We demonstrate a scheme to spectrally manipulate a collinear, continuous stream of time and energy entangled photons to generate beamlike, bandwidth-limited fuxes of polarization-entangled photons with nearly-degenerate wavelengths. Utilizing an ultrashort-pulse shaper to control the spectral phase and polarization of the photon pairs, we tailor the shape of the Hong-Ou-Mandel interference pattern, demonstrating the rules that govern the dependence of this interference pattern on the spectral phases of the photons. We then use the pulse shaper to generate all four polarization Bell states. The singlet state generated by this scheme forms a very robust decoherence-free subspace, extremely suitable for long distance fiber-optics based quantum communication.
A scheme to distinguish entangled two-photon-polarization states (ETP) from two independent entangled one-photon-polarization states (EOP) is proposed. Using this scheme, the experimental generation of ETP by parametric down-conversion is confirmed through the anti-correlations between three orthogonal two-photon-polarization states. The estimated fraction of ETP among the correlated photon pairs is 37% in the present experimental setup.
Polarization-entangled photon pair generation based on two scalar scattering processes of the vector four photon scattering has been demonstrated experimentally in high nonlinear microstructure fiber with birefringence. By controlling the pump polarization state, polarization-entangled Bell states can be realized. It is provides a simple way to realize efficient and compact fiber based polarization-entangled photon pair sources.
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.
In this paper, the generation of polarization entangled photon pairs at 1.5 μm is experimentally demonstrated utilizing a polarization maintaining all-fiber loop, consisting of a piece of commercial polarization maintaining fiber and a polarization beam splitter/combiner with polarization maintaining fiber pigtails. A quantum state tomography measurement is performed to analyze the entanglement characteristic of the generated quantum state. In the experiment, a polarization entangled Bell state is generated with a entanglement fidelity of 0.97+/-0.03 and a purity of 0.94+/-0.03 demonstrating t…
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.
We present a concentration and purification scheme for nonmaximally entangled pure and mixed porization entangled state. We firstly show that two distant parties Alice and Bob first start with two shared but less entangled photon pure states to produce a four photon GHZ state, and then perform a 45 polarization measurement onto one of the two photons at each location such that the remaining two photon are projected onto a maximally entangled state. We further show the scheme also can be used to purify a class of mixed polarization-entangled state.
We study broadband polarization entangled states generated within the line width of type-II Spontaneous Parametric Down Conversion (SPDC). Applying a complete quantum polarization tomography protocol at arbitrary combination of frequency and angular sideband modes we reveal a complex structure of non-degenerate non-collinear polarization entangled states generated within the SPDC line width. It is demonstrated that simultaneous compensation of longitudinal and transverse walk off leads to homogenizing the structure of polarization entanglement.
Hybrid entangled states exhibit entanglement between different degrees of freedom of a particle pair and thus could be useful for asymmetric optical quantum network where the communication channels are characterized by different properties. We report the first experimental realization of hybrid polarization-orbital angular momentum (OAM) entangled states by adopting a spontaneous parametric down conversion source of polarization entangled states and a polarization-OAM transferrer. The generated quantum states have been characterized through quantum state tomography. Finally, the violation of B…
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.
Using the process of cavity-enhanced spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC), we generate a narrow-band polarization-entangled photon pair resonant on the rubidium (Rb) D1 line (795 nm). The degenerate single-mode photon pair is selected by multiple temperature controlled etalons. The linewidth of generated polarization-entangled photon pairs is 15 MHz which matches the typical atomic memory bandwidth. The measured Bell parameter for the polarization-entangled photons S=2.73+-0.04 which violates the Bell-CHSH inequality by ~18 standard deviations. The presented entangled photon pair sour…
Photon pairs, highly entangled in polarization have been generated under femtosecond laser pulse excitation by a type I crystal source, operating in a single arm interferometric scheme. The relevant effects of temporal walk-off existing in these conditions between the ordinary and extraordinary photons were experimentally investigated. By introducing a suitable temporal compensation between the two orthogonal polarization components highly entangled pulsed states were obtained.
Bound entangled states are the exotic objects in the entangled world. They require entanglement to create them, but once they are formed, it is not possible to locally distill any free entanglement from them. It is only until recently that a few bound entangled states were realized in the laboratory. Motivated by these experiments, we propose schemes for creating various classes of bound entangled states with photon polarization. These include Acin-Bruss-Lewenstein-Sanpara states, Dur's states, Lee-Lee-Kim bound entangled states, and an unextendible-product-basis bound entangled state.
We propose a new all-fiber source of polarization-entangled photon pairs for quantum communications. Fiber birefringence is compensated using Faraday rotator mirror, resulting in enhanced stability against random polarization drifts compared to existing schemes.
We study the feasibility of nonlocally compensating for polarization mode dispersion (PMD), when polarization entangled photons are distributed in fiber-optic channels.We quantify the effectiveness of nonlocal compensation while taking into account the possibility that entanglement is generated through the use of a pulsed optical pump signal.
We propose a cavity-QED scheme that can deterministically generate Einstein-Podosky-Rosen polarization-entangled photon pairs. A four-level tripod atom successively couples to two high-Q optical cavities possessing polarization degeneracy, assisted by a classical $π$-polarized pump field. The stimulated Raman adiabatic passage process in the atom-cavity system is used to produce the polarization-entangled photon pairs. The proposal is particularly robust against atomic spontaneous decay, which should have potential applications in quantum information processing.
We develop a theoretical model to study the Intensity-Intensity correlation of polarization entangled photons emitted in a biexciton-exciton cascade. We calculate the degree of correlation and show how polarization correlation are affected by the presence of dephasing and energy level splitting of the excitonic states. Our theoretical calculations are in agreement with the recent observation of polarization dependent Intensity-Intensity correlations from a single semiconductor quantum dot [R. M. Stevenson et. al., Nature 439, 179 (2006)] . Our model can be extended to study polarization entang…
A two-step quantum key distribution protocol using frequency and polarization doubly entangled photons is proposed. In this protocol, information is encoded by a unitary operation on each of the two doubly entangled photons and sent from Alice to Bob in two steps. State measurement device is designed. The security of the communication is analyzed.
Contrary to the usual assumption that the experimental preparation of pure entangled states can be described by mixed states due to white noise, a more realistic description for polarization-entangled states produced by parametric down-conversion is that they are mixed states due to decoherence in a preferred polarization basis. This distinction between white and colored noise is crucial when we look for maximal violations of Bell's inequalities for two-qubit and two-qutrit entangled states. We find that violations of Bell's inequalities with realistic noise for polarization-entangled photons …
A silicon quantum photonic circuit was proposed and demonstrated as an integrated quantum light source for telecom band polarization entangled Bell state generation and dynamical manipulation. Biphoton states were firstly generated in four silicon waveguides by spontaneous four wave mixing. They were transformed to polarization entangled Bell states through on-chip quantum interference and quantum superposition, and then coupled to optical fibers. The property of polarization entanglement in generated photon pairs was demonstrated by two-photon interferences under two non-orthogonal polarizati…
Based on a recent proposal [Phys. Rev. A 71, 062337 (2005)], we have experimentally realized two photon polarization qutrits by using non-maximally entangled states and linear optical transformations. By this technique high fidelity mutually unbiased qutrits are generated at a high brilliance level.
We propose a scheme for preparing arbitrary two photons polarization entangled mixed states via controlled location decoherence. The scheme uses only linear optical devices and single-mode optical fibers, and may be feasible in experiment within current optical technology.
We demonstrate a fiber-based source of polarization-entangled photon pairs at visible wavelengths suitable for integration with local quantum processing schemes. The photons are created through birefringent phase-matching in spontaneous four-wave mixing inside a Sagnac interferometer. We address entanglement degradation due to temporal distinguishability of the photons to enable the generation of a spectrally unfiltered polarization-entangled photon-pair state with $95.86\pm0.10%$ fidelity to a maximally entangled Bell state, evaluated with a tomographic state reconstruction without applying a…
We experimentally demonstrate polarization entanglement for squeezed vacuum pulses containing more than 10^5 photons. We also study photon-number entanglement by calculating the Schmidt number and measuring its operational counterpart. Theoretically, our pulses are the more entangled the brighter they are. This promises important applications in quantum technologies, especially photonic quantum gates and quantum memories.
The generation of pulsed polarization entangled photon pair has been realized using type-I phase matching in the spontaneous parametirc downconversion process in a space cascaded two-crystal geometry. The optical axes of the crystal are aligned in such a way that the horizontal polarization photon pair is produced from up crystal, and the vertical polarization photon pair is produced from down crystal. These two processes are simultaneous, but are separable in space. We get the high entangled polarization photon pair by using the single mode fiber to erase the spatial information between these…
We describe a new method of coherent optical control of internal dynamics of atomic collisions by means of two correlated light beams having entangled polarizations. We show that if excitation of a colliding pair of atoms is by two photons having entangled polarizations, it is possible to redirect the output fragments of the collision into certain channels with a selected type of internal transition symmetry. The transition symmetry is defined in the body-fixed coordinate frame which has random and originally unknown orientation in space.
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…
An experimental scheme for preparing a polarization entangled W states from four photons emitted by parametric down-conversion is proposed. We consider two different configurations and a method of improving the yield by using single photon sources. In the proposed scheme, one uses only linear optical elements and photon detectors, so that this scheme is feasible by current technologies.
We report the experimental generation of polarization-entangled photons at telecommunication wavelengths using spontaneous four-wave mixing in silicon-on-insulator wire waveguides. The key component is a 2D coupler that transforms path entanglement into polarization entanglement at the output of the device. Using quantum state tomography we find that the produced state has fidelity 88% with a pure non-maximally entangled state. The produced state violates the CHSH Bell inequality by S=2.37\pm0.19.
We present a scheme to produce an entangled four-photon state from two pairs of entangled two-photon states. Such entangled four-photon states are equivalent to the quantum state of two maximally entangled spin-1 particles. The scheme can also be generated to prepare an entangled 2N-photon state from N pairs of entangled two-photon states. Such multi-photon states play a crucial role in fundamental tests of quantum mechanics versus local realism and in many quantum information and quantum computation schemes.
We have investigated the excitation-power dependence of polarization-entangled photon-pairs generated from a CuCl single crystal using biexciton resonant hyper-parametric scattering. The measured two-photon polarization density matrix which corresponds to the two-photon polarization state changes with increasing the excitation power. The evaluation of the tangle and the linear entropy obtained from the measured density matrix indicates that the two-photon polarization density matrix can be expressed as the mixed state of an ideal state and a totally mixed state, and the mixture ratio of the to…
We designed and implemented a novel combination of a Sagnac-interferometer with a Mach-Zehnder interferometer for a source of polarization-entangled photons. The new versatile configuration does not require multi-wavelength polarization optics, yet it performs with a good polarization quality and phase-stability over a wide wavelength range. We demonstrate the interferometer using only standard commercial optics to experimentally realize the pulsed generation of polarization-entangled photon-pairs at wavelengths of 764nm and 1221nm via type-I spontaneous four-wave mixing in a polarization-main…
Generating nonclassical states of photons such as polarization entangled states on a monolithic chip is a crucial step towards practical applications of optical quantum information processing such as quantum computing and quantum key distribution. Here we demonstrate two polarization entangled photon sources in a single monolithic semiconductor waveguide. The first source is achieved through the concurrent utilization of two spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) processes, namely type-0 and type-I SPDC processes. The chip can also generate polarization entangled photons via the type-II…
We propose a simple scheme for expanding a polarization-entangled W state. By mixing a single photon and one of the photons in an n-photon W state at a polarization-dependent beam splitter (PDBS), we can obtain an (n+1)-photon W state after post-selection. Our scheme also opens the door for generating n-photon W states using single photons and linear optics.
We propose a scheme for long-distance quantum communication where the elementary entanglement is generated through two-photon interference and quantum swapping is performed through one-photon interference. Local "polarization" maximally entangled states of atomic ensembles are generated by absorbing a single photon from on-demand single-photon sources. This scheme is robust against phase fluctuations in the quantum channels, moreover speeds up long-distance high-fidelity entanglement generation rate.
We report an experimental realization of a narrow-band polarization-entangled photon source with a linewidth of 9.6 MHz through cavity-enhanced spontaneous parametric down-conversion. This linewidth is comparable to the typical linewidth of atomic ensemble based quantum memories. Single-mode output is realized by setting a reasonable cavity length difference between different polarizations, using of temperature controlled etalons and actively stabilizing the cavity. The entangled property is characterized with quantum state tomography, giving a fidelity of 94% between our state and a maximally…
We propose a linear optical scheme that can conditionally generate high NOON states using polarization modes. This scheme provides advantages over the previous proposals on path-entangled NOON states in view of success probability or required resources of optical elements. We also investigate two experimental schemes feasible within existing technology that can produce the NOON-like or the NOON state for N = 4.
The multipartite polarization entangled states of bright optical beams directly associating with the spin states of atomic ensembles are one of the essential resources in the future quantum information networks, which can be conveniently utilized to transfer and convert quantum states across a network composed of many atomic nodes. In this letter, we present the experimental demonstration of tripartite polarization entanglement described by Stokes operators of optical field. The tripartite entangled states of light at the frequency resonant with D1 line of Rubidium atoms are transformed into t…
Generating entangled photons from a monolithic chip is a major milestone towards real-life applications of optical quantum information processing including quantum key distribution and quantum computing. Ultrabroadband entangled photons are of particular interest to various applications such as quantum metrology and multi-party entanglement distribution. In this work, we demonstrate the direct generation of broadband wavelength multiplexed polarization entangled photons from a semiconductor chip for the first time. Without the use of any on-chip compensation, interferometry, entangled photons …
We present an innovative method to address the relation between the purity of type-I polarization entangled states and the spatial properties of the pump laser beam. Our all-optical apparatus is based on a spatial light modulator, and it offers unprecedented control on the spatial phase function of the entangled states. In this way, we demonstrate quantitatively the relation between the purity of the generated state and spatial correlation function of the pump beam.
We present two cavity quantum electrodynamics proposals that, sharing the same basic elements, allow for the deterministic generation of entangled photons pairs by means of a three-level atom successively coupled to two single longitudinal mode high-Q optical resonators presenting polarization degeneracy. In the faster proposal, the three-level atom yields a polarization entangled photon pair via two truncated Rabi oscillations, whereas in the adiabatic proposal a counterintuitive Stimulated Raman Adiabatic Passage process is considered. Although slower than the former process, this second met…
We demonstrate an efficient fiber-coupled source of nondegenerate polarization entangled photons at 795 and 1609 nm using bidirectionally pumped parametric down-conversion in bulk periodically poled lithium niobate. The single-mode source has an inferred bandwidth of 50 GHz and a spectral brightness of 300 pairs/s/GHz/mW of pump power that is suitable for narrowband applications such as entanglement transfer from photonic to atomic qubits.
In this Letter, the generation of 1.5 μm discrete frequency entangled two-photon state is realized based on a piece of commercial polarization maintaining fiber (PMF). It is connected with a polarization beam splitter to realize a modified Sagnac fiber loop (MSFL). Correlated two-photon states are generated through spontaneous four wave-mixing process along the two propagation directions of the MSFL, and output from the MSFL with orthogonal polarizations. The quantum interference of them is realized through a 45° polarization collimation between polarization axes of PMFs inside and outside the…
Quantum measurements that use the entangled photons' polarization to encode quantum information require calibration and alignment of the measurement bases between spatially separate observers. Because of the changing birefringence in optical fibers arising from temperature fluctuations or external mechanical vibrations, the polarization state at the end of a fiber channel is unpredictable and time-varying. Polarization tracking and stabilization methods originally developed for classical optical communications cannot be applied to polarization-entangled photons, where the separately detected p…
A frequency-multiplexed entangled photon pair and a high-dimensional hyperentangled photon pair are useful to realize a high-capacity quantum communication. A biphoton frequency comb (BFC) with entanglement can be used to prepare both states. We demonstrate polarization entangled BFCs with over 1400 frequency modes, which is approximately two orders of magnitude larger than those of earlier entangled BFCs, by placing a singly resonant periodically poled LiNbO3 waveguide resonator within a Sagnac loop. The BFCs are demonstrated by measuring the joint spectral intensity, cross-correlation, and a…
A new device to generate polarization-entangled light in the continuous variable regime is introduced. It consists of an Optical Parametric Oscillator with two type-II phase-matched non-linear crystals orthogonally oriented, associated with birefringent elements for adjustable linear coupling. We give in this paper a theoretical study of its classical and quantum properties. It is shown that two optical beams with adjustable frequencies and well-defined polarization can be emitted. The Stokes parameters of the two beams are entangled. The principal advantage of this setup is the possibility to…
We describe the full characterization of the biaxial nonlinear crystal BiB3O6 (BiBO) as a polarization entangled photon source using non-collinear type-II parametric down-conversion. We consider the relevant parameters for crystal design, such as cutting angles, polarization of the photons, effective nonlinearity, spatial and temporal walk-offs, crystal thickness and the effect of the pump laser bandwidth. Experimental results showing entanglement generation with high rates and a comparison to the well investigated beta-BaB2O4 (BBO) crystal are presented as well. Changing the down-conversion c…
We report a source of polarization-entangled photon pairs in the 1550-nm telecommunication band, which is based on non-collinear spontaneous parametric down-conversion in a periodically poled lithium niobate crystal pumped by picosecond pulses. This source is realized utilizing a polarization-based Sagnac interferometer employing a type-0 non-collinear quasi-phase-matching configuration. Polarization entanglement is verified through measurement of the polarization-correlation interference fringes with visibility >96% and by testing the experimental violation of the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (…
We propose a scheme to implement a single-mode quantum filter, which selectively eliminates the one-photon state in a quantum state $α|0>+β|1>+γ|2>$. The vacuum state and the two photon state are transmitted without any change. This scheme requires single-photon sources, linear optical elements and photon detectors. Furthermore we demonstrate, how this filter can be used to realize a two-qubit projective measurement and to generate multi-photon polarization entangled states.
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.
The emerging strategy to overcome the limitations of bulk quantum optics consists of taking advantage of the robustness and compactness achievable by the integrated waveguide technology. Here we report the realization of a directional coupler, fabricated by femtosecond laser waveguide writing, acting as an integrated beam splitter able to support polarization encoded qubits. This maskless and single step technique allows to realize circular transverse waveguide profiles able to support the propagation of Gaussian modes with any polarization state. Using this device, we demonstrate the quantum …
We propose a method for the generation of a large variety of entangled states, encoded in the polarization degrees of freedom of N photons, within the same experimental setup. Starting with uncorrelated photons, emitted from N arbitrary single photon sources, and using linear optical tools only, we demonstrate the creation of all symmetric states, e.g., GHZ- and W-states, as well as all symmetric and non-symmetric total angular momentum eigenstates of the N qubit compound.
An experiment is proposed to show that after initial frequency and polarization selection, classical thermal light from two independent sources can be made path-polarization entangled. Such light will show new intensity-intensity correlations involving both path and polarization phases, formally similar to those for four-particle GHZ states. For fixed polarization phases, the correlations reduce to the Hanbury Brown-Twiss phase correlations. It is also shown that these classical correlations violate noncontextuality.
We report the generation of polarization-entangled photons by femtosecond-pulse-pumped spontaneous parametric down-conversion in a cascade of two type-I crystals. Highly entangled pulsed states were obtained by introducing a temporal delay between the two orthogonal polarization components of the pump field. They exhibited high-visibility quantum interference and a large concurrence value, without the need of post-selection using narrow-bandwidth-spectral filters. The results are well explained by the theory which incorporates the space-time dependence of interfering two-photon amplitudes if d…
Optical quantum information processing needs ultra-bright sources of entangled photons, especially from synchronizable femtosecond lasers and low-cost cw-diode lasers. Decoherence due to timing information and spatial mode-dependent phase has traditionally limited the brightness of such sources. We report on a variety of methods to optimize type-I polarization-entangled sources - the combined use of different compensation techniques to engineer high-fidelity pulsed and cw-diode laser-pumped sources, as well as the first production of polarization-entanglement directly from the highly nonlinear…
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.
Entangled photon pairs -- discrete light quanta that exhibit non-classical correlations -- play a crucial role in quantum information science (for example in demonstrations of quantum non-locality and quantum cryptography). At the macroscopic optical field level non-classical correlations can also be important, as in the case of squeezed light, entangled light beams and teleportation of continuous quantum variables. Here we use stimulated parametric down-conversion to study entangled states of light that bridge the gap between discrete and macroscopic optical quantum correlations. We demonstra…
We present a proposal for storing and retrieving a continuous-variable quadripartite polarization-entangled cluster state, using macroscopic atomic ensembles in a magnetic field. The Larmor precession of the atomic spins leads to a symmetry between the atomic canonical operators. In this scheme, each of the four spatially separated pulses passes twice through the respective ensemble in order to map the polarization-entangled cluster state onto the long-lived atomic ensembles. The stored state can then be retrieved by another four read-out pulses, each crossing the respective ensemble twice. By…
