Experimental violation of Bell's inequality in spatial-parity space

We report the first experimental violation of Bell's inequality in the spatial domain using the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen state. Two-photon states generated via optical spontaneous parametric down-conversion are shown to be entangled in the parity of their one-dimensional transverse spatial profile. Superpositions of Bell states are prepared by manipulation of the optical pump's transverse spatial parity-a classical parameter. The Bell-operator measurements are made possible by devising simple optical arrangements that perform rotations in the one-dimensional spatial-parity space of each photon of an entangled pair and projective measurements onto a basis of even-odd functions. A Bell-operator value of 2.389+/-0.016 is recorded, a violation of the inequality by more than 24 standard deviations.     

Heavy photon states in photonic chains of resonantly coupled cavities with supermonodispersive microspheres

We propose and demonstrate a "bottom-up" approach to constructing photonic structures for photon manipulation. Supermonodispersive polymer microspheres are used as building blocks and a size uniformity better than 0.05% could be obtained by sorting the spheres using spectroscopic methods. The spheres are positioned in a V groove on a silicon substrate and form a photonic chain with resonant coupling of the optical whispering-gallery modes. Photonic band modes are clearly observed in fluorescence and resonant scattering spectra, and an excellent agreement with a tight-binding model calculation is found. Heavy photon states and a group index as high as 40 are obtained.     

Nonlocal hyperconcentration on entangled photons using photonic module system

Entanglement distribution will inevitably be affected by the channel and environment noise. Thus distillation of maximal entanglement nonlocally becomes a crucial goal in quantum information. Here we illustrate that maximal hyperentanglement on nonlocal photons could be distilled using the photonic module and cavity quantum electrodynamics, where the photons are simultaneously entangled in polarization and spatial-mode degrees of freedom. The construction of the photonic module in a photonic band-gap structure is presented, and the operation of the module is utilized to implement the photonic nondestructive parity checks on the two degrees of freedom. We first propose a hyperconcentration protocol using two identical partially hyperentangled initial states with unknown coefficients to distill a maximally hyperentangled state probabilistically, and further propose a protocol by the assistance of an ancillary single photon prepared according to the known coefficients of the initial state. In the two protocols, the total success probability can be improved greatly by introducing the iteration mechanism, and only one of the remote parties is required to perform the parity checks in each round of iteration. Estimates on the system requirements and recent experimental results indicate that our proposal is realizable with existing or near-further technologies.     

Engineering photonic density of states using metamaterials

The photonic density of states (PDOS), like its electronic counterpart, is one of the key physical quantities governing a variety of phenomena and hence PDOS manipulation is the route to new photonic devices. The PDOS is conventionally altered by exploiting the resonance within a device such as a microcavity or a bandgap structure like a photonic crystal. Here we show that nanostructured metamaterials with hyperbolic dispersion can dramatically enhance the photonic density of states paving the way for metamaterial-based PDOS engineering.     

Experimental demonstration of fractional orbital angular momentum entanglement of two photons

The singular nature of a noninteger spiral phase plate allows easy manipulation of spatial degrees of freedom of photon states. Using two such devices, we have observed very high-dimensional spatial entanglement of twin photons generated by spontaneous parametric down-conversion.     

Equilibrium bifurcations and chaotic transitions in coupled microlaser lattices

Analytic and simulation studies for the steady-state equilibria and bifurcations of coupled microlaser arrays are described. Lateral cavity interactions affect the gain in each cavity, leading to active photonic lattice behavior, equivalent to a nonlinear coupled oscillator lattice. The coupled-cavity rate equations are employed to follow the coherent photon and carrier population in each lattice site. Fixed-point-type steady states, of constant lattice phase shift, result for low coupling strengths; the radiation envelope for these states conforms with a periodic Bloch state over the array. Bifurcations to limit cycles of increasing complexity occur at higher coupling via period doubling sequences. The associated spatial patterns of photon and carrier lattice distribution resemble photonic convection cells. Limit cycles of different periods, emanating mathematically from different original fixed points, coexist at high strengths, each one accessible from different initial conditions. The multiplicity of possible limit cycles in systems with many degrees of freedom (number of lattice sites) combined with changes in their accessibility from initial conditions offers new insights to chaotic transitions, compared to low dimensionality paradigms.     

Luminescence spectra of a cholesteric photonic crystal

The transmission and luminescence spectra of a cholesteric photonic crystal doped with an organic dye are measured. The density of photon states is calculated using the material parameters obtained from the comparison of the experimental and theoretical spectra. The shape of the luminescence spectra is modified with respect to the density of photon states owing to the difference in the structure of the normal modes of the photonic crystal near the short-wavelength and long-wavelength edges of the photonic quasi-band gap upon the “pushing” of the photon states from the gap and to the nonvanishing orientation ordering of the luminescent molecules. The luminescence spectrum calculated taking into account the chiral structure of the photonic crystal agrees with the experimental spectrum.     

Photon Density of States in a Cholesteric Photonic Crystal

The photon density of states in a cholesteric photonic crystal in the region of the photon band has been determined from the measured polarized luminescence spectra. The orientational ordering of the transition dipole moment in luminescence, as well as the ellipticity of light eigenmodes in the photonic crystal, has been taken into account when determining the density of states. Maxima in the spectrum of the density of states on two sides of the photonic band are related to the displacement of states from the band. The group velocity of light inside the photonic band exceeds the speed of light in vacuum.     

Bose–Einstein condensation in mesoscopic systems: The self-similar structure of the critical region and the nonequivalence of the canonical and grand canonical ensembles

A new hyperbolic metamaterial based on a modified semiconductor Bragg mirror structure with embedded periodically arranged quantum wells is proposed. It is shown that exciton polaritons in this material feature hyperbolic dispersion in the vicinity of the second photonic band gap. Exciton–photon interaction brings about resonant nonlinearity leading to the emergence of nontrivial topological polaritonic states. The formation of spatially localized breather-type structures (oscillons) representing kink-shaped solutions of the effective Ginzburg–Landau–Higgs equation slightly oscillating along one spatial direction is predicted.     

Nondestructive discrimination of Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger-basis states via two-qubit parity detection

We propose new methods to construct universal Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ)-state analyzers without destroying the qubits by using two-qubit parity gates. The idea can be applied to any physical systems where the two-qubit parity gate can be realized. We also investigate the feasibility of nondestructively distinguishing the GHZ-basis states for photonic qubits with such an idea. The nondestructive GHZ-state analyzers can act as generators of GHZ entangled states and are expected to find useful applications for resource-saving quantum information processing.     

渐变折射率光量子阱对束缚态能级的调整

在对称的均匀电介质材料光子晶体体系中插入另一折射率渐变的光子晶体可构成光量子阱结构.利用时域有限差分法计算了不同折射率分布光量子阱结构的传输谱.研究表明：束缚态是对处于垒光子晶体禁带中的阱光子晶体导通带的离散化,束缚态能级个数等于阱光子晶体结构单元的重复周期数；以渐变方式调整阱区折射率分布,可在特定频率范围内得到新的互不交叠的束缚态.这样在有限的禁带区域可以成倍增加光子束缚态而无需增大光量子阱结构的尺寸,使信道密度最大化、光波有效带宽的使用最优化.这种量子阱结构可用于制作超窄带滤波器和多通道窄带滤波器,有望在光通信超密集波分复用和光学精密测量技术中获得广泛应用. 关键词： 光量子阱 光子束缚态 渐变折射率 光子晶体     

Self-error-rejecting photonic qubit transmission in polarization-spatial modes with linear optical elements

We present an original self-error-rejecting photonic qubit transmission scheme for both the polarization and spatial states of photon systems transmitted over collective noise channels. In our scheme, we use simple linear-optical elements, including half-wave plates, 50:50 beam splitters, and polarization beam splitters, to convert spatial-polarization modes into different time bins. By using postselection in different time bins, the success probability of obtaining the uncorrupted states approaches 1/4 for single-photon transmission, which is not influenced by the coefficients of noisy channels. Our self-error-rejecting transmission scheme can be generalized to hyperentangled n-photon systems and is useful in practical high-capacity quantum communications with photon systems in two degrees of freedom.     

Modulational and filamentational instabilities of intense photon pulses and their dynamics in a photon gas

It is shown that an intense photon pulse interacting nonlinearly with sound waves in a photon gas is subjected to modulational and filamentational instabilities. Starting from a new set of coupled equations governing nonlinear photon-photon interactions, we derive a dispersion relation which depicts the temporal and spatial amplification rates of the modulational and filamentational instabilities. The long term behavior of the modulationally unstable waves renders collapse of a photon beam as well as the formation of cylindrically symmetric photonic solitons. The results can have relevance to the understanding of the nonlinear photonic pulse propagation in astrophysical environments as well as in forthcoming intense laser-matter interaction experiments.     

The parity operator in quantum optical metrology

Photon number states are assigned a parity of +1 if their photon number is even and a parity of ?1 if odd. The parity operator, which is minus one to the power of the photon number operator, is a Hermitian operator and thus a quantum mechanical observable although it has no classical analogue, the concept being meaningless in the context of classical light waves. In this paper we review work on the application of the parity operator to the problem of quantum metrology for the detection of small phase shifts with quantum optical interferometry using highly entangled field states such as the so-called N00N states, and states obtained by injecting twin Fock states into a beam splitter. With such states and with the performance of parity measurements on one of the output beams of the interferometer, one can breach the standard quantum limit, or shot-noise limit, of sensitivity down to the Heisenberg limit, the greatest degree of phase sensitivity allowed by quantum mechanics for linear phase shifts. Heisenberg limit sensitivities are expected to eventually play an important role in attempts to detect gravitational waves in interferometric detection systems such as LIGO and VIRGO.     

光子晶体在半导体激光器中的应用

激光的发明，将人类带入光通信、光存储、光显示的高科技文明中，随着高科技的不断发展、进步和应用范围的不断扩大，对激光的要求更高，例如低阈值、高效率、高亮度、高速、小体积、好的模式特性等，这些要求在现有的传统激光器理论及技术中是难以达到的。但是当人们将光子晶体的理论与现有激光物理和技术相结合时，则有望突破传统激光器的性能瓶颈。例如，提高自发辐射速率，同时获得更高的自发辐射向受激辐射的耦合效率，实现激光器的无阈值工作；利用光子晶体对光子态的调制作用，可以获得比传统激光器大几个数量级的光学腔品质因子，大幅度提高激光的亮度、单色性；结合光子晶体微腔及其显著增加的光学腔品质因子，可以提高激光器的调制速率等，因此，人们预期光子晶体科学与技术将成为未来光电子领域发展的核心之一。文章介绍了光子晶体在半导体激光器中的应用，指出光子晶体科学技术引入发展了几十年的半导体激光器中，使半导体激光器展现出更加优异的性能。最后文章作者展望了光子晶体激光器的未来发展和应用的方向。     

Parity states in the one-atom maser

An experiment to determine the parity of the photon field of one privileged mode in a high-Q resonator is proposed. Even parity indicates that the photon number equals zero, two, four or any other even integer; likewise, odd parity states are mixtures of states with any odd number of photons. The parity measurement can be performed while the resonator is pumped as in standard one-atom maser operation. The time dependence of the parity expectation value is studied theoretically, and we suggest its experimental verification, which would serve as a test of the standard models describing both the relaxation of the cavity field toward thermal equilibrium and the pumping process. The connection between parity expectation values and Wigner's phase space function is recalled; the central value of the Wigner function equals twice the mean parity and it is, therefore, a measurable quantity.     

Photonic EPR State from Quadratic Waveguide Array with Alternating Positive and Negative Couplings

We propose the generation of photonic EPR state from quadratic waveguide array. Both the propagation constant and the nonlinearity in the array are designed to possess a periodical modulation along the propagation direction.This ensures that the photon pairs can be generated efficiently through the quasi-phase-matching spontaneous parametric down conversion by holding the spatial EPR entanglement in the fashion of correlated position and anticorrelated momentum. The Schmidt number which denotes the degree of EPR entanglement is calculated and it can approach a high value when the number of illuminated waveguide channels and the length of the waveguide array are properly chosen. These results suggest the quadratic waveguide array as a compact platform for engineering photonic quantum states in a high-dimensional Hilbert space.     

On‐demand photonic crystal resonators

Recent progress in the field of re‐locatable photonic crystal resonators is discussed with a particular emphasis on the flexible scheme that employs highly‐curved microfiber. In this scheme a spectrally‐tunable high‐quality‐factor resonator can be defined repeatedly by physically moving a curved microfiber to a new position. When a curved microfiber is placed on top of a photonic crystal waveguide (or photonic crystal), a photonic well is newly created in the vicinity of the contact point. Inside of this photonic well, high‐quality‐factor resonant modes are generated at frequencies below the cutoff edge of the guided mode. The tapered microfiber is an integral part of a single mode optical fiber and efficient out‐coupling is naturally obtained. The sub‐nanometer spectral tuning capability that is available by changing the curvature of the microfiber is also an important characteristic and discussed. This spectrally‐ and spatially‐reconfigurable photonic crystal resonator is expected to be a potential platform for photonic crystal based single photon sources, which enables accurate spatial overlap and spectral overlap with a single quantum dot, together with straightforward photon out‐coupling to the fiber with high efficiency.     

Unidirectional and wavelength-selective photonic sphere-array nanoantennas

We design a photonic sphere-array nanoantenna (NA) exhibiting both strong directionality and wavelength selectivity. Although the geometric configuration of the photonic NA resembles a plasmonic Yagi-Uda NA, it has different working principles and, most importantly, reduces the inherent metallic loss from plasmonic elements. For any selected optical wavelength, a sharp Fano resonance by the reflector is tunable to overlap spectrally with a wider dipole resonance by the sphere-chain director, leading to high directionality. This Letter provides design principles for directional and selective photonic NAs, which are particularly useful for photon detection and spontaneous emission manipulation.     

One Step to Generate Cluster States Using Dipole-Induced Transparency in a Cavity-Waveguide System

We present a very simple scheme for generating four-qubit cluster states with one step using parity measurement based on dipole-induced transparency in a cavity-waveguide system. The scheme only uses the photon detectors to check the parity of the spatially separated dipole, which are the same (even parity) or different (odd parity) through measuring the light fields in the waveguide. The initial entangled states remain after nondetective identification and they can be used for successive tasks.