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arXiv:1202.2685 · Europhysics Letters (EPL)

Classical light analogue of the non-local Aharonov-Bohm effect

Nandan Satapathy, Deepak Pandey, Poonam Mehta, Supurna Sinha, Joseph Samuel, Hema Ramachandran

Published Mar 1, 2012• 13 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We demonstrate the existence of a non-local geometric phase in the intensity-intensity correlations of classical incoherent light, that is not seen in the lower-order correlations. This two-photon Pancharatnam phase was observed and modulated in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. Using acousto-optic interaction, independent phase noise was introduced to light in the two arms of the interferometer to create two independent incoherent classical sources from laser light. The experiment is the classical optical analogue of the multi-particle Aharonov-Bohm effect. As the trajectory of light over the Poincaré sphere introduces a phase shift observable only in the intensity-intensity correlation, it provides a means of deflecting the two-photon wavefront, while having no effect on single photons.

DOI
10.1209/0295-5075/97/50011

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Annual Meeting Optical Society of America•Jan 1, 1988•0 citations
We demonstrate the existence of a non-local geometric phase in the intensity-intensity correlations of classical incoherent light, that is not seen in the lower-order correlations. This two-photon Pancharatnam phase was observed and modulated in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. Using acousto-optic interaction, independent phase noise was introduced to light in the two arms of the interferometer to create two independent incoherent classical sources from laser light. The experiment is the classical optical analogue of the multi-particle Aharonov-Bohm effect. As the trajectory of light over the Poincaré sphere introduces a phase shift observable only in the intensity-intensity correlation, it provides a means of deflecting the two-photon wavefront, while having no effect on single photons.
We propose a polarized intensity interferometry experiment, which measures the nonlocal Pancharatnam phase acquired by a pair of Hanbury-Brown--Twiss photons. The setup involves two polarized thermal sources illuminating two polarized detectors. Varying the relative polarization angle of the detectors introduces a two-photon geometric phase. Local measurements at either detector do not reveal the effects of the phase, which is an optical analog of the multiparticle Aharonov-Bohm effect. The geometric phase sheds light on the three-slit experiment and suggests ways of tuning entanglement.
We report the experimental observation of the non-local geometric phase in Hanbury Brown-Twiss polarized intensity interferometry.The experiment involves two independent, polarized, incoherent sources, illuminating two polarized detectors.Varying the relative polarization angle between the detectors introduces a geometric phase equal to half the solid angle on the Poincaré sphere traced out by a pair of single photons.Local measurements at either detector do not reveal the effect of the geometric phase, which appears only in the coincidence counts between the two detectors, showing a genuinely non-local effect.We show experimentally that coincidence rates of photon arrival times at separated detectors can be controlled by the two-photon geometric phase.This effect can be used for manipulating and controlling photonic entanglement.
The geometric phase was first anticipated 1956 by Pancharatnam, in the context of polarised light. Much later, in 1984, Berry made an analogue discovery, but this time in the context of quantum mechanics. It turns our that the geometric phase, or Berry's phase, or the Pancharatnam phase, is a very general phenomenon. It is a phase shift that can be acquired by a system, when it has undergone a adiabatic process, bringing it back to its original initial conditions. If the parameter space of the involved Hamiltonian is curved, the final condition may involve a phase change. This effect has been demonstrated in a range of different interferometry experiments. Although the Pancharatnam phase has been seen, this has always been in studies involving the first order correlation, g(1), this is in the intereferogramm of two or more wave amplitudes. Here, we demonstrate experimental proofs of the effect of the Pancharatnam phase in intensity interferometry, or in other words, where the second order correlation factor g(2) is the relevant description of the interference.
A variant of the experiment to observe the optical Aharonov—Bohm effect has been discussed. In the experiment, a unipolar subcycle light pulse has been proposed as a source of the vector potential acting on electrons and having zero electric field strength in the region of a nonzero vector potential. Such a relation between the field and potential appears because the unipolar pulse has a nonzero electric area. An unusual situation where the fact of the passage of the pulse in one of the arms of two-beam interferometer is stored for a very long time after the passage and can be recorded in a two-beam electronic interferometer by a shift of fringes has been discussed. Detailed analysis of the phase shift under the influence of the vector potential created by the inhomogeneous unipolar pulse removes this contradiction and shows the equality of phase incursions in both arms that is unobvious at first glance.
A single photon exhibits wave-particle duality in the Young's double-slit interferometer. The duality characterized by an interference visibility and a which-path information has trade-off relation known as complementarity. These quantities are related to the first-order coherence, and the interference is based on the phase correlation between lights coming from two arms. However according to quantum optics theory, such a simple wave-particle picture is not enough to understand the nature because the theory showed an importance of higher-order coherence in the sense of both interference and statistical distribution of photons. Second-order intensity correlation is especially crucial to reveal distinctive quantum features of photons with no classical analogue. Here, in an intensity interferometric scenario as represented by the Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer, we discuss a wave-particle duality of light based on a which-path information and a quantity characterizing a magnitude of the intensity interferometric effect. We show, for classical light, the two quantities obey the complementary principle similar to the case of the double-slit experiment, but do not for nonclassical light. The nonclassical light such as photons at two arms is allowed to show larger which-path information and intensity interference simultaneously beyond the complementary relation. Moreover, the violation reveals a new nonclassical nature of light although both of the above two quantities seem to be understandable classically, which is never found from a consideration of only one side of wave-particle duality.
We study two types of topological phases, i.e., Aharonov-Bohm phases, by means of optical interferometry. The first arises from a cycle of redirections of the photon spin and is closely related to the Aharonov-Anandan phase. The second arises from a cycle of polarization changes on the Poincare sphere and was discovered by Pancharatnam. Both of these phases, and their combined effects, have been investigated by a nonplanar Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The signs of the fringe shifts arising from these topological effects have been determined and agree with theory.