So far experimental confirmation of entanglement has been restricted to qubits, i.e. two-state quantum systems including recent realization of three- and four-qubit entanglements. Yet, an ever increasing body of theoretical work calls for entanglement in quantum system of higher dimensions. Here we report the first realization of multi-dimensional entanglement exploiting the orbital angular momentum of photons, which are states of the electromagnetic field with phase singularities (doughnut modes). The properties of such states could be of importance for the efforts in the field of quantum computation and quantum communication. For example, quantum cryptography with higher alphabets could enable one to increase the information flux through the communication channels.
We demonstrate experimentally how orbital-angular-momentum entanglement of two photons evolves under influence of atmospheric turbulence. We find that the quantum channel capacity is surprisingly robust: Its typical horizontal decay distance is of the order of 2 kilometers, demonstrating the potential of photonic orbital angular momentum for free-space quantum communication in a metropolitan environment.
We investigate two-photon entangled states using two important degrees of freedom of the electromagnetic field, namely orbital angular momentum (OAM) and spin angular momentum. For photons propagating in the same direction we apply the idea of $\textit{entanglement duality}$ and develop schemes to do $\textit{entanglement sorting}$ based either on OAM or polarization. In each case the entanglement is tested using appropriate witnesses. We finally present generalizations of these ideas to three- and four-photon entangled states.
The Shannon dimensionality of orbital angular momentum (OAM) entanglement produced in spontaneous parametric down-conversion can be probed by using multi-sector phase analysers. We demonstrate a spatial light modulator-based implementation of these analysers, and use it to measure a Schmidt number of about 50.
We report the first experimental characterization of the first-order continuous variable orbital angular momentum states. Using a spatially non-degenerate optical parametric oscillator (OPO) we produce quadrature entanglement between the two first-order Laguerre-Gauss modes. The family of OAM modes is mapped on an orbital Poincare sphere, and the modes position on the sphere is spanned by the three orbital parameters. Using the non-degenerate OPO we produce squeezing of these parameters, and as an illustration, we reconstruct the "cigar-shaped" uncertainty volume on the orbital Poincare sphere…
We study the entanglement evolution of photonic orbital angular momentum qubit states with opposite azimuthal indices $l_0$, in a weakly turbulent atmosphere. Using asymptotic methods, we deduce analytical expressions for the amplitude of turbulence-induced crosstalk between the modes $l_0$ and $-l_0$. Furthermore, we analytically establish distinct, universal entanglement decay laws for Kolmogorov's turbulence model and for two approximations thereof.
Quantum protocols will be more efficient with high-dimensional entangled states. Photons carrying orbital angular momenta can be used to create a high-dimensional entangled state. In this paper we experimentally demonstrate the entanglement of the orbital angular momentum between the Stokes and anti-Stokes photons generated in a hot atomic ensemble using spontaneous four-wave-mixing. This experiment also suggests the existence of the entanglement concerned with spatial degrees of freedom between the hot atomic ensemble and the Stokes photon.
We provide an analytical expression for the entanglement decay of initially maximally entangled orbital angular momentum bi-photon states, when scattered off an obstruction. We show that the decay is controlled by the diffraction-induced mutual overlap between the diffracted field modes, and quantify its dependence on the size and position of the obstruction.
We study the diffraction of two maximally entangled qubits encoded into spatial modes of light with orbital angular momenta $\pm \hbar l_0$, on angular apertures. Exploiting the uncertainty relation between angular position and momentum, we quantify the diffraction-induced entanglement loss, for different $l_0$, as a function of the angular uncertainty $Δϕ$ induced by the apertures. We demonstrate that the degradation of entanglement follows a universal law parametrised by the product $l_0Δϕ$ alone.} {We study the diffraction of two photonic qubits, which are initially maximally entangled in t…
We report the first quantum entanglement experiment in South Africa. The spatial modes of the entangled photon pair are investigated with their potential for high-dimensional entanglement. The generation, measurement and characterisation of the entangled states are examined in detail, where we show high-dimensional entanglement in a Hilbert space of dimension 25. We highlight the experimental challenges contained within each step and provide practical techniques for future experiments in the quantum regime.
Entanglement swapping generates remote quantum correlations between particles that have not interacted and is the cornerstone of long-distance quantum communication, quantum networks, and fundamental tests of quantum science. In the context of spatial modes of light, high-dimensional entanglement provides an avenue to increase the bandwidth of quantum communications and provides more stringent limits for tests of quantum foundations. Here we simultaneously swap the entanglement of multiple orbital angular momentum states of light. The system is based on a degenerate filter that cannot distingu…
The singular nature of a non-integer spiral phase plate allows easy manipulation of spatial degrees of freedom of photon states. Using two such devices, we have observed very high dimensional (D > 3700) spatial entanglement of twin photons generated by spontaneous parametric down-conversion.
We show that the transfer of the plane wave spectrum of the pump beam to the fourth-order transverse spatial correlation function of the two-photon field generated by spontaneous parametric down-conversion leads to the conservation and entanglement of orbital angular momentum of light. By means of a simple experimental setup based on fourth-order (or two-photon) interferometry, we show that our theoretical model provides a good description for down-converted fields carrying orbital angular momentum.
We consider the exchange of spin and orbital angular momenta between a circularly polarized Laguerre-Gaussian beam of light and a single atom trapped in a two-dimensional harmonic potential. The radiation field is treated classically but the atomic center-of-mass motion is quantized. The spin and orbital angular momenta of the field are individually conserved upon absorption, and this results in the entanglement of the internal and external degrees of freedom of the atom. We suggest applications of this entanglement in quantum information processing.
We examine the entanglement induced by an angular momentum coupling between two harmonic systems. The Hamiltonian corresponds to that of a charged particle in a uniform magnetic field in an anisotropic quadratic potential, or equivalently, to that of a particle in a rotating quadratic potential. We analyze both the vacuum and thermal entanglement, obtaining analytic expressions for the entanglement entropy and negativity through the gaussian state formalism. It is shown that vacuum entanglement diverges at the edges of the dynamically stable sectors, increasing with the angular momentum and sa…
Optical modes with different orbital angular momentums (OAMs) per photon may be sorted by Mach-Zehnder interferometers incorporated with beam rotators, without resorting to OAM mode converters.
The orbital angular momentum of light (OAM) provides a promising approach for the implementation of multidimensional states (qudits) for quantum information purposes. In order to characterize the degradation undergone by the information content of qubits encoded in a bidimensional subspace of the orbital angular momentum degree of freedom of photons, we study how the state fidelity is affected by a transverse obstruction placed along the propagation direction of the light beam. Emphasis is placed on the effects of planar and radial hard-edged aperture functions on the state fidelity of Laguerr…
Any practical experiment utilising the innate D-dimensional entanglement of the orbital angular momentum (OAM) state space of photons is subject to the modal capacity of the detection system. We show that given such a constraint, the number of measured, entangled OAM modes in photon pairs generated by spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) can be maximised by tuning the phase-matching conditions in the SPDC process. We demonstrate a factor of 2 increase on the half-width of the OAM-correlation spectrum, from 10 to 20, the latter implying \approx 50 -dimensional two-photon OAM entangleme…
Three-dimensional entanglement of orbital angular momentum states of an atomic qutrit and a single photon qutrit has been observed. Their full state was reconstructed using quantum state tomography. The fidelity to the maximally entangled state of Schmidt rank 3 exceeds the threshold 2/3. This result confirms that the density matrix cannot be decomposed into ensemble of pure states of Schmidt rank 1 or 2. That is, the Schmidt number of the density matrix must be equal to or greater than 3.
We propose a method for generation of entangled photonic states in high dimensions, the so-called qudits, by exploiting quantum correlations of Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) entangled photons, produced via Spontaneous Parametric Down Conversion. Diffraction masks containing $N$ angular slits placed in the path of twin photons define a qudit space of dimension $N^2$, spanned by the alternative pathways of OAM-entangled photons. We quantify the high-dimensional entanglement of path-entangled photons by the Concurrence, using an analytic expression valid for pure states. We report numerical resu…
Recently, atomic ensemble and single photons were successfully entangled by using collective enhancement [D. N. Matsukevich, \textit{et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{95}, 040405(2005).], where atomic internal states and photonic polarization states were correlated in nonlocal manner. Here we experimentally clarified that in an ensemble of atoms and a photon system, there also exists an entanglement concerned with spatial degrees of freedom. Generation of higher-dimensional entanglement between remote atomic ensemble and an application to condensed matter physics are also discussed.
We report on an orbital-angular-momentum-enhanced scheme for angular displacement estimation based on two-mode squeezed vacuum and parity detection. The sub-Heisenberg-limited sensitivity for angular displacement estimation is obtained in an ideal situation. Several realistic factors are also considered, including photon loss, dark counts, response-time delay, and thermal photon noise. Our results indicate that the effects of the realistic factors on the sensitivity can be offset by raising orbital angular momentum quantum number $\ell$. This reflects that the robustness and the practicability…
The quantum theory of rotation angles (S. M. Barnett and D. T. Pegg, Phys. Rev. A, 41, 3427-3425 (1990)) is generalised to non-integer values of the orbital angular momentum. This requires the introduction of an additional parameter, the orientation of a phase discontinuity associated with fractional values of the orbital angular momentum. We apply our formalism to the propagation of light modes with fractional orbital angular momentum in the paraxial and non-paraxial regime.
We introduce a matter wave interference scheme based on the quantization of orbital angular momentum in a ring trap. It operates without beam splitters, is sensitive to geometric phases induced by external gauge fields, and allows measuring interatomic scattering lengths. We argue that orbital angular momentum interferometry offers a versatile platform for quantum coherent experiments with cold atoms and Bose-Einstein condensates using state-of-the-art technology.
Through scanned coincidence counting, we probe the quantum image produced by parametric down conversion with a pump beam carrying orbital angular momentum. Nonlocal spatial correlations are manifested through splitting of the coincidence spot into two.
We report on an experiment demonstrating the conservation of orbital angular momentum in stimulated down-conversion. The orbital angular momentum is not transferred to the individual beams of the spontaneous down-conversion, but it is conserved when twin photons are taken individually. We observe the conservation law for an individual beam of the down-conversion through cavity-free stimulated emission.
We study the two-photon detection amplitude of the down-converted beams in spontaneous parametric down-conversion when the physical variable of orbital angular momentum is involved, taking into account both conservation and non-conservation of angular momentum. Agreeing with experimental observations, our theoretical calculation shows that spatial structure of the two-photon detection amplitude of the down-converted beams carries important information about conservation or non-conservation of orbital angular momentum in spontaneous parametric down-conversion.
Coincidence-structures in the transverse plane of Type-II spontaneous parametric down-conversion carrying orbital angular momentum are obtained. Azimuthal symmetry breaking around the pump beam direction reveals itself on these quantum images. Analytical expressions for the amplitude probability of the down conversion process are shown including the nonlinear polarizability components.
We calculate the entanglement of formation and the entanglement of distillation for arbitrary mixtures of the zero spin states on an arbitrary-dimensional bipartite Hilbert space. Such states are relevant to quantum black holes and to decoherence-free subspaces based communication. The two measures of entanglement are equal and scale logarithmically with the system size. We discuss its relation to the black hole entropy law. Moreover, these states are locally distinguishable but not locally orthogonal, thus violating a conjecture that the entanglement measures coincide only on locally orthogon…
The Einstein Podolsky Rosen (EPR) entangled quantum state is of special importance not only for fundamental research in quantum mechanics, but also for information processing in the field of quantum information. Previous EPR entangled state demonstrations were constructed with photons of equal phase wave fronts. More complex scenarios with structured wave fronts have not been investigated. Here, we report the first experimental demonstration of EPR entanglement for photon pairs carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) information, resulting in an OAM embedded EPR entangled state. We measured th…
A comprehensive theory of the Weyl-Wigner formalism for the canonical pair angle-angular momentum is presented. Special attention is paid to the problems linked to rotational periodicity and angular-momentum discreteness.
In this paper, we propose a protocol for angular displacement estimation based upon orbital angular momentum coherent state and a SU(1,1)-SU(2) hybrid interferometer. This interferometer consists of an optical parametric amplifier, a beam splitter and reflection mirrors, hereon we use a quantum detection strategy $\---$ balanced homodyne detection. The results indicate that super-resolution and super-sensitivity can be realized with ideal condition. Additionally, we study the impact of photon loss on the resolution and the sensitivity, and the robustness of our protocol is also discussed. Fina…
A polarized photon with well-defined orbital angular momentum that emerges from a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) is shown to circumvent wave-particle duality. Its polarization-resolved detection probability forms a non-sinusoidal interferometric pattern. For certain phase differences between the MZI arms, this pattern yields both reliable which-path information and high phase-sensitivity.
In the non-linear optical process of type-II spontaneous parametric down-conversion, we present on an experiment showing that the two-photon detection amplitude of the down-converted beams does not generally reproduce the transverse profile of the pump beam that carries non-zero orbital angular momentum. We explain this observation by that orbital angular momentum is not conserved in the type-II non-linear process due to the broken rotational symmetry of the Hamiltonian.
Light carrying orbital angular momentum constitutes an important resource for both classical and quantum information technologies. Its inherently unbounded nature can be exploited to generate high-dimensional quantum states or for channel multiplexing in classical and quantum communication in order to significantly boost the data capacity and the secret key rate, respectively. While the big potentials of light owning orbital angular momentum have been widely ascertained, its technological deployment is still limited by the difficulties deriving from the fabrication of integrated and scalable p…
The paper studies the Raman quantum memory protocol as applied to quantum light with orbital angular momentum. The memory protocol is implemented on an ensemble of three-level cold atoms with the $Λ$- configuration of energy levels. The possibility of storing quantum statistics of light with an orbital momentum is analysed in the case when the driving field could be treated as a plane wave. The efficiency analysis shows that examined storage/retrieval processes do not cause the efficiency decreasing compared with the spatial multimode memory protocol considered in [Golubeva et al. 2012]]. We a…
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 set forth a method to analyze the orbital angular momentum of a light field. Instead of using the canonical formalism for the conjugate pair angle-angular momentum, we model this latter variable by the superposition of two independent harmonic oscillators along two orthogonal axes. By describing each oscillator by a standard Wigner function, we derive, via a consistent change of variables, a comprehensive picture of the orbital angular momentum. We compare with previous approaches and show how this method works in some relevant examples.
Deutsch's algorithm is the simplest quantum algorithm which shows the acceleration of quantum computer. In this paper, we theoretically advance a scheme to implement quantum Deutsch's algorithm in spin-orbital angular momentum space. Our scheme exploits a newly developed optical device called "q-plate", which can couple and manipulate the spin-orbital angular momentum simultaneously. This experimental setup is of high stability and efficiency theoretically for there is no interferometer in it.
This paper analyzes the algebraic and physical properties of the spin and orbital angular momenta of light in the quantum mechanical framework. The consequences of the fact that these are not angular momenta in the quantum mechanical sense are worked out in mathematical detail. It turns out that the spin part of the angular momentum has continuous eigenvalues. Particular attention is given to the paraxial limit, and to the definition of Laguerre--Gaussian modes for photons as well as classical light fields taking full account of the polarization degree of freedom.
Photons can carry spin angular momentum (SAM) and orbital angular momentum (OAM), which can be used to realize a qubit system and a high-dimension system respectively. This spin-orbital system is very suitable for implementing one-dimensional discrete-time quantum random walks. We propose a simple scheme of quantum walks on the spin-orbital angular momentum space of photons, where photons walk on the infinity OAM space controlled by their SAM. By employing the recent invention of an optical device, the so-called 'q-plate', our scheme is more simple and efficient than others because there is no…
To demonstrate the role played by the von Neumann entropy spectra in quantum phase transitions we investigate the one-dimensional anisotropic SU(2)$\otimes XXZ$ spin-orbital model with negative exchange parameter. In the case of classical Ising orbital interactions we discover an unexpected novel phase with Majumdar-Ghosh-like spin-singlet dimer correlations triggered by spin-orbital entanglement and having $k=π/2$ orbital correlations, while all the other phases are disentangled. For anisotropic $XXZ$ orbital interactions both spin-orbital entanglement and spin-dimer correlations extend to th…
The production of orbitally entangled electrons in quantum-chaotic dots is investigated from a statistical point of view. The degree of entanglement is quantified through the concurrence and the entanglement of formation. We calculate the complete statistical distributions of the entanglement measures by using random matrix theory. Simple analytical expressions are provided for the concurrence distributions. We identify clear signatures of time-reversal invariance in the production of entanglement at the level of the entanglement-measure distributions, such as the ability of producing maximall…
Orbital angular momentum entanglement is one of the most intriguing topics in quantum physics. A broad range of research have been dedicated either to unravel its underlying physics or to expand the entanglement dimensions and degrees. In this paper, we present a theoretical study on the orbital angular momentum entanglement by employing the Heisenberg uncertainty principle to quantum position correlation within the azimuthal region. In this study, we decompose the pump light into a set of pump cone states characterized by their radii. The OAM entanglement can be manipulated by controlling the…
We investigate the phase diagram and the spin-orbital entanglement of a one-dimensional SU(2)$\otimes XXZ$ model with SU(2) spin exchange and anisotropic $XXZ$ orbital exchange interactions and negative exchange coupling. As a unique feature, the spin-orbital entanglement entropy in the entangled ground states increases here linearly with system size. In the case of Ising orbital interactions we identify an emergent phase with long-range spin-singlet dimer correlations triggered by a quadrupling of correlations in the orbital sector. The peculiar translational invariant spin-singlet dimer phas…
We discuss orbital entanglement in mesoscopic conductors, focusing on the effect of dephasing. The entanglement is detected via violation of a Bell Inequality formulated in terms of zero-frequency current correlations. Following closely the recent work by Samuelsson, Sukhorukov and Buttiker, we investigate how the dephasing affects the possibility to violate the Bell Inequality and how system parameters can be adjusted for optimal violation.
We study the signatures of disorder in the production of orbital electron entanglement in quantum wires. Disordered entanglers suffer the effects of localization of the electron wave function and random fluctuations in the entanglement production. This manifests in the statistics of the concurrence, a measure of the produced two-qubit entanglement. We calculate the concurrence distribution as a function of the disorder strength within a random-matrix approach. We also identify significant constraints on the entanglement production as a consequence of the breaking/preservation of time-reversal …
The turbulence induced decay of orbital angular momentum (OAM) entanglement between two photons is investigated numerically and experimentally. To compare our results with previous work, we simulate the turbulent atmosphere with a single phase screen based on the Kolmogorov theory of turbulence. We consider two different scenarios: in the first only one of the two photons propagates through turbulence, and in the second both photons propagate through uncorrelated turbulence. Comparing the entanglement evolution for different OAM values, we found the entanglement to be more robust in turbulence…
Many methods now exist to prepare free electrons into orbital angular momentum states, and the predicted applications of these electron states as probes of materials and scattering processes are numerous. The development of electron orbital angular momentum measurement techniques has lagged behind. We show that coupling between electron orbital angular momentum and a spatially varying magnetic field produces an angular momentum-dependent focusing effect. We propose a design for an orbital angular momentum measurement device built on this principle. As the method of measurement is non-interfero…
We study the evolution of an orbital angular momentum (OAM) entangled bipartite photonic state for the case where one of the photons propagates through Kolmogorov turbulence, using the concurrence as a measure of entanglement. Quantum state tomography was performed to reconstruct the two qubit density matrices for a range of scintillation strengths. Our results give the first direct experimental confirmation of the existing theories for decay of entanglement due to atmospheric turbulence. We also show how the modal scattering increases with increasing scintillation and we discuss the impact of…
With progress towards more compact quantum computing architectures, fundamental questions regarding the entanglement of indistinguishable particles need to be addressed. In a solid state device, this quest is naturally connected to the quantum correlations of electrons. Here, we investigate the entanglement between electrons, focusing on the entanglement of modes, the entanglement of particles and the effect of particle-number superselection rules. We elucidate the formation of mode and particle entanglement in strongly correlated materials and show that both represent important resources in q…
We put forward an approach to estimate the amount of bipartite spatial entanglement of down-converted photon states correlated in orbital angular momentum and the magnitude of the transverse (radial) wave vectors. Both degrees of freedom are properly considered in our framework, which only requires azimuthal local linear optical transformations and mode selection analysis with two fiber detectors. The coincidence distributions predicted by our approach give an excellent fit to the distributions measured in a recent experiment aimed to show the very high-dimensional transverse entanglement of t…
We demonstrate entanglement between the orbital angular momentum (OAM) of two photoelectrons ionized via the strongly correlated process of non-sequential double ionization (NSDI). Due to the quantization of OAM, this entanglement is easily quantified and has a simple physical interpretation in terms of conservation laws. We explore detection by an entanglement witness, decomposable into local measurements, which strongly reduces the difficulty of experimental implementation. We compute the logarithmic negativity measure, which is directly applicable to mixed states, to demonstrate that the en…
We propose a spin-independent scheme to generate and detect two-particle entanglement in a mesoscopic normal-superconductor system. A superconductor, weakly coupled to the normal conductor, generates an orbitally entangled state by injecting pairs of electrons into different leads of the normal conductor. The entanglement is detected via violation of a Bell inequality, formulated in terms of zero-frequency current cross-correlators. It is shown that the Bell inequality can be violated for arbitrary strong dephasing in the normal conductor.
Single photons with helical phase structures may carry a quantized amount of orbital angular momentum (OAM) and their entanglement is important for quantum information science and fundamental tests of quantum theory. Because there is no theoretical upper limit on how many quanta of OAM a single photon can carry, it is possible to create entanglement between two particles with an arbitrary high difference in the quantum number. By transferring polarization entanglement to OAM with an interferometric scheme, we generate and verify entanglement up to 600 quanta difference in the orbital angular m…
