We propose an experimental test of Bell’s inequality using entangled photon holes rather than entangled photon pairs. The experiment involves feeding entangled photon holes into a time-bin based two-photon interferometer.
The general concept of entangled photon holes is based on a correlated absence of photon pairs in an otherwise constant optical background. Here we consider the specialized case when this background is confined to two well-defined time bins, which allows the formation of time-bin-entangled photon holes. We show that when the typical coherent-state background is replaced by a true single-photon (Fock state) background, the basic time-bin-entangled photon-hole state becomes equivalent to one of the time-bin-entangled photon-pair states. We experimentally demonstrate these ideas using a parametric down-conversion photon-pair source, linear optics, and postselection to violate a Bell inequality with time-bin-entangled photon holes.
Entanglement, describing the inseparability of a quantum multiparty system, is one of the most intriguing features of quantum mechanics. Violation of Bell inequality, for ruling out the possibility of local hidden variable theories, is commonly used as a strong witness for quantum entanglement. In previous Bell test experiments with photonic entanglement based on two-photon coincidence measurement, the photon temporal wave packets are absorbed completely by the detectors. That is, the photon coherence time is much shorter than the detection time window. Here we demonstrate generation of frequency-bin entangled narrowband biphotons, and for the first time, test the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (CHSH) Bell inequality |S|<= 2 for their nonlocal temporal correlations with time-resolved detection. We obtain a maximum |S| value of 2.52+/-0.48 that violates the CHSH inequality. Our result will have applications in quantum information processing involving time-frequency entanglement.
Experimental tests of Bell's inequality allow to distinguish quantum mechanics from local hidden variable theories. Such tests are performed by measuring correlations of two entangled particles (e.g. polarization of photons or spins of atoms). In order to constitute conclusive evidence, two conditions have to be satisfied. First, strict separation of the measurement events in the sense of special relativity is required ("locality loophole"). Second, almost all entangled pairs have to be detected (for particles in a maximally entangled state the required detector efficiency is 82.8%), which is hard to achieve experimentally ("detection loophole"). By using the recently demonstrated entanglement between single trapped atoms and single photons it becomes possible to entangle two atoms at a large distance via entanglement swapping. Combining the high detection efficiency achieved with atoms with the space-like separation of the atomic state detection events, both loopholes can be closed within the same experiment. In this paper we present estimations based on current experimental achievements which show that such an experiment is feasible in future.