We propose and demonstrate the projection of two quantum three state systems (qutrits) onto a maximally entangled state. The qutrits are represented by the polarization of biphotons - pairs of indistinguishable photons.
Bell state measurements, in which two quantum bits are projected onto a maximally entangled state, are an essential component of quantum information science. We propose and experimentally demonstrate the projection of two quantum systems with three states (qutrits) onto a generalized maximally entangled state. Each qutrit is represented by the polarization of a pair of indistinguishable photons-a biphoton. The projection is a joint measurement on both biphotons using standard linear optics elements. This demonstration enables the realization of quantum information protocols with qutrits, such as teleportation and entanglement swapping.
We investigate, in a general form, entanglement of biphoton qutrits and ququarts, i.e. states formed in the processes of, correspondingly, degenerate and non-degenerate spontaneous parametric down-conversion. Indistinguishability of photons and, for ququarts, joint presence of the frequency and polarization entanglement are fully taken into account. In the case of qutrits, the most general three-parametric families of maximally entangled and non-entangled states are found, and anticorrelation of the degree of entanglement and polarization is shown to occur and to be characterized by a rather simple formula. Biphoton ququarts are shown to be two-qudits with the single-photon Hilbert space dimensionality d =4, which differentiates them significantly from the often used two-qubit model ( d =2). New expressions for entanglement quantifiers of biphoton ququarts are derived and discussed. Rather simple procedures for a direct measurement of the degree of entanglement are described for both qutrits and ququarts.