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Laser & Photonics Review

Experimental First‐Photon Visualization of Quantum Erasure With Hybrid Entanglement

Wen‐Kai Yu, Qing‐Yuan Wu, Xiao‐Xiao Chen, Juan Huo, Jian Li, Jia‐Zhi Yang, An‐Ning Zhang

Published Dec 18, 2025• 22 citations
Publisher

Abstract

ABSTRACT The complementarity principle, as the cornerstone of quantum information, is both counterintuitive and inherently characterized by mutual exclusivity. In this work, we construct a quantum erasure scheme utilizing polarization and orbital angular momentum (OAM) two‐photon hybrid entanglement, and develop a first‐photon physics‐enhanced dual‐branch residual attention network with physical constraints to visualize the disappearance and reappearance of single‐photon petal‐like interference patterns, with much fewer than one photon per pixel and without the need for exhaustive detection of all OAM modes. This work not only helps people to deepen their intuitive understanding of the which‐path concept in quantum mechanics, but also advances quantum imaging in the visualization of subtle changing quantum phenomena.

DOI
10.1002/lpor.202501816

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ABSTRACT The complementarity principle, as the cornerstone of quantum information, is both counterintuitive and inherently characterized by mutual exclusivity. In this work, we construct a quantum erasure scheme utilizing polarization and orbital angular momentum (OAM) two‐photon hybrid entanglement, and develop a first‐photon physics‐enhanced dual‐branch residual attention network with physical constraints to visualize the disappearance and reappearance of single‐photon petal‐like interference patterns, with much fewer than one photon per pixel and without the need for exhaustive detection of all OAM modes. This work not only helps people to deepen their intuitive understanding of the which‐path concept in quantum mechanics, but also advances quantum imaging in the visualization of subtle changing quantum phenomena.
Quantum erasers with paths in the form of physical slits have been studied extensively and proven instrumental in probing wave-particle duality in quantum mechanics. Here we replace physical paths (slits) with abstract paths of orbital angular momentum (OAM). Using spin-orbit hybrid entanglement of photons, we show that the OAM content of a photon can be erased with a complementary polarization projection of one of the entangled pair. The result is the (dis)appearance of azimuthal fringes based on whether the ``which-OAM'' information was erased. We extend this concept to a delayed measurement scheme and show that the OAM information and fringe visibility are complementary.
The quantum eraser effect exemplifies the distinctive properties of quantum mechanics that challenge classical intuition and reveal the wave-particle duality of light.Whether the photon exhibits particle-like or wave-like behavior depends on whether the path information is discernible.In this paper, we propose a novel quantum eraser scheme that utilizes photonic phase structures as the which-way indicator.This scheme is implemented using a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI), where one arm is configured with orbital angular momentum (OAM) to establish predetermined which-way information.Consequently, at the output ports of the MZI, the photon displays particle-like characteristics when the which-way information is retained.However, the introduction of an additional spiral phase plate (SPP) to eliminate the phase structure from the output photon of the MZI unveils distinct interference patterns.This result enhances our understanding of the quantum erasure effect.
Youngs double slit experiment is one of the most celebrated achievements in quantum and classical optics; it provides experimental proof of the wave-particle duality of light. When the paths of the double slit are marked with orthogonal polarizations, the path information is revealed and no interference pattern is observed. However, the path information can be erased with a complimentary analysis of the polarization. Here we use hybrid entanglement between photons carrying orbital angular momentum and polarization to show that, just as in Young's experiment, the paths (OAM) marked with polarization do not lead to interference. However, when introducing the eraser (polarizer) which projects the polarization of one of the entangled photons onto a complementary polarization basis, the OAM (paths) are allowed to interfere, leading to the formation of azimuthal fringes whose frequency is proportional to the OAM content carried by the photon.
We report an experiment of which-way information and a quantum eraser based on polarization-controlled interference of two twisted light beams carrying high orbital angular momentum (OAM) up to ℓ=±50 and ±100, respectively. By changing the polarization plane of one OAM beam from 0° to 90° with respect to that of the other OAM beam, we observe the gradual disappearance of the interference petal-like patterns into the noninterference single bright rings. Subsequently, we use the eraser of a diagonal polarizer to retrieve the characteristic petal-like interference. The experimental results can be well explained in the frame of single-photon Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger-like (GHZ-like) entanglement. Our work may be beneficial to understanding the wave-particle duality of light.
Abstract Electromagnetic waves have both spin momentum and orbital angular momentum (OAM). Light carrying OAM has broad applications in micro-particle manipulation, high-precision optical metrology, and potential high-capacity optical communications. In the concept of quantum information, a photon encoded with information in its OAM degree of freedom enables quantum networks to carry much more information and increase their channel capacity greatly compared with those of current technology because of the inherent infinite dimensions for OAM. Quantum memories are indispensable to construct quantum networks. Storing OAM states has attracted considerable attention recently, and many important advances in this direction have been achieved during the past few years. Here we review recent experimental realizations of quantum memories using OAM states, including OAM qubits and qutrits at true single photon level, OAM states entangled in a two-dimensional or a high-dimensional space, hyperentanglement and hybrid entanglement consisting of OAM and other degree of freedom in a physical system. We believe that all achievements described here are very helpful to study quantum information encoded in a high-dimensional space.
We propose a minimal quantum-optical scheme for generating hybrid entanglement between photon polarization and electronic orbital angular momentum in a semiconductor quantum disk. A spin--orbit structured two-photon state excites two channels in the same disk: a radiatively recombining zero-orbital-angular-momentum channel and a finite-orbital-angular-momentum channel that stores the electronic orbital qubit. An effective coherent mapping prepares a selected two-excitation state, followed by emission of a photon whose polarization is entangled with the residual electronic orbital state. A master-equation analysis shows that the heralded state conditioned on single-photon occupation of the selected output mode approaches the target entangled state in the ideal coherent limit. We also discuss orbital relaxation and perturbative validity conditions for branch-dependent Coulomb shifts, orbital-angular-momentum mixing, and finite-orbital-angular-momentum radiative leakage. This proof-of-principle effective model suggests a route toward structured-light-mediated photon--electron hybrid entanglement in semiconductor nanostructures.