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Controlling two-photon interference and entanglement with mechanical rotations

Marko Toroš, Marion Cromb, Sara Restuccia, Maria Chiara Braidotti, Graham M. Gibson, Hendrik Ulbricht, Mauro Paternostro, Miles J. Padgett, Daniele Faccio

Published Nov 30, 2023• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We review recent experimental and theoretical results of photon interferometry on rotating platforms. Quantum phenomena such as two-photon interference and entanglement can be controlled with mechanical rotations in a regime accessible to table-top experiments. We first discuss experiments demonstrating how low-frequency mechanical rotations affect the bunching behavior of frequency-entangled photon pairs. It was shown that low-frequency mechanical rotations can affect the temporal distinguishability of photons and can transform photonic behavior from perfectly indistinguishable (bosonic behavior) to perfectly distinguishable (fermionic behavior). We then give a future outlook for testing the generation of entanglement from mechanical rotation. A recent theoretical work showed that generating path-polarization entanglement from mechanical rotations could be verified with present technology. These works make a strong case for further exploration of quantum phenomena at the interface with non-inertial (rotational) motion.

DOI
10.1117/12.2691216

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We review recent experimental and theoretical results of photon interferometry on rotating platforms. Quantum phenomena such as two-photon interference and entanglement can be controlled with mechanical rotations in a regime accessible to table-top experiments. We first discuss experiments demonstrating how low-frequency mechanical rotations affect the bunching behavior of frequency-entangled photon pairs. It was shown that low-frequency mechanical rotations can affect the temporal distinguishability of photons and can transform photonic behavior from perfectly indistinguishable (bosonic behavior) to perfectly distinguishable (fermionic behavior). We then give a future outlook for testing the generation of entanglement from mechanical rotation. A recent theoretical work showed that generating path-polarization entanglement from mechanical rotations could be verified with present technology. These works make a strong case for further exploration of quantum phenomena at the interface with non-inertial (rotational) motion.
The modification by noninertial motion of the photon bunching properties of an entangled biphoton state is demonstrated. Sagnac interferometers are added to both arms of a Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) interferometer that is mounted on a mechanically rotating platform. As the platform rotation speed is increased, HOM interference dips transform into HOM interference peaks, indicating that the entangled photons pass from perfectly indistinguishable bunching (bosonic behavior) to perfectly distinguishable antibunching (fermionic behavior).
Photon interference and bunching are widely studied quantum effects that have also been proposed for high-precision measurements. Here, we construct a theoretical description of photon interferometry on rotating platforms, specifically exploring the relation between noninertial motion, relativity, and quantum mechanics. On the basis of this, we then propose an experiment where photon entanglement can be revealed or concealed solely by controlling the rotational motion of an interferometer, thus providing a route towards studies at the boundary between quantum mechanics and relativity.
Many phenomena and fundamental predictions, ranging from Hawking radiation to the early evolution of the Universe rely on the interplay between quantum mechanics and gravity or more generally, quantum mechanics in curved spacetimes. However, our understanding is hindered by the lack of experiments that actually allow us to probe quantum mechanics in curved spacetime in a repeatable and accessible way. Here we propose an experimental scheme for a photon that is prepared in a path superposition state across two rotating Sagnac interferometers that have different diameters and thus represent a superposition of two different spacetimes. We predict the generation of genuine entanglement even at low rotation frequencies and show how these effects could be observed even due to the Earth's rotation. These predictions provide an accessible platform in which to study the role of the underlying spacetime in the generation of entanglement.
We present experimental observations of a nonclassic and nonlocal interference effect with frequency-entangled photon pairs. We observed two-photon interference in a Hong–Ou–Mandel interferometer by monitoring the coincidence-counting rate as we varied the path-length difference or the relative time delay between two photons. The quantum-mechanical probabilities of joint detection by two detectors that respond to different frequency components exhibit differences that depend not only on the arrangement of the detector pairs but on the spectral filtering. The experimental results provide more understanding of two-photon entanglement and of the interference effects that arise from superposition of indistinguishable probability amplitudes.
A number of recent interference experiments involving multiple photons are reviewed. These experiments include generalized photon bunching effects, generalized Hong-Ou-Mandel interference effects and multi-photon interferometry for demonstrations of multi-photon de Broglie wavelength. The multi-photon states used in these experiments are from two pairs of photons in parametric down-conversion. We find that the size of the interference effect in these experiments, characterized by the visibility of the interference pattern, is governed by the degree of distinguishability among different pairs of photons. Based on this discovery, we generalize the concept of multi-photon temporal distinguishability and relate it to a number of multi-photon interference effects. Finally, we make an attempt to interpret the coherence theory by multi-photon interference via the concept of temporal distinguishability of photons.
Precision interferometry with quantum states has emerged as an essential tool for experimentally answering fundamental questions in physics. Optical quantum interferometers are of particular interest because of mature methods for generating and manipulating quantum states of light. Their increased sensitivity promises to enable tests of quantum phenomena, such as entanglement, in regimes where tiny gravitational effects come into play. However, this requires long and decoherence-free processing of quantum entanglement, which, for large interferometric areas, remains unexplored territory. Here, we present a table-top experiment using maximally path-entangled quantum states of light in a large-scale interferometer sensitive enough to measure the rotation rate of Earth. The achieved sensitivity of 5 μrad s −1 constitutes the highest rotation resolution ever reached with optical quantum interferometers. Further improvements to our methodology will enable measurements of general-relativistic effects on entangled photons, allowing the exploration of the interplay between quantum mechanics and general relativity, along with tests for fundamental physics.