Semi-transparent mirrors are standard elements in light optics for splitting light beams or creating two versions of the same image. Such mirrors do not exist in electron optics, although they could be beneficial in existing techniques such as electron interferometry and holography and enable novel electron imaging and spectroscopy techniques. We propose a design for an electron beam splitter using the concept of quantum interaction-free measurement (IFM). The design combines an electron resonator with a weak phase grating. Fast switching gates allow electrons to enter and exit the resonator. While in the resonator, the phase grating transfers intensity from the direct beam into one of the weakly diffracted beams at each pass. To make the beam splitter an efficient two-port splitter, the intensity in all other diffracted beams is blocked by an aperture. The IFM principle minimizes the loss of total intensity by this aperture. We use a scattering matrix method to analyze the performance of the beam splitter, including the effects of inelastic scattering in the phase grating. This design can be generalized to beam splitters for not only electrons, but also photons, neutrons, atoms, and other quantum mechanical systems.
By directing the input light into a particular mode it is possible to obtain as output all of the input light for a beam splitter that is 50% absorbing. This effect is also responsible for nonlinear quantum interference when two photons are incident on the beam splitter.
A beam splitter is a simple, readily available device which can act to entangle the output optical fields. We show that a necessary condition for the fields at the output of the beam splitter to be entangled is that the pure input states exhibit nonclassical behavior. We generalize this proof for arbitrary (pure or impure) Gaussian input states. Specifically, nonclassicality of the input Gaussian fields is a necessary condition for entanglement of the field modes with the help of the beam splitter. We conjecture that this is a general property of the beam splitter: Nonclassicality of the input…
An explicit formula is given for the quantity of entanglement in the output state of a beam splitter, given the squeezed vacuum states input in each mode.
Interference of single-photon wave packets at a beam splitter usually leads to an anticorrelation of the light intensity in the two output ports of the beam splitter. The effect may be regarded as ``bunching'' of the photons at the beam splitter and has widely been interpreted as a result of quantum mechanical interference between the probability amplitudes of indistinguishable bosonic particles. Here we show that when the wave packets are sufficiently distorted, then the opposite behaviour is observed, i.e., simultaneous clicks of the photodetectors in the two output ports are favoured, which…
We report the experimental demonstration of efficient interaction of multi kilo electron Volt heralded x-ray photons with a beam splitter. The measured heralded photon rate at the outputs of the beam splitter is about 0.01 counts/s which is comparable to the rate in the absence of the beam splitter. We use this beam splitter together with photon number and photon energy resolving detectors to show directly that single x ray photons cannot split. Our experiment demonstrates the major advantage of x rays for quantum optics: the possibility to observe experimental results with high fidelity and w…
A new nonlocality experiment with moving beam-splitters is proposed. The experiment is analysed according to conventional quantum mechanics, and to an alternative nonlocal description in which superposition depends not only on indistinguishability but also on the timing of the impacts at the beam-splitters.
We present a teleportation protocol based upon the entanglement produced from Fock states incident onto a beam splitter of arbitrary transmissivity. The teleportation fidelity is analysed, its trends being explained from consideration of a beam splitter's input/output characteristics.
We have designed and experimentally studied a simple beam splitter for atoms guided on an Atom Chip, using a current carrying Y-shaped wire and a bias magnetic field. This beam splitter and other similar designs can be used to build atom optical elements on the mesoscopic scale, and integrate them in matterwave quantum circuits.
The second-order temporal interference of classical and nonclassical light at an asymmetrical beam splitter is discussed based on two-photon interference in Feynman's path integral theory. The visibility of the second-order interference pattern is determined by the properties of the superposed light beams, the ratio between the intensities of these two light beams, and the reflectivity of the asymmetrical beam splitter. Some requirements about the asymmetrical beam splitter have to be satisfied in order to ensure that the visibility of the second-order interference pattern of nonclassical ligh…
The Janszky representation constructs quantum states of a field mode as a superposition of coherent states on a line in the complex plane. We show that this provides a natural Schrödinger picture description of the interference between a pair of modes at a beam splitter.
We consider a nonlinear sign gate implemented using a sequence of two beam splitters, and consider the use of further sequences of beam splitters to implement feed-forward so as to correct an error resulting from the first beam splitter. We obtain similar results to Scheel et al. [Scheel et al., Phys. Rev. A 73, 034301 (2006)], in that we also find that our feed-forward procedure is only able to produce a very minor improvement in the success probability of the original gate.
A simple scheme is proposed for observing the ghost interference and diffraction. The signal and the idler beams are produced by a beam splitter with the incident light being in a thermal state. A slit is inserted into the signal beam. We derive rigorously that interference-diffraction patterns can be observed in the first-order correlation by scanning the probe in the idler beam.
The aim of this work is to answer the question of how much quantum coherence a beam splitter is able to produce. To this end we consider as the variables under study both the amount of coherence of the input states as well as the beam splitter characteristics. We conclude that there is an optimal combination of these factors making the gain of coherence maximum. In addition, the two mode squeezed vacuum arises as the studied state most capable of gaining coherence when passing through a beam splitter. These results are qualitatively equivalent for the the l1-norm of coherence and for the relat…
We show that a beam splitter of reflectivity one-third can be used to realize a quantum phase gate operation if only the outputs conserving the number of photons on each side are post-selected.
We propose an experimentally feasible scheme to generate various types of entangled states of light fields by using beam splitters and single-photon detectors. Two light fields are incident on two beam splitters and are split into strong and weak output modes respectively. A conditional joint measurement on both weak output modes may result in an entanglement between the two strong output modes. The conditions for the maximal entanglement are discussed based on the concurrence. Several specific examples are also examined.
It is conjectured that the an entanglement output states from a beam splitter requires the nonclassicality in the input state(M.S. Kim, W. Son, V. Buzek and P. L. Knight, Phys. Rev. A, 65, 032323(2002)). Here we give a proof for this conjecture.
We derive a lower limit to the amount of absorptive loss present in passive linear optical devices such as a beam splitter. We choose a particularly simple beam splitter geometry, a single planar slab surrounded by vacuum, which already reveals the important features of the theory. It is shown that, using general causality requirements and statistical arguments, the lower bound depends on the frequency of the incident light and the transverse resonance frequency of a suitably chosen single-resonance model only. For symmetric beam splitters and reasonable assumptions on the resonance frequency …
In a gedankenexperiment N particles in a generalized GHZ-type beam entangled state (each particle can be in one of M beams) are fed into N symmetric 2M-port beam splitters (spatially separated). Correlation functions for such a process (using the Bell numbers value assignment approach) reveal a remarkable symmetry. For N=M+1 greater or equal to 4 a series of GHZ paradoxes are shown.
We investigate the generation of multipartite entangled SU(k+1) coherent states using a quantum network involving a sequence of k beam splitters. We particularly investigate the entanglement in multipartite SU(2) coherent states (k = 1). We employ the concurrence as measure of the degree of bipartite entanglement.
Spin interferometry of the 4th order for independent polarized as well as unpolarized photons arriving simultaneously at a beam splitter and exhibiting spin correlation while leaving it, is formulated and discussed in the quantum approach. Beam splitter is recognized as a source of genuine singlet photon states. Also, typical nonclassical beating between photons taking part in the interference of the 4th order is given a polarization dependent explanation.
The Hong-Ou-Mandel effect is generalized to a configuration of n bosons prepared in the n input ports of a Bell multiport beam splitter. We derive a strict suppression law for most possible output events, consistent with a generic bosonic behavior after suitable coarse graining.
When a single beam-splitter receives two beams of bosons described by Fock states (Bose-Einstein condensates at very low temperatures), interesting generalizations of the two-photon Hong-Ou-Mandel effect take place for larger number of particles. The distributions of particles at two detectors behind the beam splitter can be understood as resulting from the combination of two effects, the spontaneous phase appearing during quantum measurement, and the quantum angle. The latter introduces quantum "population oscillations", which can be seen as a generalized Hong-Ou-Mandel effect, although they …
Dirac has written "Each photon then interferes only with itself. Interference between two different photons never occurs." Indeed, a practical definition is that "classical" optics consists of phenomena due to the interference of photons only with themselves. However, photons obey Bose statistics which implies a ``nonclassical'' tendency for them to ``bunch''. For a simple example of nonclassical optical behavior, we consider two pulses of photons of a single frequency that are simultaneously incident on two sides of a lossless, 50:50 beam splitter.
By using an asymmetric beam splitter, we observe the generalized Hong-Ou-Mandel effects for three and four photons, respectively. Furthermore, we can use this generalized Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer to characterize temporal distinguishability.
Effects of non-ideal optical components in realizing quantum Zeno effect in an all-optical setup are analyzed. Beam splitters are the important components in this experimental configuration. Nonuniform transmission coefficient, photon absorption and thermal noise are considered. Numerical simulation of the experiment is performed using the Monte Carlo wavefunction method. It is argued that there is an optimal number of beam splitters to be used for maximizing the expected output in the experiment.
We aim to analytically arrive at a beam splitter formulation for electron waves. The electron beam splitter is an essential component of quantum logical devices. To arrive at the beam splitter structure, the electrons are treated as waves, i.e. we assume the transport to be ballistic. Ballistic electrons are electrons that travel over such short distances that their phase coherence is maintained. For mesoscopic devices with size smaller than the mean free path, the phase relaxation length and the Fermi wavelength of electrons in the medium, the transport can be considered to be coherent and he…
A beam splitter is one of the most important devices in an optics laboratory because of its handiness and versatility; equivalent devices are found in various quantum systems to couple two subsystems or to interfere them. While it is normal that two independent input fields are superposed at the beam splitter to give correlated outputs, identical Gaussian states interfere there to produce totally independent output fields. We prove that Gaussian states with same the variance are the only states which bring about factorizable output fields.
We propose three criteria for the generation of random digital strings from quantum beam splitters: (i) three or more mutually exclusive outcomes corresponding to the invocation of three- and higher dimensional Hilbert spaces; (ii) the mandatory use of pure states in conjugated bases for preparation and detection; and (iii) the use of entangled singlet (unique) states for elimination of bias.
The generating entangled state by using a 50/50 beamsplitter has been discussed in the literature before . In this paper we explore how to use an asymmetric beam-splitter to produce a new kind of entangled state. We construct such kind of states theoretically and then prove that they make up a complete and orthonormal representation in two-mode Fock space. Its application in finding new squeezing operator and new squeezed state is introduced.
Beam splitter mediated entanglement of nonlinear photon-added coherent states was studied by Honarasa, Bagheri and Gharaati [1]. We believe that this work contains errors in numerical computations of linear entropy and Mandel parameter which lead to wrong conclusions. We point out the possible errors and describe the necessary corrections. The conclusions based on our arguments are in complete agreement with previously published literature.
We investigate quantitatively the wave-particle duality in a general Mach-Zehnder interferometer setup with an asymmetric beam splitter. The asymmetric beam splitter introduces additional a priori which-path knowledge, which is different for a particle detected at one output port of the interferometer and a particle detected at the other. Accordingly, the fringe visibilities of the interference patterns emerging at the two output ports are also different. Hence, in sharp contrast with the symmetric case, here we should concentrate on one output port and distinguish two possible paths taken by …
Using multiport beam-splitter (BS) configurations eight input operators a(0),a(1),a(2) a(3),a(4) a(5),a(6), a(7) are mixed by 12 BS's to produce the output operators b(0), b(1), b(2), b(3), b(4), b(5), b(6), b(7). A single photon entering into, or exiting from, one port of a BS is considered as the |0> state while that in the second port of the BS is considered as the |1> state. Two single photons are inserted into two of the BS's simulating two input qubit-states by operators a(0), a(1),a(2), a(3) . In order to simulate the two-qubit gates we exclude by postselection all the cases in which on…
We demonstrate that networks of locally connected processing units with a primitive learning capability exhibit behavior that is usually only attributed to quantum systems. We describe networks that simulate single-photon beam-splitter and Mach-Zehnder interferometer experiments on a causal, event-by-event basis and demonstrate that the simulation results are in excellent agreement with quantum theory.
We theoretically study the dynamics of entangled states created in a beam splitter with a nonlinear Kerr medium placed into one input arm. Entanglement dynamics of initial classical and nonclassical states are studied and compared. Signatures of revival and fractional revival phenomena exhibited during the time evolution of states in the Kerr medium are captured in the entangled states produced by the beam splitter. Maximum entanglement is obtained at the instants of collapses of wave packets in the medium. Our analysis shows increase in entanglement with increase in the degree of nonclassical…
We prove that a beam splitter, one of the most common optical components, fulfills several classes of majorization relations, which govern the amount of quantum entanglement that it can generate. First, we show that the state resulting from k photons impinging on a beam splitter majorizes the corresponding state with any larger photon number k'>k, implying that the entanglement monotonically grows with k. Then, we examine parametric infinitesimal majorization relations as a function of the beam-splitter transmittance, and find that there exists a parameter region where majorization is again fu…
We introduce a special class of truncated Weyl-Heisenberg algebra and discuss the corresponding Hilbertian and analytical representations. Subsequently, we study the effect of a quantum network of beam splitting on coherent states of this nonlinear class of harmonic oscillators. We particularly focus on quantum networks involving one and two beam splitters and examine the degree of bipartite as well as tripartite entanglement using the linear entropy.
We study the entanglement effect of beam splitter on the temporally stable phase states. Specifically, we consider the eigenstates (phase states) of an unitary phase operator resulting from the polar decomposition of ladder operators of generalized Weyl--Heisenberg algebras possessing finite dimensional representation space. The linear entropy that measures the degree of entanglement at the output of the beam splitter is analytically obtained. We find that the entanglement is not only strongly dependent on the Hilbert space dimension but also quite related to strength the parameter ensuring th…
A new kind of tripartite coherent-entangled state (CES) $\ket{β,γ, x}_{μντ}$ is proposed, which exhibits the properties of both coherence and entanglement. We investigate its completeness and orthogonality, and find it can make up a representation of tripartite CES. A protocol for generating the tripartite CES is proposed using asymmetric beam splitter. Applications of the tripartite CES in quantum optics are also presented.
In this paper, we investigate the phase sensitivities in two-path optical interferometry with asymmetric beam splitters. Here, we present the optimal conditions for the transmission ratio and the phase of the beam splitter to gain the highest sensitivities for a general class of non-classical states with parity symmetry. Additionally, we address the controversial question of whether the scheme with a combination of coherent state and photon-added or photon-subtracted squeezed vacuum state is better or worse than the most celebrated one using a combination of coherent state and squeezed vacuum …
The Copenhagen interpretation has been long-lasted, whose core concepts are in the Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and nonlocal correlation of EPR. The second-order anticorrelation on a beam splitter represents these phenomena where it cannot be achieved classically. Here, the anticorrelation of nonclassicality on a beam splitter is interpreted in a purely coherence manner. Unlike a common belief in a particle nature of photons, the anticorrelation roots in pure wave nature of coherence optics, where quantum superposition between two input fields plays a key role. This interpretation may in…
Two experiments of four-photon interference are performed with two pairs of photons from parametric down-conversion with the help of asymmetric beam splitters. The first experiment is a generalization of the Hong-Ou-Mandel interference effect to two pairs of photons while the second one utilizes this effect to demonstrate a four-photon de Broglie wavelength of $λ/4$ by projection measurement.
We study a general theory on the interference of two-photon wavepacket in a beam splitter (BS). We find that the perfect coalescence interference requires a symmetric spectrum of two-photon wavepacket which can be entangled or un-entangled. Furthermore, we introduce a two-photon wavepacket with anti-symmetric spectrum, which is related with photon entanglement and shows a perfect anti-coalescence effect. The theory present uniform and complete explanation to two-photon interference.
We study the wave-particle duality in a general Mach-Zehnder interferometer with an asymmetric beam splitter from the viewpoint of quantum information theory. The correlations(including the classical correlation and the quantum correlation) between the particle and the which-path detector are derived when they are in pure state or mixed state at the output of Mach-Zehnder interferometer. It is found that the fringe visibility and the correlations are effected by the asymmetric beam splitter and the input state of the particle. The complementary relations between the fringe visibility and the c…
We calculate the amount of polarization-entanglement induced by two-photon interference at a lossless beam splitter. Entanglement and its witness are quantified respectively by concurrence and the Bell-CHSH parameter. In the presence of a Mandel dip, the interplay of two kinds of which-path information -- temporal and polarization -- gives rise to the existence of entangled polarization-states that cannot violate the Bell-CHSH inequality.
For the first time, the theory and practical realization of a broadband quantum noise generator based on original integrated optical beam splitter in the form of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer is demonstrated. The beam splitter with a double output, made on a lithium niobate substrate, provided accurate electro-optical balancing of the homodyne quantum noise detection circuit. According to our knowledge, the experimentally obtained excess of quantum noise over classical noise by 12 dB in the frequency band over 4 GHz, which is the best parameters of quantum noise generators known from the liter…
Multiphoton entanglement is an important resource for linear optics quantum computing. Here we show that a wide range of highly entangled multiphoton states, including W-states, can be prepared by interfering single photons inside a Bell multiport beam splitter and using postselection. A successful state preparation is indicated by the collection of one photon per output port. An advantage of the Bell multiport beam splitter is that it redirects the photons without changing their inner degrees of freedom. The described setup can therefore be used to generate polarisation, time-bin and frequenc…
A scheme for suppressing the correlated noise in signals transmitted over the bosonic Gaussian memory channels is proposed. This is a compromise solution rather than removing the noise completely. The scheme is based on linear optical elements, two $N$-port splitters and $N$ number of phase flips. The proposed scheme has the advantages that the correlated noise of the memory channels are greatly suppressed, and the input signal states can be protected excellently when transmitting over the noise channels. We examine the suppressing efficiency of the scheme for the correlated noise, both from q…
A transformation achieving the optimal symmetric N-to-M cloning of coherent states is presented. Its implementation only requires a phase-insensitive linear amplifier and a network of beam splitters. An experimental demonstration of this continuous-variable cloner should therefore be in the scope of current technology. The link between optimal quantum cloning and optimal amplification of quantum states is also pointed out.
We study the fringe visibility and the distinguishability of a general Mach-Zehnder interferometer with an asymmetric beam splitter. Both the fringe visibility V and the distinguishability D are affected by the input state of the particle characterized by the Bloch vector S=(Sx,Sy,Sz) and the second asymmetric beam splitter characterized by paramter /beta. For the total system is initially in a pure state, it is found that the fringe visibility reaches the upper bound and the distinguishability reaches the lower bound when cos(/beta) = -Sx. The fringe visibility obtain the maximum only if Sx =…
One of the most striking quantum phenomena is photon bunching resulting from coincidently impinging two-indistinguishable photons on a beam splitter (BS) from two different input ports. Such a nonclassical feature has also been observed even between two independent light sources through either coherence optics resulting in phase locking or post-selected measurements such as quantum beating-based gating. Recently, BS physics regarding quantum features has been discussed using pure coherence optics based on phase basis superposition of the BS. Here, we experimentally demonstrate coherent photon …
A quantum system can behave as a wave or as a particle, depending on the experimental arrangement. When for example measuring a photon using a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, the photon acts as a wave if the second beam-splitter is inserted, but as a particle if this beam-splitter is omitted. The decision of whether or not to insert this beam-splitter can be made after the photon has entered the interferometer, as in Wheeler's famous delayed-choice thought experiment. In recent quantum versions of this experiment, this decision is controlled by a quantum ancilla, while the beam splitter is itself…
In a recent article (arXiv:1006.1728) K.Michielsen et al. claim that a simple corpuscular model can explain many quantum optics experiments. We discuss these claims and show that their proposal fails at several levels. Finally, we propose an experiment to falsify the model.
Vacuum fluctuation, which is the intrinsic nature of an electric field can be measured via homodyne detection. Moreover, electric field intensity fluctuation are also related to vacuum fluctuations. Squeezed vacuum and sub-Poisson light can be obtained by controlling the vacuum fluctuation using noble nonlinear interaction. Based on the squeezed vacuum by inserting a mirror on the unused part of the beam splitter was proposed in 1994, we present the mode matching method for the vacuum and light fields. Light intensity fluctuations also can be reduced by inserting a mirror on the unused part of…
Nondegenerate four-wave mixing (FWM) process based on a double-$Λ$ scheme in hot alkali metal vapor is a versatile tool in quantum state engineering, quantum imaging, and quantum precision measurements. In this Letter, we investigate the generation of quantum correlated twin beams which carry nonzero orbital angular momentums (OAMs) based on the FWM process in hot cesium vapor. The amplified probe beam and the newly generated conjugate beam in the FWM process have the same and opposite topological charge as the seed beam, respectively. We also explore the FWM process operated in a nonamplifyin…
