Experimental demonstration of a simple method to engineer a single qutrit state with biphotons

A simple method to engineer qutrit state with biphotons is realized. The method is based on Hong–Ou–Mandel interferometer and it is insensitive to disturbance comparing to Mach–Zehnder interferometer in principle. Moreover, a tomography procedure is employed to reconstruct the output states.     

Measurement of the photonic de broglie wavelength of entangled photon pairs generated by spontaneous parametric down-conversion

Using a basic Mach-Zehnder interferometer, we demonstrate experimentally the measurement of the photonic de Broglie wavelength of entangled photon pairs (biphotons) generated by spontaneous parametric down-conversion. The observed interference manifests the concept of the photonic de Broglie wavelength. We also discuss the phase uncertainty obtained from the experiment.     

Ultrabroadband biphotons generated via chirped quasi-phase-matched optical parametric down-conversion

We generate ultrabroadband biphotons via the process of spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) in quasi-phase-matched nonlinear gratings that have a linearly chirped wave vector. By using these ultrabroadband biphotons (300-nm bandwidth), we measure the narrowest Hong-Ou-Mandel dip to date, having a full width at half maximum of 7.1 fs. This enables the generation of a high flux of nonoverlapping biphotons with ultrabroad bandwidth, thereby promoting the use of SPDC light in many nonclassical applications.     

A microprism array as shearing device for speckle shearing interferometry

In most speckle shearing interferometers image shearing is performed by means of a Michelson interferometer or by means of a wedge prism covering half of the aperture of the camera objective. We present a speckle shearing interferometer which utilizes a microprism array for this purpose. It is placed between the test specimen and the camera. In comparision with a wedge prism it exhibits some advantages: it needs no exact alignment, it works with any camera lens, the shearing distance and direction of shearing can be easily changed by changing position (resp. angular orientation) of the element. Phase stepping for computer evaluation of the speckle shearing interferograms is performed by the translation of the shearing element. A special translation stage was developed. Experimental results are presented. The interferometer is suited for microcomponent and microsystem testing.     

Phase-shifting lateral shearing interferometer with two pairs of wedge plates

We present a compact and robust phase-shifting lateral shearing interferometer that produces shearing fringes in orthogonal directions without any mechanical rotation or precise alignment. It consists of two pairs of wedge plates, a beam splitter, and a single CCD camera. Both phase-shifting and tilt for lateral shearing are achieved with two pairs of wedge plates, which can reduce systematic errors caused by external vibration and atmospheric disturbance.     

Generation of arbitrary frequency-entangled states of two-photon light

We consider a new method for the generation of polarization-frequency entangled states of photon pairs. We use a frequency-nondegenerate regime of spontaneous parametric down conversion where the photon pairs (biphotons) are produced with identical polarizations, propagate mostly in the same direction, but differ in frequency. Entanglement is achieved by a coherent superposition of pairs emitted from two nonlinear crystals, with the polarization of the biphotons from the first crystal being changed by a transformer placed between the two crystals. We show that this scheme allows the degree of entanglement to be controlled by the choice of biphoton frequencies.     

Modeling of the fringe shift in multiple beam interference for glass fibers

A quadratic model is suggested to describe the fringe shift occurred due to the phase variations of uncladded glass fiber introduced between the two plates of the liquid wedge interferometer. The fringe shift of the phase object is represented in the harmonic term which appears in the denominator of the Airy distribution formula of Fabry-Perot’s interferometer. A computer program is written to plot the computed fringe shifts of the described model. An experiment is conducted using liquid wedge interferometer where the fiber of a nearly quadratic thickness variation is introduced between the two plates of the interferometer. The obtained fringe shift shows a good agreement with the proposed quadratic model. Also, it is compared with the previous theoretical shift based on ray optics of semi-circular shape.      

等光程干涉仪中参考镜楔角最优补偿方式研究北大核心CSCD

在测量多表面平行样品时,多面干涉会影响测量结果。为了能改善多面干涉问题,介绍了等光程干涉仪,并研究了参考镜楔角的最佳补偿方式。在等光程干涉仪中,由于参考镜和分光镜的楔角和倾角的存在,测量结果中会带有回程误差。根据参考镜楔角的不同情况采用了不同的补偿,理论分析并确定了各种补偿的放置方式和补偿量,同时研究了倾角和楔角的大小对于要被遮拦光束高度和像方数值孔径NA的影响。再利用Zemax进行不同补偿方式下的干涉仪仿真,并根据仿真得到的干涉图PV值分析回程误差的大小。分析表明:选用最佳补偿方式,参考镜楔角为1′,回程误差优于0.003个波长。     

Phase shifting speckle shearing polarization interferometer using a birefringent wedge

A digital speckle pattern shearing interferometer is presented which utilizes a single birefringent wedge. Two orthogonally polarized images of an object measured are sheared by the wedge, and the bias phase difference between two polarized images is shifted by translating the wedge. The phase shifting technique applied to speckle pattern shearing interferometry makes it possible to analyze a slope and surface strain numerically. The fringe formation in the present interferometer is analyzed with statistical theory. Experimental results are also presented in two cases: (1) measurement of a slope and normal displacement with a single illumination; (2) simultaneous and separate measurement of a slope and surface strain with two symmetrical illuminations.     

Step index fibre using laser interferometer

A model is suggested to describe the fringe shift which occurs due to the phase variations of cladded glass fibre introduced between the two plates of the liquid wedge interferometer illuminated with a He–Ne laser. The fringe shift of the phase object which appears in the denominator of the Airy distribution formula of the multiple beam interference is represented in the harmonic term. An experiment is conducted using liquid wedge interferometer where the step index glass fibre of a nearly quadratic thickness variation is introduced between the two plates of the interferometer. The obtained fringe shift shows a good agreement with the proposed quadratic model. The Matlab code is written to plot the interferometer fringes comprising the shift of the step index fibre. Secondly, recognition of elliptical fibres is outlined using tomographic imaging. Finally, results and concluding remarks are given.     

The influence of the icosahedral percolation transition in supercooled liquid iron on the diffusion mobility of atoms

An experiment on preparation of entangled photon pairs (biphotons) in an arbitrary polarization state is described. The biphotons are qutrits (three-state quantum systems). They can be used in ternary quantum cryptography protocols. A theoretically derived orthogonality criterion for the prepared biphotons is validated experimentally. The criterion can be used to identify orthogonal biphoton states.     

Measurement of residual wedge angle with a reversal shear interferometer

A technique for determination of residual wedge angle of high optical quality transparent parallel plate using a reversal shear interferometer-based optical system has been discussed. In this technique the parallel plate to be tested is used to introduce angular tilt in the preset two-beam interference fringes of a reversal shear interferometer. The parallelism is calculated from the angular tilt of the fringes. The technique is more sensitive compared to techniques using Fizeau interferometer and is most suitable for highly parallel transparent plate with very low residual wedge angle.     

Generation of Competitive and Coexisting Two Pairs of Biphotons in Single Hot Atomic Vapor Cell

The non-classical states of light serve as a potential candidate for emerging quantum information process. A processing trend to enhance its scalability is to integrate multiple nonlinear processes with the dressed-state picture into a single device, and therefore, are useful for quantum computations. Here, a novel method is proposed to experimentally achieve the generation of coexisting two pairs of narrow-band biphotons by two four-wave mixing processes in a single hot rubidium vapor cell. Based on the photon-atom nonlinear interfaces, the generated biphotons exhibits genuine entanglement in time–energy. Meanwhile, the nonlinear susceptibility with the dressed-state picture decides the temporal correlation of the biphotons wave packet as a damped periodic Rabi oscillation, suggesting the property of the high-dimensional time–energy entangled state. Such a high-dimensional entangled state also is an efficient way to enhance information carrying capacity. By alternating two nonlinear susceptibilities in a single device, respectively, there exists a competition of the generation rate between such two pairs of biphotons. Moreover, both generated two pairs of biphotons that violate the Cauchy–Schwarz inequality and show their non-classical behavior.     

脉冲光场作用下啁啾双光子量子特性研究

基于量子理论和非线性光学,研究了脉冲光场作用啁啾准相位匹配非线性晶体的第Ⅱ类自发参变下转换过程中,脉冲宽度和啁啾系数对产生的纠缠双光子特性及Hong-Ou-Mandel(HOM)量子干涉结果的影响。结果表明,啁啾系数一定时,随着脉冲宽度的增加,双光子谱的不可区分性降低,HOM量子干涉可见度下降。当脉冲宽度一定时,随着啁啾系数的增加使双光子谱带宽增加,HOM量子干涉陷落变窄,双光子谱的不可区分性增强,从而提高了相干精度和干涉可见度。理论上得到了超宽带的双光子谱和对应超窄的HOM量子干涉图。     

Transverse compression of two-photon wave packets

A method for generating two-photon wave packets (biphotons) with a small width of the spatial intensity correlation function (correlation radius) has been considered. We propose to prepare a two-photon wave packet inhomogeneously broadened in the angle by means of spontaneous parametric down-conversion in an inhomogeneous crystal. Such biphotons are not diffraction limited; i.e., their correlation radius is much larger than the inverse width of the spatial spectrum. However, the correlation radius of such a biphoton decreases as the biphoton propagates in free space, and transverse compression occurs at a certain distance from the crystal; i.e., the biphoton becomes diffraction limited.     

Submillimeter laser interferometry with pyroelectric image recording

The interferometer with a submillimeter laser and standard pyroelectric TV camera for visualization of interference fringe pattern is described. Problems typical for the development of such interferometer are solved by choosing of a proper arrangement and a mutual spacing of its elements with respect to laser. The interferograms of a teflon wedge and an arcing plasma are presented as an example.     

Two-wavelength dye-laser operation using a reflecting Fizeau interferometer

Newly found reflection properties of the Fizeau wedge interferometer are shown to be of particular advantage in obtaining efficient multi-wavelength operation of dye lasers. Use is made of the fact that the reflecting Fizeau wedge can ensure at once a selective feedback for a given wavelength and quasi-total reflection in an other direction for all other wavelengths. Fully independent tuning of two 0.02 nm lines is obtained with short pulse (2 ns) N₂-laser pumping using a single Fizeau wedge.     

Subnatural linewidth biphotons with controllable temporal length

This Letter describes the generation of biphotons with a temporal length that can be varied over the range of 50-900 ns, with an estimated subnatural linewidth as small as 0.75 MHz. We make use of electromagnetically induced transparency and slow light in a two-dimensional magneto-optical trap with an optical depth as high as 62. We report a sharp leading edge spike that is a Sommerfeld-Brillouin precursor, as observed at the biphoton level.     

Generation of narrow-band correlated photon pairs by spontaneous down conversion in a cavity

The problem of generating a narrow-band biphoton field during spontaneous parametric down conversion of light in a quadratic nonlinear medium in a cavity is discussed. It is shown that, in the case of double resonance (for signal and idle fields), the form of the single-photon wave packet is biexponential and has a half-width determined by the photon life time in the cavity. An experiment is carried out on the generation of narrow-band biphotons in a crystal of lithium iodine with I-type matching in a frequency degenerate collinear regime. The second-order correlation function of the cavity-enhanced biphotons is measured using the electric nanosecond time delay line.     

Quantum interference and diffraction of parametric down-converted biphotons

We present two-photon diffraction and interference experiments utilizing parametric down-converted photon pairs (biphotons) and a transmission grating. The biphoton exhibits a diffraction-interference pattern equivalent to an effective single particle with half wavelength of the constituent photons.