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Physica Scripta

Characterization of a remote optical element with bi-photons

Dirk Puhlmann, Carsten Henkel, Axel Heuer, Gregor Pieplow, R. W. Menzel

Published Jan 11, 2016• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract We present a simple setup that exploits the interference of entangled photon pairs. ‘Signal’ photons are sent through a Mach–Zehnder-like interferometer, while ‘idlers’ are detected in a variable polarization state. Two-photon interference (in coincidence detection) is observed with very high contrast and for significant time delays between signal and idler detection events. This is explained by quantum erasure of the polarization tag and a delayed choice protocol involving a non-local virtual polarizer. The phase of the two-photon fringes is scanned by varying the path length in the signal beam or by rotating a birefringent crystal in the idler beam. We exploit this to characterize one beam splitter of the signal photon interferometer (reflection and transmission amplitudes including losses), using only information about coincidences and control parameters in the idler path. This is possible because our bi-photon state saturates the Greenberger–Yelin–Englert inequality between contrast and predictability.

DOI
10.1088/0031-8949/91/2/023006

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Abstract We present a simple setup that exploits the interference of entangled photon pairs. ‘Signal’ photons are sent through a Mach–Zehnder-like interferometer, while ‘idlers’ are detected in a variable polarization state. Two-photon interference (in coincidence detection) is observed with very high contrast and for significant time delays between signal and idler detection events. This is explained by quantum erasure of the polarization tag and a delayed choice protocol involving a non-local virtual polarizer. The phase of the two-photon fringes is scanned by varying the path length in the signal beam or by rotating a birefringent crystal in the idler beam. We exploit this to characterize one beam splitter of the signal photon interferometer (reflection and transmission amplitudes including losses), using only information about coincidences and control parameters in the idler path. This is possible because our bi-photon state saturates the Greenberger–Yelin–Englert inequality between contrast and predictability.
We present two-photon interference experiments with polarization-entangled photon pairs in a polarization-based Franson-type interferometer. Although the two photons do not meet at a common beamsplitter, a phase-insensitive Hong-Ou-Mandel type two-photon interference peak and dip fringes are observed, resulting from the two-photon interference effect between two indistinguishable two-photon probability amplitudes leading to a coincidence detection. A spatial quantum beating fringe is also measured for nondegenerate photon pairs in the same interferometer, although the two-photon states have no frequency entanglement. When unentangled polarization-correlated photons are used as an input state, the polarization entanglement is successfully recovered through the interferometer via delayed compensation.
We report an experimental test of quantum complementarity with single-photon pulses sent into a Mach-Zehnder interferometer with an output beam splitter of adjustable reflection coefficient R. In addition, the experiment is realized in Wheeler's delayed-choice regime. Each randomly set value of R allows us to observe interference with visibility V and to obtain incomplete which-path information characterized by the distinguishability parameter D. Measured values of V and D are found to fulfill the complementarity relation V2+D2 < or =1.
We present experimental demonstrations of two-photon interference involving temporally separated photons within two types of interferometers: a Mach-Zehnder interferometer and a polarization-based Michelson interferometer. The two-photon states are probabilistically prepared in a symmetrically superposed state within the two interferometer arms by introducing a large time delay between two input photons; this state is composed of two temporally separated photons, which are in two different or the same spatial modes. We then observe two-photon interference fringes involving both the Hong-Ou-Mandel interference effect and the interference of path-entangled two-photon states simultaneously in a single interferometric setup. The observed two-photon interference fringes provide simultaneous observation of the interferometric properties of the single-photon and two-photon wavepackets. The observations can also facilitate a more comprehensive understanding of the origins of the interference phenomena arising from spatially bunched/anti-bunched two-photon states comprised of two temporally separated photons within the interferometer arms.
Abstract Quantum entanglement is an important action in quantum mechanics. Basically, quantum entanglement of correlated photon pairs can be produced by spontaneous down-conversion process inside the two birefringence crystals. This work aims to create a pair of photons, i.e. signal and idler, that are entangled and to assay the relation between these photons by using polarization-entangled photon pairs to demonstrate quantum non-locality by comparing with the Malus’s law. From the experiments, the coincidence counts as a function of relative angle (α - β) between transmission axis of the polarizer and analyzer were obtained and the polarization entanglement curve was demonstrated. This result corresponding with polarization entanglement prediction term of ½ cos2 (α - β) which confirmed the entanglement of photons.
Entangled photons and single photon interference are prime examples of quantum mechanics and are useful in evaluating the theory. To find entangled photons, an apparatus was built and optimized that used heralded detection. The apparatus produced entangled photons using a pump laser producing 474 nm radiation, and a ß-Barium Borate(BBO) crystal. The entangled 948 nm photons were produced in two separate beams arbitrarily known as signal and idler photons. Each beam was detected by an avalanche photodiode (APD). When the signal photons reached the APD, electronic pulses were produced and sent through a delay line, while electronic pulses from the idler photon APD were not. Then the pulses from the APDs were used as a start and stop for a time-to-amplitude converter (TAC). A multichannel analyzer was used to evaluate the TAC spectrum, and showed a large amount of coincidences at time intervals consistent with that of the delayed signal pulses. These coincidences provide evidence that the apparatus was producing entangled photons. After the apparatus was optimized, a double slit was placed in the path of the signal photons and used to search for heralded single photon interference. The results were inconclusive within measurement uncertainty.