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arXiv:2206.01973 · Nature Photonics

Observation of the quantum Gouy phase

Markus Hiekkamäki, Rafael F. Barros, Marco Ornigotti, Robert Fickler

Published Oct 6, 2022• 35 citations

Abstract

Abstract Controlling the evolution of photonic quantum states is crucial for most quantum information processing and metrology tasks. Due to its importance, many mechanisms of quantum state evolution have been tested in detail and are well understood; however, the fundamental phase anomaly of evolving waves, called the Gouy phase, has had a limited number of studies in the context of elementary quantum states of light, especially in the case of photon number states. Here we outline a simple method for calculating the quantum state evolution upon propagation and demonstrate experimentally how this quantum Gouy phase affects two-photon quantum states. Our results show that the increased phase sensitivity of multi-photon states also extends to this fundamental phase anomaly and has to be taken into account to fully understand the state evolution. We further demonstrate how the Gouy phase can be used as a tool for manipulating quantum states of any bosonic system in future quantum technologies, outline a possible application in quantum-enhanced sensing, and dispel a common misconception attributing the increased phase sensitivity of multi-photon quantum states solely to an effective de Broglie wavelength.

DOI: 10.1038/s41566-022-01077-w

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Abstract Controlling the evolution of photonic quantum states is crucial for most quantum information processing and metrology tasks. Due to its importance, many mechanisms of quantum state evolution have been tested in detail and are well understood; however, the fundamental phase anomaly of evolving waves, called the Gouy phase, has had a limited number of studies in the context of elementary quantum states of light, especially in the case of photon number states. Here we outline a simple method for calculating the quantum state evolution upon propagation and demonstrate experimentally how this quantum Gouy phase affects two-photon quantum states. Our results show that the increased phase sensitivity of multi-photon states also extends to this fundamental phase anomaly and has to be taken into account to fully understand the state evolution. We further demonstrate how the Gouy phase can be used as a tool for manipulating quantum states of any bosonic system in future quantum technologies, outline a possible application in quantum-enhanced sensing, and dispel a common misconception attributing the increased phase sensitivity of multi-photon quantum states solely to an effective de Broglie wavelength.

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Photonic N00N states, i.e., states of light where N photons are in an extremal superposition between two orthogonal states

\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(\vert N,0\rangle +\vert 0,N\rangle)

, have an increased phase-sensitivity in comparison to their classical counterparts. Using the sensitivity offered by N00N states, in conjunction with the intrinsic properties of transverse-spatial modes, enables new measurement schemes with sensitivities beyond the classically allowed limits and opens up possibilities to investigate the behaviour of different quantum states.