Polarimetric measurements of single-photon geometric phases

Yugra Carcasi, Yonny Daniel

I. Machuca, D. Larios, Omar Ortiz

Omar Ortiz, Yonny Yugra, A. Rosario +4 more

We report polarimetric measurements of geometric phases that are generated by evolving polarized photons along nongeodesic trajectories on the Poincar\'e sphere. The core of our polarimetric array consists of seven wave plates that are traversed by a single-photon beam. With this array, any SU(2) transformation can be realized. By exploiting the gauge invariance of geometric phases under U(1) local transformations, we nullify the dynamical contribution to the total phase, thereby making the latter coincide with the geometric phase. We demonstrate our arrangement to be insensitive to various sources of noise entering it. This makes the single-beam, polarimetric array a promising, versatile tool for testing robustness of geometric phases against noise.

Diego Barberena, Omar Ortiz, Yonny Yugra +2 more

We report robust polarimetric measurements of mixed-state geometric phases. An all-optical setup was used to generate geometric phases with great versatility, thereby extending the scope of analogous methods used in neutron polarimetry. Our method allows us to explore geometric phases generated by unitarily evolving mixed states. These are realized as partially polarized single-photon states whose degree of polarization and normalized Stokes vector can be fixed independently of one another. The geometric phases correspond to both open and closed trajectories in Poincar\'e space. By exploiting the gauge invariance of geometric phases we nullify their dynamical part, thereby making the geometric phase coincide with the total (Pancharatnam) phase, which can be directly addressed by employing standard techniques.

Joerg Bochmann, Holger Specht, Martin Muecke +5 more

Oza, Altepeter, Medic +2 more