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arXiv:1005.5083 · Physical Review A

Cloning entangled photons to scales one can see

Pavel Sekatski, Bruno Sanguinetti, Enrico Pomarico, Nicolas Gisin, Christoph Simon

Published Nov 15, 2010• 45 citations
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Abstract

By amplifying photonic qubits it is possible to produce states that contain enough photons to be seen with the human eye, potentially bringing quantum effects to macroscopic scales [P. Sekatski, N. Brunner, C. Branciard, N. Gisin, and C. Simon, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 113601 (2009)]. In this paper we theoretically study quantum states obtained by amplifying one side of an entangled photon pair with different types of optical cloning machines for photonic qubits. We propose a detection scheme that involves lossy threshold detectors (such as the human eye) on the amplified side and conventional photon detectors on the other side. We show that correlations obtained with such coarse-grained measurements prove the entanglement of the initial photon pair and do not prove the entanglement of the amplified state. We emphasize the importance of the detection loophole in Bell violation experiments by giving a simple preparation technique for separable states that violate a Bell inequality without closing this loophole. Finally, we analyze the genuine entanglement of the amplified states and its robustness to losses before, during, and after amplification.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.82.053814

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By amplifying photonic qubits it is possible to produce states that contain enough photons to be seen with the human eye, potentially bringing quantum effects to macroscopic scales [P. Sekatski, N. Brunner, C. Branciard, N. Gisin, and C. Simon, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 113601 (2009)]. In this paper we theoretically study quantum states obtained by amplifying one side of an entangled photon pair with different types of optical cloning machines for photonic qubits. We propose a detection scheme that involves lossy threshold detectors (such as the human eye) on the amplified side and conventional photon detectors on the other side. We show that correlations obtained with such coarse-grained measurements prove the entanglement of the initial photon pair and do not prove the entanglement of the amplified state. We emphasize the importance of the detection loophole in Bell violation experiments by giving a simple preparation technique for separable states that violate a Bell inequality without closing this loophole. Finally, we analyze the genuine entanglement of the amplified states and its robustness to losses before, during, and after amplification.
The experimental verification of quantum features, such as entanglement, at large scales is extremely challenging because of environment-induced decoherence. Indeed, measurement techniques for demonstrating the quantumness of multiparticle systems in the presence of losses are difficult to define, and if they are not sufficiently accurate they can provide wrong conclusions. We present a Bell test where one photon of an entangled pair is amplified and then detected by threshold detectors, whose signals undergo postselection. The amplification is performed by a classical machine, which produces a fully separable micro–macro state. However, by adopting such a technique one can surprisingly observe a violation of the Clauser–Horne–Shimony–Holt inequality. This is due to the fact that ignoring the detection loophole opened by the postselection and the system losses can lead to misinterpretations, such as claiming micro–macro entanglement in a setup where evidently it is not present. By using threshold detectors and postselection, one can only infer the entanglement of the initial pair of photons, and so micro–micro entanglement, as is further confirmed by the violation of a nonseparability criterion for bipartite systems. How to detect photonic micro–macro entanglement in the presence of losses with the currently available technology remains an open question.
The experimental verification of quantum features, such as entanglement, at large scales is extremely challenging because of environment-induced decoherence. Indeed, measurement techniques for demonstrating the quantumness of multiparticle systems in the presence of losses are difficult to define and, if not sufficiently accurate, they provide wrong conclusions. We present a Bell test where one photon of an entangled pair is amplified and then detected by threshold detectors, whose signals undergo postselection. The amplification is performed by a classical machine, which produces a fully separable micro-macro state. However, by adopting such a technique, one can surprisingly observe a violation of the CHSH inequality. This is due to the fact that ignoring the detection loophole, opened by the postselection and the system losses, can lead to misinterpretations, such as claiming the micro-macro entanglement in a setup where evidently there is not. By using threshold detectors and postselection, one can only infer the entanglement of the initial pair of photons, so micro-micro entanglement, as it is further confirmed by the violation of a non-separability criterion for bipartite systems. How to detect photonic micro-macro entanglement in the presence of losses with currently available technology remains an open question.
We show theoretically that a large Bell inequality violation can be obtained with human eyes as detectors, in a "micro-macro" experiment where one photon from an entangled pair is greatly amplified via stimulated emission. The violation is robust under photon loss. This leads to an apparent paradox, which we resolve by noting that the violation proves the existence of entanglement before the amplification. The same is true for the micro-macro experiments performed so far with conventional detectors. However, we also prove that there is genuine micro-macro entanglement even for high loss.
Quantum correlations may violate the Bell inequalities. Most experimental schemes confirming this prediction have been realized in all-optical Bell tests suffering from the detection loophole. Experiments which simultaneously close this loophole and the locality loophole are highly desirable and remain challenging. An approach to loophole-free Bell tests is based on amplification of the entangled photons (i.e., on macroscopic entanglement), for which an optical signal should be easy to detect. However, the macroscopic states are partially indistinguishable by classical detectors. An interesting idea to overcome these limitations is to replace the postselection by an appropriate preselection immediately after the amplification. This is in the spirit of state preprocessing revealing hidden nonlocality. Here, we examine one of the possible preselections, but the presented tools can be used for analysis of other schemes. Filtering methods making the macroscopic entanglement useful for Bell tests and quantum protocols are the subject of an intensive study in the field nowadays.
The human eye can detect optical signals containing only a few photons. We investigate the possibility to demonstrate entanglement with such biological detectors. While one person could not detect entanglement by simply observing photons, we discuss the possibility for several observers to demonstrate entanglement in a Bell-type experiment, in which standard detectors are replaced by human eyes. Using a toy model for biological detectors that captures their main characteristic, namely, a detection threshold, we show that Bell inequalities can be violated, thus demonstrating entanglement. Remarkably, when the response function of the detector is close to a step function, quantum nonlocality can be demonstrated without any further assumptions. For smoother response functions, as for the human eye, postselection is required.
The scope of this thesis is to explore different ways of bringing the phenomenon of quantum entanglement to our classical world. A first manner is to make entanglement an element of everyone's cultural background. I show that nontrivial quantum nonlocality tests can be performed with do-it-yourself optical sources. Furthermore, entanglement can be brought to the real world as a technological resource for improving everyday activities, like communication. Sources of entangled photons, suited to long distance quantum communication, need to be developed. I present a source of entangled photons realized via Spontaneous Parametric Down Conversion in an integrated cavity-waveguide. I show how this kind of sources can be engineered. I also report the realization of low-loss sources for the implementation of an experiment of faithful entanglement swapping adopting a nonlinear interaction between two single photons. Last, one can also attempt to physically generate and observe entanglement at macroscopic scales. I analyze the possibility of cloning a photon of an entangled pair and detecting the amplified state with human eyes. Bringing entanglement to scales one can see allows one to investigate ways of measuring light in the quantum-to-classical regime. I report the experimental demonstration of a method, based on optimal quantum cloning, for measuring low optical radiances in an absolute way. Moreover, I present the realization of photon number resolving detectors at infrared wavelengths and room temperature operation.