arXiv:1103.4077 · Physical Review A
Angular Schmidt modes in spontaneous parametric down-conversion
Stanislav S. Straupe, D. P. Ivanov, Alexander A. Kalinkin, I. B. Bobrov, S. P. Kulik
Abstract
We report a proof-of-principle experiment demonstrating that appropriately chosen set of Hermite-Gaussian modes constitutes a Schmidt decomposition for transverse momentum states of biphotons generated in the process of spontaneous parametric down-conversion. We experimentally realize projective measurements in the Schmidt basis and observe correlations between appropriate pairs of modes. We perform tomographical state reconstruction in the Schmidt basis, by direct measurement of single-photon density matrix eigenvalues.