In this thesis, we report the theoretical and experimental investigations towards the creation, characterization, and manipulation of quantum entanglement in a photonic system. We examine two different aspects of quantum entanglement: In the first part, we discuss the experimental method for the preparation and characterization of SPDC-based polarization-entangled photon source. We provide a review study comparing different Entanglement Measures for non-maximally entangled two-qubit pure states and extend this analysis to higher-dimensional systems. In the second part, we study the entanglement dynamics of a two-qubit system in the presence of an Amplitude Damping Channel and present a scheme based on local unitary operations to protect entanglement from undergoing Entanglement Sudden Death. We extend the decoherence study to qubit-qutrit and qutrit-qutrit entangled systems and propose an entanglement protection scheme for the higher dimensional system.
In this thesis, we report the theoretical and experimental investigations towards the creation, characterization, and manipulation of quantum entanglement in a photonic system. We examine two different aspects of quantum entanglement: In the first part, we discuss the experimental method for the preparation and characterization of SPDC-based polarization-entangled photon source. We provide a review study comparing different Entanglement Measures for non-maximally entangled two-qubit pure states and extend this analysis to higher-dimensional systems. In the second part, we study the entanglement dynamics of a two-qubit system in the presence of an Amplitude Damping Channel and present a scheme based on local unitary operations to protect entanglement from undergoing Entanglement Sudden Death. We extend the decoherence study to qubit-qutrit and qutrit-qutrit entangled systems and propose an entanglement protection scheme for the higher dimensional system.
The nascent field of quantum information offers the promise of dramatic speed increases for certain types of computation and logical protocols which are classically impossible. The phenomenon of nonlocality is fundamental to this study, and polarization-entangled photons o er a clean, bright, and stable system for its experimental investigation. This thesis investigates, both experimentally and theoretically, the creation, manipulation, and measurement of polarization-entangled photon pairs. Our entangled photon pairs are created through spontaneous parametric down-conversion within a pair of adjacent, orthogonally oriented nonlinear crystals. The quality and brightness of this source is then dramatically improved through the use of birefringent crystals which compensate for an angle-dependent phase shift. The use of these compensation crystals has allowed measured count rates of two million pairs per second with 97.7% fidelity (with a maximally entangled state) or alternately, ten thousand pairs per second with 99.5% fidelity. By manipulating these entangled states, it is possible to study both how they change and how they can be used. We discuss the theory of state manipulation and the experimental implementation of extremely precise single-qubit operations. To study the operations themselves, we use quantum process tomography to characterize them and have successfully implemented the first experimental realization of ancilla-assisted process tomography. To study decoherence, we implemented the first experimental decoherence-free subspace. By using techniques developed during these investigations, we are able to transform our source of entangled photons into a source of any two-photon polarization state, mixed or pure. Developing new techniques for state creation and manipulation is possible because of simultaneous development in state measurement. In addition to detailing both a theoretical analysis and experimental instructions for state tomography, we experimentally and theoretically compared state tomography with tests of local realism (Bell inequalities) and entanglement witnesses (an entanglement detection technique). In the process, we have measured the largest violations of local realism to date, both statistical (over 2400-sigma) and absolute (S = 2:826 ± 0:005 -- within 0:2% of a maximal violation).
Quantum information carriers with higher dimension than the canonical qubit offer significant advantages. However, manipulating such systems is extremely difficult. We show how measurement-induced nonlinearities can dramatically extend the range of possible transforms on biphotonic qutrits-three-level quantum systems formed by the polarization of two photons in the same spatiotemporal mode. We fully characterize the biphoton-photon entanglement that underpins our technique, thereby realizing the first instance of qubit-qutrit entanglement. We discuss an extension of our technique to generate qutrit-qutrit entanglement and to manipulate any bosonic encoding of quantum information.
Abstract The inevitable dissipative interaction of an entangled quantum system with its environment causes degradation in quantum correlations present in the system. This can lead to a finite-time disappearance of entanglement, which is known as Entanglement Sudden Death (ESD). Here, we consider an initially entangled qubit-qutrit system and a dissipative noise which leads to ESD, and propose a set of local unitary operations, which when applied on the qubit, qutrit, or both subsystems during the decoherence process, cause ESD to be hastened, delayed, or avoided altogether, depending on its time of application. Delay and avoidance of ESD may find practical application in quantum information processing protocols that would otherwise suffer due to short lifetime of entanglement. The physical implementation of these local unitaries is discussed in the context of an atomic system. The simulation results of such ESD manipulations are presented for two different classes of initially entangled qubit-qutrit systems. A prescription for generalization of this scheme to a qutrit-qutrit system is given. This technique for entanglement protection in the noisy environment is compared with other related techniques such as weak measurement reversal, dynamic decoupling, and quantum Zeno effect.
At the heart of quantum physics lies the principle of superposition, and at the heart of information theory lies the bit. Perhaps the most useful property of quantum systems is that they can be loaded with information bits, so-called qubits, that are indefinitely both 0 and 1 until a measurement is made. Another consequence is that several qubits can become entangled, which is manifested by the non-classical correlations between such quantum systems when measured in all possible bases. Within the rapidly progressing fields of quantum information and quantum communication these quantum effects are utilized to perform tasks such as quantum computing and quantum cryptography. In this thesis we present experimental and theoretical work using single photon sources to prepare ``flying'' photonic qubits. We describe work using mainly quasi-phase-matched nonlinear crystals to generate beams of entangled photon pairs, that are either encoded in polarization at near-visible wavelengths, or in time at optical fiber telecommunication wavelengths (1550 nm). The optical fiber is the medium used for transporting the qubits over a long distance, and it is therefore essential to couple the photons well into the fibers. By focusing the beams optimally, we have investigated how this problem can meet the requirement of creating photons of a narrow frequency bandwidth and a high photon flux. Furthermore, we have generated truly single photons that are heralded by an electrical signal. As a result of modifying the statistics of such sources we have been able to show the effect of photon antibunching. In two separate works, we have implemented a quantum key distribution system based on faint laser pulses at the telecom wavelength of 1550 nm, as well as protocols based on entanglement for performing authentication of key distribution in quantum cryptography.
There has recently been much discussion regarding entanglement transformations in terms of local filtering operations and whether the optimal entanglement for an arbitrary two-qubit state could be realized. We introduce an experimentally realizable scheme for manipulating the entanglement of an arbitrary state of two polarization-entangled qubits. This scheme is then used to provide some perspective to the mathematical concepts inherent in this field with respect to a laboratory environment. Specifically, we look at how to extract enhanced entanglement from systems with a fixed rank, and, in the case where the rank of the density operator for the state can be reduced, show how the state can be made arbitrarily close to a maximally entangled pure state. In this context we also discuss bounds on entanglement in mixed states.
We show that the quantum disentanglement eraser implemented on a two-photon system from parametric downconversion is a general method to create hybrid photonic entanglement, namely the entanglement between different degrees of freedom of the photon pair. To demonstrate this, we generate and characterize a source with tunable degree of hybrid entanglement between two qubits, one encoded in the transverse momentum and position of a photon, and the other in the polarization of its partner. In addition, we show that a simple extension of our setup enables the generation of two-photon qubit-qudit hybrid entangled states. Finally, we discuss the advantages that this type of entanglement can bring for an optical quantum network.