide technology…
The visibilities of second-order (single-photon) and fourth-order (two-photon) interference have been observed in a Young's double-slit experiment using light generated by spontaneous parametric down-conversion and a photon-counting intensified CCD camera. Coherence and entanglement underlie one-and two-photon interference, respectively. As the effective source size is increased, coherence is diminished while entanglement is enhanced, so that the visibility of single-photon interference decreases while that of two-photon interference increases. This is the first experimental demonstration of t…
Entanglement can modify the interference patterns of multi-particle systems. We analyse, using the path integral formalism, a novel example of multi-particle interference and some unexplored aspects of this phenomenon by considering the two-slit arrangement with two distinguishable particles in a superposition state. The two components of entanglement, multiplicity of multi-particle terms and their coherence, can be studied separately by comparing the patterns of product, mixed and superposition states. This suggests a scheme to detect multi-particle superposition in some favourable cases. Mor…
Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) effect was long believed to be a two-photon interference phenomenon. It describes the fact that two indistinguishable photons mixed at a beam splitter will bunch together to one of the two output modes. Considering the two single-photon emitters such as trapped ions, we explore a hidden scenario of the HOM effect, where entanglement can be generated between the two ions when a single photon is detected by one of the detectors. A second photon emitted by the entangled photon sources will be subsequently detected by the same detector. However, we can also control the fate of…
We discuss a discrete-event simulation approach, which has been shown to give a unified cause-and-effect description of many quantum optics and single-neutron interferometry experiments. The event-based simulation algorithm does not require the knowledge of the solution of a wave equation of the whole system, yet reproduces the corresponding statistical distributions by generating detection events one-by-one. It is showm that single-particle interference and entanglement, two important quantum phenomena, emerge via information exchange between individual particles and devices such as beam spli…
Entanglement is often the key element in quantum information protocols. Here, we present schemes to generate robust photon entanglement in optomechanical interfaces via quantum interference. The schemes explore the excitation of the Bogoliubov dark mode and the destructive quantum interference between the bright modes of the interface, similar to electromagnetically induced transparency, to eliminate leading-order effects of the mechanical noise. Both continuous-variable and discrete-state entanglements that are robust against the mechanical noise can be achieved.
We introduce the concept of hypergraphs to describe quantum optical experiments with probabilistic multi-photon sources. Every hyperedge represents a correlated photon source, and every vertex stands for an optical output path. Such general graph description provides new insights for producing complex high-dimensional multi-photon quantum entangled states, which go beyond limitations imposed by pair creation via spontaneous parametric down-conversion. Furthermore, properties of hypergraphs can be investigated experimentally. For example, the NP-Complete problem of deciding whether a hypergraph…
We describe a general method of realizing entanglement witnesses in terms of the interference pattern of a single quantum probe. After outlining the principle, we discuss specific realizations both with electrons in mesoscopic Aharonov-Bohm rings and with photons in standard Young's double-slit or coherent-backscattering interferometers.
Quantum correlations between identical particles are at the heart of quantum technologies. Several studies with two identical particles have shown that the spatial overlap and indistinguishability between the particles are necessary for generating bipartite entanglement. On the other hand, researches on the extension to more than two-particle systems are limited by the practical difficulty to control multiple identical particles in laboratories. In this work, we propose schemes to generate two fundamental classes of genuine tripartite entanglement, i.e., GHZ and W classes, which are experiment…
The Hong-Ou-Mandel interference dip is caused by an entangled state, a delocalized bi-photon state. We propose a method of detecting this entanglement by utilizing inverse Hong-Ou-Mandel interference, while taking into account vacuum and multi-photon contaminations, phase noise, and other imperfections. The method uses just linear optics and photodetectors, and for single-mode photodetectors we find a lower bound on the amount of entanglement.
We describe a direct method for experimental determination of the negativity of an arbitrary two-qubit state with 11 measurements performed on multiple copies of the two-qubit system. Our method is based on the experimentally accessible sequences of singlet projections performed on up to four qubit pairs. In particular, our method permits the application of the Peres-Horodecki separability criterion to an arbitrary two-qubit state. We explicitly demonstrate that measuring entanglement in terms of negativity requires three measurements more than detecting two-qubit entanglement. The reported mi…