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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics

Polarization-Based Control of Spin-Orbit Hybrid Modes of Light in Biphoton Interference

Cody C. Leary, Maggie Lankford, Deepika Sundarraman

Published Jan 1, 2016• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report the experimental generation of a class of spin-orbit hybrid modes via an asymmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometer, whose intensity and polarization distributions may be tuned by manipulating the polarization state of the interferometer input beam. In the case of an equivalent biphoton input, we predict that this device will exhibit biphoton (Hong-Ou-Mandel) interference in conjunction with these mode transformations.

DOI
10.1364/cleo_at.2016.jtu5a.22

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We report the experimental generation of a class of spin-orbit hybrid modes via an asymmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometer, whose intensity and polarization distributions may be tuned by manipulating the polarization state of the interferometer input beam. In the case of an equivalent biphoton input, we predict that this device will exhibit biphoton (Hong-Ou-Mandel) interference in conjunction with these mode transformations.
We report the experimental generation of a class of spin-orbit vector modes of light via an asymmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometer, obtained from an input beam prepared in a product state of its spin and orbital degrees of freedom. These modes contain a spatially varying polarization structure which may be controllably propagated about the beam axis by varying the retardance between the vertical and horizontal polarization components of the light. Additionally, their transverse spatial intensity distributions may be continuously manipulated by tuning the input polarization parameters. In the case of an analogous biphoton input, we predict that this device will exhibit biphoton (Hong-Ou-Mandel) interference in conjunction with the aforementioned tunable mode transformations.
We investigate the connection between biphoton states involving photons in product modes of their spin and orbital degrees of freedom and those involving photons in hybrid spin-orbit modes, as mediated by Hong-Ou-Mandel interference (HOMI) in an asymmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometer. We predict that two input photons in balanced superposition states of both their spin and orbital degrees of freedom will exhibit HOMI while undergoing a simultaneous mode conversion from product spin-orbit input modes to hybrid output modes bearing orbital angular momentum. These hybrid outputs contain a spatially varying polarization structure which may be controllably rotated about the photonic beam axis by varying the relative phase between the vertical and horizontal components of each input photon's polarization. Additionally, a type of coupling of the spin and orbital degrees of freedom is exhibited in this system: the transverse spatial profile of the output photons may be continuously manipulated by tuning the polarization parameters of the input photons, in such a way that the HOMI between the photons remains stable. An interesting corollary to this work is the possibility of demonstrating in a simple experimental system that HOMI may occur between distinguishable input modes.
Structured photons are a crucial resource in both classical and quantum technologies, particularly in spin–orbit hybrid photons, enabling various practical applications ranging from ultra-sensitive metrology techniques to quantum-enhanced information processing tasks. However, the two-photon interference of spin–orbit hybrid photons, which combines polarization modes and complex transverse spatial structures across the beam profile, remains unexplored. Here, we present an experimental observation of Hong–Ou–Mandel (HOM) interference of spin–orbit hybrid photons. The tunable q-plates that work as spin–orbit coupler devices are used to prepare various forms of spin–orbit hybrid entangled photons. By harnessing the match degree in the temporal domain, the coalescence and anti-coalescence effects resulting from the symmetric and anti-symmetric properties of the incident quantum states are observed. Moreover, we demonstrated the feasibility of quantum-enhanced photon polarization gears through HOM interference and theoretically analyze the noise-resilient advantages based on coherent HOM measurements. These results provide an alternative route toward quantum experiments with structured photons that allows for controlling their quantum interference in a compact, stable, and efficient way.
Structured photons are nowadays an important resource in classical and quantum optics due to the richness of properties they show under propagation, focusing, and in their interaction with matter. Vectorial modes of light in particular, a class of modes where the polarization varies across the beam profile, have already been used in several areas ranging from microscopy to quantum information. One of the key ingredients needed to exploit the full potential of complex light in the quantum domain is the control of quantum interference, a crucial resource in fields like quantum communication, sensing, and metrology. Here we report a tunable Hong-Ou-Mandel interference between vectorial modes of light. We demonstrate how a properly designed spin-orbit device can be used to control quantum interference between vectorial modes of light by simply adjusting the device parameters and no need of interferometric setups. We believe our result can find applications in fundamental research and quantum technologies based on structured light by providing a new tool to control quantum interference in a compact, efficient, and robust way.
We realized a polarization-independent split-ratio-tunable optical beam splitter supporting two input and output ports through a stable interferometer. By adjusting the angle of a half-wave plate in the interferometer, we can tune the beam splitter reflectivities for both input ports from 0 to 1, regardless of the input light polarization. High-fidelity polarization-preserving transmission from input to output ports was verified by complete quantum process tomography. Nearly optimal interference effects at the beam splitter with various split ratios were observed by two-photon Hong-Ou-Mandel interference for different input polarization states. Such a beam splitter could find a variety of applications in classical and quantum optical technologies.