Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

Quantum entanglement in polarization and space

Peter Sing Kin Lee

Published Oct 5, 2006• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

One of the most intriguing concepts of quantum mechanics is quantum entanglement. Two physical systems are said to be entangled with respect to a certain variable, if their individual outcomes of the variable are undetermined before measurement, but strictly correlated. Measurement of the variable for only one system immediately determines the outcome for the other system, irrespective of the distance between the two systems. It is this strong correlation that provides a basis for perspective, powerful applications like quantum cryptography and quantum computation. The most studied entangled systems, often called EPR systems (after the pioneers Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen), are pairs of light particles or photon pairs. These photon pairs, usually generated via the optical process of a spontaneous parametric down-conversion, are, in principal, simultaneously entangled in three variables, being polarization (polarization entanglement), energy or time (time entanglement), and momentum or transverse space (spatial entanglement). The contents of this thesis cover new insights in the polarization and spatial entanglement of photons. We have investigated both the entanglement quality and the yield of entangled photons for different experimental geometries that are associated with the production and detection of the photons.

Related papers

Quantum information processing and precise optical measurement with entangled-photon pairs

А. В. Сергиенко, Gregg S. Jaeger

Two photons in a pair generated in the nonlinear optical process of spontaneous parametric down-conversion are, in general, strongly quantum entangled. Accordingly, they contain extremely strong energy, time, polarization and momentum quantum correlations. This entanglement involves more than one quantum variable and has served as a powerful tool in fundamental studies of quantum theory. It is now playing a large role in the development of novel information processing techniques and new optical measurement technologies. Here we review some of these technologies and their origins.

Contemporary Physics•Jul 1, 2003•39 citations

Quantum metrology with entangled photons

Alexander V. Sergienko

Although most physics experiments are carried out with independent particles, it is the collective nature of entangled particles that reveals the most fascinating and unexpected aspects of the quantum world. It was Erwin Schrodinger who first said “entanglement is not one but rather the characteristic trait of quantum mechanics”. One curious aspect of the behavior of a pair of particles in an entangled state is that, though each individual particle exhibits an inherent uncertainty, the joint entity of an entangled pair can exhibit no such uncertainty. As an example, while the time of arrival of an individual particle may be totally random, an entangled pair must always arrive simultaneously. This property offers a unique tool for carrying out absolute measurements. Our goal here is to explore the myriad implications and significance of entanglement and to exploit it for the development of a new type of optical measurement—quantum optical metrology. The existence of unique non-classical correlations between twin photons generated in the nonlinear process of spontaneous parametric origins. The non-classical link between such twin quanta is not diminished by arbitrarily large separations between the twins, even when they lie outside the light cone. Twin states have been used with great effectiveness over the past two decades for carrying out definitive quantum experiments that lead to counterintuitive results; among these are those arising from the EinsteinPodolsky-Rosen (EPR) paradox such as various tests of Bell’s inequalities [1-12], as well as non-local dispersion cancellation, entangled-photon–induced transparency, and entangled-photon spectroscopy with monochromatic light. The availability of these twin beams has made it possible to conduct such experiments without having to resort to

•Jan 1, 2001•5 citations

Spatial coherence and entanglement of light

H. Di Lorenzo Pires

In this thesis we investigate diverse aspects of spatial coherence of light. Non-classical fields containing two photons can be generated by a nonlinear optical process known as spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC). Among the questions we consider are: What is so special about spatial entanglement? How is it revealed in the fourth-order correlations? What are the differences between a highly entangled and a classically correlated state? How can the number of modes be manipulated and measured? For a two-photon system, we measure both intensities and two-photon correlations. To get deeper insights into how coherence affects interference, we also investigate completely classical sources.

•Sep 13, 2011•0 citations

Experimental Engineering of Photonic Quantum Entanglement

Stefanie Barz, G. Cronenberg, Philip John Walther

Entangled photons are a crucial resource for linear optical quantum communication and quantum computation. Besides the remarkable progress of photon state engineering using atomic memories (Kimble (2008); Yuan et al. (2008)) the majority of current experiments is based on the production of photon pairs in the process of spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC), where the entangled photon pair is concluded from post-selection of randomly occurring coincidences. Here we present new insights into the heralded generation of photon states (Barz et al. (2010); Wagenknecht et al. (2010)) that are maximally entangled in polarization (Schrodinger (1935)) with linear optics and standard photon detection from SPDC (Kwiat et al. (1995)). We utilize the down-conversion state corresponding to the generation of three pairs of photons, where the coincident detection of four auxiliary photons unambiguously heralds the successful preparation of the entangled state (Śliwa & Banaszek (2003)). This controlled generation of entangled photon states is a significant step towards the applicability of a linear optics quantum network (Nielsen & Chuang (2000)), in particular for entanglement distribution (Bennett et al. (1996)), entanglement swapping (Kaltenbaek et al. (2009); Pan et al. (1998)), quantum teleportation (Bouwmeester et al. (1997)), quantum cryptography (Bennett & Brassard (1984); Ekert (1991); Jennewein et al. (2000)) and scalable approaches towards photonics-based quantum computing schemes (Browne & Rudolph (2004); Gottesman & Chuang (1999); Knill et al. (2001)).

InTech eBooks•Mar 21, 2012•0 citations

Quantum optical experiments towards atom-photon entanglement

Markus Weber

In 1935 Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen used the assumption of local realism to conclude in a Gedankenexperiment with two entangled particles that quantum mechanics is not complete. For this reason EPR motivated an extension of quantum mechanics by so-called local hidden variables. Based on this idea in 1964 Bell constructed a mathematical inequality whereby experimental tests could distinguish between quantum mechanics and local-realistic theories. Many experiments have since been done that are consistent with quantum mechanics, disproving the concept of local realism. But all these tests suffered from loopholes allowing a local-realistic explanation of the experimental observations by exploiting either the low detector efficiency or the fact that the detected particles were not observed space-like separated. In this context, of special interest is entanglement between different quantum objects like atoms and photons, because it allows one to entangle distant atoms by the interference of photons. The resulting space-like separation together with the almost perfect detection efficiency of the atoms allows a first loophole-free test of Bell's inequality. The primary goal of the present thesis is the experimental realization of entanglement between a single localized atom and a single spontaneously emitted photon at a wavelength suitable for the transport over long distances. In the experiment a single optically trapped Rb87 atom is excited to a state which has two selected decay channels. In the following spontaneous decay a photon is emitted coherently with equal probability into both decay channels. This accounts for perfect correlations between the polarization state of the emitted photon and the Zeeman state of the atom after spontaneous decay. Because these decay channels are spectrally and in all other degrees of freedom indistinguishable, the spin state of the atom is entangled with the polarization state of the photon. To verify entanglement, appropriate correlation measurements in complementary bases of the photon polarization and the internal quantum state of the atom are performed. It is shown, that the generated atom-photon state yields an entanglement fidelity of 0.82. The experimental results of this work mark an important step towards the generation of entanglement between space-like separated atoms for a first loophole-free test of Bell's inequality. Furthermore entanglement between a single atom and a single photon is an important tool for new quantum communication and information applications, e.g. the remote state preparation of a single atom over large distances.

arXiv:2507.22166•Jan 1, 2005•6 citations

Generation of polarization entanglement utilizing spatially correlated photon pairs from spontaneous parametric down-conversion

T. Yamaguchi, Ryōsuke Shimizu, Yasuyoshi Mitsumori +2 more

Polarization entanglement of photons provides a superior environment to demonstrate quantum info-communication protocols. Thus far, several methods using parametric down-conversion process have been realized to generate polarization-entangled photon pairs. In this report, we propose a novel method to generate polarization entanglement from spatially correlated photon pairs and demonstrate its experimental verification.

Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC)•Jun 1, 2007•0 citations
One of the most intriguing concepts of quantum mechanics is quantum entanglement. Two physical systems are said to be entangled with respect to a certain variable, if their individual outcomes of the variable are undetermined before measurement, but strictly correlated. Measurement of the variable for only one system immediately determines the outcome for the other system, irrespective of the distance between the two systems. It is this strong correlation that provides a basis for perspective, powerful applications like quantum cryptography and quantum computation. The most studied entangled systems, often called EPR systems (after the pioneers Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen), are pairs of light particles or photon pairs. These photon pairs, usually generated via the optical process of a spontaneous parametric down-conversion, are, in principal, simultaneously entangled in three variables, being polarization (polarization entanglement), energy or time (time entanglement), and momentum or transverse space (spatial entanglement). The contents of this thesis cover new insights in the polarization and spatial entanglement of photons. We have investigated both the entanglement quality and the yield of entangled photons for different experimental geometries that are associated with the production and detection of the photons.
Two photons in a pair generated in the nonlinear optical process of spontaneous parametric down-conversion are, in general, strongly quantum entangled. Accordingly, they contain extremely strong energy, time, polarization and momentum quantum correlations. This entanglement involves more than one quantum variable and has served as a powerful tool in fundamental studies of quantum theory. It is now playing a large role in the development of novel information processing techniques and new optical measurement technologies. Here we review some of these technologies and their origins.
Although most physics experiments are carried out with independent particles, it is the collective nature of entangled particles that reveals the most fascinating and unexpected aspects of the quantum world. It was Erwin Schrodinger who first said “entanglement is not one but rather the characteristic trait of quantum mechanics”. One curious aspect of the behavior of a pair of particles in an entangled state is that, though each individual particle exhibits an inherent uncertainty, the joint entity of an entangled pair can exhibit no such uncertainty. As an example, while the time of arrival of an individual particle may be totally random, an entangled pair must always arrive simultaneously. This property offers a unique tool for carrying out absolute measurements. Our goal here is to explore the myriad implications and significance of entanglement and to exploit it for the development of a new type of optical measurement—quantum optical metrology. The existence of unique non-classical correlations between twin photons generated in the nonlinear process of spontaneous parametric origins. The non-classical link between such twin quanta is not diminished by arbitrarily large separations between the twins, even when they lie outside the light cone. Twin states have been used with great effectiveness over the past two decades for carrying out definitive quantum experiments that lead to counterintuitive results; among these are those arising from the EinsteinPodolsky-Rosen (EPR) paradox such as various tests of Bell’s inequalities [1-12], as well as non-local dispersion cancellation, entangled-photon–induced transparency, and entangled-photon spectroscopy with monochromatic light. The availability of these twin beams has made it possible to conduct such experiments without having to resort to
In this thesis we investigate diverse aspects of spatial coherence of light. Non-classical fields containing two photons can be generated by a nonlinear optical process known as spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC). Among the questions we consider are: What is so special about spatial entanglement? How is it revealed in the fourth-order correlations? What are the differences between a highly entangled and a classically correlated state? How can the number of modes be manipulated and measured? For a two-photon system, we measure both intensities and two-photon correlations. To get deeper insights into how coherence affects interference, we also investigate completely classical sources.
Entangled photons are a crucial resource for linear optical quantum communication and quantum computation. Besides the remarkable progress of photon state engineering using atomic memories (Kimble (2008); Yuan et al. (2008)) the majority of current experiments is based on the production of photon pairs in the process of spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC), where the entangled photon pair is concluded from post-selection of randomly occurring coincidences. Here we present new insights into the heralded generation of photon states (Barz et al. (2010); Wagenknecht et al. (2010)) that are maximally entangled in polarization (Schrodinger (1935)) with linear optics and standard photon detection from SPDC (Kwiat et al. (1995)). We utilize the down-conversion state corresponding to the generation of three pairs of photons, where the coincident detection of four auxiliary photons unambiguously heralds the successful preparation of the entangled state (Śliwa & Banaszek (2003)). This controlled generation of entangled photon states is a significant step towards the applicability of a linear optics quantum network (Nielsen & Chuang (2000)), in particular for entanglement distribution (Bennett et al. (1996)), entanglement swapping (Kaltenbaek et al. (2009); Pan et al. (1998)), quantum teleportation (Bouwmeester et al. (1997)), quantum cryptography (Bennett & Brassard (1984); Ekert (1991); Jennewein et al. (2000)) and scalable approaches towards photonics-based quantum computing schemes (Browne & Rudolph (2004); Gottesman & Chuang (1999); Knill et al. (2001)).
In 1935 Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen used the assumption of local realism to conclude in a Gedankenexperiment with two entangled particles that quantum mechanics is not complete. For this reason EPR motivated an extension of quantum mechanics by so-called local hidden variables. Based on this idea in 1964 Bell constructed a mathematical inequality whereby experimental tests could distinguish between quantum mechanics and local-realistic theories. Many experiments have since been done that are consistent with quantum mechanics, disproving the concept of local realism. But all these tests suffered from loopholes allowing a local-realistic explanation of the experimental observations by exploiting either the low detector efficiency or the fact that the detected particles were not observed space-like separated. In this context, of special interest is entanglement between different quantum objects like atoms and photons, because it allows one to entangle distant atoms by the interference of photons. The resulting space-like separation together with the almost perfect detection efficiency of the atoms allows a first loophole-free test of Bell's inequality. The primary goal of the present thesis is the experimental realization of entanglement between a single localized atom and a single spontaneously emitted photon at a wavelength suitable for the transport over long distances. In the experiment a single optically trapped Rb87 atom is excited to a state which has two selected decay channels. In the following spontaneous decay a photon is emitted coherently with equal probability into both decay channels. This accounts for perfect correlations between the polarization state of the emitted photon and the Zeeman state of the atom after spontaneous decay. Because these decay channels are spectrally and in all other degrees of freedom indistinguishable, the spin state of the atom is entangled with the polarization state of the photon. To verify entanglement, appropriate correlation measurements in complementary bases of the photon polarization and the internal quantum state of the atom are performed. It is shown, that the generated atom-photon state yields an entanglement fidelity of 0.82. The experimental results of this work mark an important step towards the generation of entanglement between space-like separated atoms for a first loophole-free test of Bell's inequality. Furthermore entanglement between a single atom and a single photon is an important tool for new quantum communication and information applications, e.g. the remote state preparation of a single atom over large distances.