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Optics Letters

Experimental realization of a resource-saving polarization-independent orbital-angular-momentum-preserving tunable beam splitter

Yaping Li, Fang‐Xiang Wang, Wei Chen, Guowei Zhang, Zhen−Qiang Yin, De‐Yong He, Shuang Wang, Guang‐Can Guo, Zheng‐Fu Han

Published Jan 31, 2019• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The tunable beam splitter (TBS) is a fundamental component used in optical experiments. A TBS can preserve the orbital angular momentum (OAM) states; in addition, the polarization states of photons are valuable for some particular experiments, such as high-dimensional quantum information processing. We use polarization beam splitters and half-wave plates to realize such a TBS under a compact structure, which can reduce the number of elements that require comparing with existing works. The experiments verify that the TBS has good performances in tunability, polarization, and OAM state preservation. A Sagnac interferometer is implemented with the proposed TBS to evaluate its practical usability, and the mean visibilities greater than 99.30% under varying polarization states demonstrate its potential for optical information processing.

DOI
10.1364/ol.44.000755

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The tunable beam splitter (TBS) is a fundamental component used in optical experiments. A TBS can preserve the orbital angular momentum (OAM) states; in addition, the polarization states of photons are valuable for some particular experiments, such as high-dimensional quantum information processing. We use polarization beam splitters and half-wave plates to realize such a TBS under a compact structure, which can reduce the number of elements that require comparing with existing works. The experiments verify that the TBS has good performances in tunability, polarization, and OAM state preservation. A Sagnac interferometer is implemented with the proposed TBS to evaluate its practical usability, and the mean visibilities greater than 99.30% under varying polarization states demonstrate its potential for optical information processing.
Tunable beam splitter (TBS) is a fundamental component which has been widely used in optical experiments. We realize a polarization-independent orbital-angular-momentum-preserving TBS based on the combination of modified polarization beam splitters and half-wave plates. Greater than 30 dB of the extinction ratio of tunableness, lower than 6%6\%6% of polarization dependence and more than 20 dB of the extinction ratio of OAM preservation show the relatively good performance of the TBS. In addition, the TBS can save about 3/4 of the optical elements compared with the existing scheme to implement the same function\cite{yang2016experimental}, which makes it have great advantages in scalable applications. Using this TBS, we experimentally built a Sagnac interferometer with the mean visibility of more than 99%99\%99%, which demonstrates its potential applications in quantum information process, such as quantum cryptography.
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.
Orbital angular momentum (OAM) is an important resource in high-dimensional quantum information processing, as its quantum number can be infinite. Dove prism (DP) is a most common tool to manipulate OAM light. However, the Dove prism changes the polarization of the photon states and decreases the sorting fidelity of the interferometer. In this work, we analyze the polarization-dependent effect of the DP on OAM light manipulation in the normal single-path Sagnac interferometers (SPSIs) with beam splitter (BS) and polarizing beam splitter (PBS). The results demonstrate that the BS SPSI is more sensitive to the input polarization and the specific parameters of the DP. We have also proposed and realized a modified BS SPSI, of which the sorting fidelity can be 100% in principle and is independent on the input polarization and the transmission matrix of the DP. The experiments demonstrate that the fidelity of the modified BS SPSI is about 5%~10% higher than that of the normal one. The modified BS SPSI is easy to implement (only two more half-wave plates are required) and is stable for free running at the scale of several hours. These merits make the structure suitable for applications in critical quantum information processing tasks, such as quantum cryptography.
Single photons with orbital angular momentum (OAM) have attracted substantial attention from researchers. A single photon can carry infinite OAM values theoretically. Thus, OAM photon states have been widely used in quantum information and fundamental quantum mechanics. Although there have been many methods for sorting quantum states with different OAM values, the nondestructive and efficient sorter of high-dimensional OAM remains a fundamental challenge. Here, we propose a scalable OAM sorter which can categorize different OAM states simultaneously, meanwhile, preserving both OAM and spin angular momentum. Fundamental elements of the sorter are composed of symmetric multiport beam splitters (BSs) and Dove prisms with cascading structure, which in principle can be flexibly and effectively combined to sort arbitrarily high-dimensional OAM photons. The scalable structures proposed here greatly reduce the number of BSs required for sorting high-dimensional OAM states. In view of the nondestructive and extensible features, the sorters can be used as fundamental devices not only for high-dimensional quantum information processing, but also for traditional optics.
In recent years, the high-dimensional properties of the orbital angular momentum degree of freedom of light have attracted extensive attention. This degree of freedom has been studied and used in many scientific fields, especially in optical communication and quantum information. In order to fully utilize the high-dimensional properties of orbital angular momentum, non-destructive separation of different orbital angular momentum states has become a fundamental requirement. However, the existing orbital angular momentum beam-splitting systems either lack stability and cascade expansibility, or the properties of the separated orbital angular momentum states are seriously damaged, thus failing to participate in further interaction processes. In this work, we construct a miniature Mach-Zehnder interferometer based on the beam displacer, and design an orbital angular momentum beam splitter, thereby realizing the non-destructive beam splitting of orbital angular momentum mode. In the orbital angular momentum splitter, the theoretical energy loss is zero because there exists only total reflection of the beam. The beam in the miniature Mach-Zehnder interferometer passes through the same optical element, and the spatial deviation of the beam is small, so the orbital angular momentum beam splitter has good stability. In addition, because the separated orbital angular momentum state has the same propagation direction as the incident orbital angular momentum state, the beam splitter has good extensibility and is easy to use in cascade. Our research result is of great significance in using the orbital angular momentum as a high-dimensional degree of freedom in optical communication and other related fields.
Optical beams bearing orbital angular momentum have been recently recognized as potential candidates for realizing DDD-dimensional quantum systems (qudits). In this paper, we propose an optical scheme to implement an orbital angular momentum beam splitter, which changes the outgoing direction with respect to the incoming direction while leaving the qudit state unchanged. Furthermore we demonstrate that such a beam splitter can be used to sort different orbital angular states of a single photon, create arbitrary superpositions of orbital angular momentum states, and implement a high-dimensional Bennett-Brassard 1984 protocol for quantum key distribution.