A wave-particle delayed-choice experiment with a single-photon state

We perform a new wave-particle delayed-choice experiment which uses photon pairs produced by parametric fluorescence. One of the photons of a pair serves as a trigger photon, the other one traverses a Mach-Zehnder ring interferometer. The trigger photon switches the interferometer between registration of either pathway information or phase information for the second photon. The result turns out to be independent of whether the switching process takes place before or after the photon passes the first beamsplitter of the interferometer.     

Nonlocal pulse shaping with entangled photon pairs

Nonlocal shaping effects in the time or spectral profiles of an entangled photon pair emerging from a pulsed parametric down-converter are observed by spectrally or temporally filtering one of the twin beams. In particular, we demonstrate the appearance of fourth-order ("ghost") interference fringes in the spectrum of one beam conditioned by photodetection at the output of an unbalanced Michelson interferometer placed in the path of the other beam. The coherence time of the pump is the limiting factor for the sharpness of the details in the shaped biphoton spectrum.     

Quantum Nonlocality of Photon Pairs in Interference in a Mach-Zehnder Interferometer

Nonlocal character of entangled photon pairs generated in spontaneous parametric downconversion is demonstrated. One photon from a pair propagates through a Mach-Zehnder interferometer and is detected in coincidence-count measurement with its twin. Width of the coincidence-count interference pattern (measured for various values of path difference in the Mach-Zehnder interferometer) depends on spectral width of the twin as a result of entanglement of photons in a pair. The experimental setup is analyzed for a Gaussian spectral filter and a Fabry-Perot resonator. It is shown that nonlocal interference is much stronger for cw pumping in comparison with femtosecond pulsed pumping for values of parameters commonly used in spontaneous parametric downconversion experiments.     

Passively stabilized single-photon interferometer

A single-photon interferometer is a fundamental element in quantum information science. In most previously reported works, single-photon interferometers use an active feedback locking system to stabilize the relative phase between two arms of the interferometer. Here, we use a pair of beam displacers to construct a passively stable single-photon interferometer. The relative phase stabilization between the two arms is achieved by stabilizing the temperature of the beam displacers. A purely polarized single-photon-level pulse is directed into the interferometer input port. By analyzing and measuring the polarization states of the single-photon pulse at the output port, the achieved polarization fidelity of the interferometer is about 99.1 ±0.1%. Our passively stabilized single-photon interferometer provides a key element for generating high-fidelity entanglement between a photon and atomic memory.     

Preservation of photon indistinguishability after transmission through surface-plasmon-polariton waveguide

We experimentally demonstrated preservation of indistinguishability between two photons via mode conversions, namely, photon-to-plasmon and plasmon-to-photon conversions. A two-photon interference experiment was carried out using a broadband photon pair generated through a spontaneous parametric downconversion process. We observed the so-called Hong-Ou-Mandel dip with an interferometer including a 1-mm-long surface-plasmon-polariton (SPP) waveguide. The photon indistinguishability of 92.4% was retained after propagation in the SPP waveguide.     

Two-order Interference of Single Photon

A pair of photons called signal and idler photons, respectively, are produced through the nonlinear process of type-I spontaneous parametric downconversion in BBO crystal pumped by the second-harmonic wave of a Ti:sapphire femtosecond laser pulse. The two-order interference phenomenon of the signal photon in Michelson interferometer is observed and give an analysis in detail.     

Two-order Interference of Single Photon

1　Ｉｎｔｒｏｄｕｃｔｉｏｎ　　Ｉｎｑｕａｎｔｕｍｃｏｍｍｕｎｉｃａｔｉｏｎａｎｄｑｕａｎｔｕｍｃｏｍｐｕｔｉｏｎ ,ｔｗｏ ｓｔａｔｅｓｙｓｔｅｍｓｈａｖｅｂｅｅｎｕｓｅｄｔｏｅｎｃｏｄｅａｑｕａｎｔｕｍｂｉｔｉｎｆｏｒｍａｔｉｏｎａｎｄｗｅｔｒａｄｉｔｉｏｎａｌｌｙｒｅｐｒｅｓｅｎｔｔｈｅｔｗｏｑｕａｎｔｕｍｓｔａｔｅｓｂｙ 0〉ａｎｄ 1〉 ,ｒｅｓｐｅｃｔｉｖｅｌｙ .Ａ ｑｕａｎｔｕｍｂｉｔｃａｎｂｅｒｅｐｒｅｓｅｎｔｅｄｂｙａｓｉｎｇｌｅ ｐａｒｔｉｃｌｅｓｙｓｔｅｍ ,ａｎｄｔｗｏｑｕａｎｔｕｍｂ…     

Four entangled photons generation using weak light and an all fiber optic scheme for multi-entangled photons generation

This paper proposes a simple scheme of four entangled photons generation using a pulse of weak light input into a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) incorporating a fiber optic ring resonator (FORR) without any optical pumping components included in the system. After a pair of entangled photon has been generated by a four-wave mixing of weak light pulse in the FORR [P.P. Yupapin, S. Suchat, Entangled photon generation using fiber optic Mach-Zehnder interferometer incorporating the nonlinear effect in a fiber ring resonator, Journal of Nanophotonics (JNP) 1 (2007) 013504], four and eight entangled photons can be performed. In application, the multi-entangled states can be formed using the appropriated coupling ratios into a fiber coupler. The effect of the entangled state walk-off along the optical fiber is discussed.     

Quantum multiparameter estimation with multi-mode photon catalysis entangled squeezed state

We propose a method to generate the multi-mode entangled catalysis squeezed vacuum states (MECSVS) by embedding the cross-Kerr nonlinear medium into the Mach−Zehnder interferometer. This method realizes the exchange of quantum states between different modes based on Fredkin gate. In addition, we study the MECSVS as the probe state of multi-arm optical interferometer to realize multi-phase simultaneous estimation. The results show that the quantum Cramer−Rao bound (QCRB) of phase estimation can be improved by increasing the number of catalytic photons or decreasing the transmissivity of the optical beam splitter using for photon catalysis. In addition, we also show that even if there is photon loss, the QCRB of our photon catalysis scheme is lower than that of the ideal entangled squeezed vacuum states (ESVS), which shows that by performing the photon catalytic operation is more robust against photon loss than that without the catalytic operation. The results here can find applications in quantum metrology for multiparatmeter estimation.     

Fiber optic sensing applications using the entangled states walk-off compensations

This paper presents a new concept of the measurement of the entangled photon states timing walk-off in fiber optic systems. The relationship between the applied physical parameter on fiber optic and timing walk-off compensation can be performed. When polarized light pulse propagates into a fiber optic length, a pair of the entangled photons introduces the change in phase difference, i.e. birefringence, which can be recovered and detected. The potential of use in applications such as quantum interferometer and fiber optic remote sensing is proposed and described. The increase in measurement resolution in terms of the entangled photon walk-off length is analyzed and discussed.     

Failure of a proposed superluminal scheme

We consider a “superluminal quantum Morse telegraph”, recently proposed by Garuccio, involving a polarization-correlated photon pair and a Michelson interferometer in which one of the mirrors is replaced by a phase-conjugating mirror (PCM). Superluminal information transfer in this scheme is precluded by the impossibility of distinguishing between unpolarized photons prepared by mixing linear polarization states or by mixing circular polarization states.     

Differential-phase quantum key distribution experiment using a series of quantum entangled photon pairs

We report what we believe to be the first differential-phase quantum key distribution experiment using a series of quantum entangled photon pairs. We employed two outstanding techniques. As an entangled photon source, we used a 1.5 microm band entangled photon pair source based on spontaneous four-wave mixing in a cooled dispersion-shifted fiber. As receivers, photon pairs were actively phase modulated with LiNbO3 phase modulators followed by very stable planar light-wave circuit Mach-Zehnder interferometers, which provided two nonorthogonal measurements. As a consequence, we successfully generated sifted keys with a quantum bit error rate of 8.3% and a key generation rate of 0.3 bit/s and revealed the feasibility of this QKD scheme.     

Unsharp particle-wave duality in a photon split-beam experiment

In a quantum mechanical two-slit experiment one can observe a single photon simultaneously as particle (measuring the path) and as wave (measuring the interference pattern) if the path and the interference pattern are measured in the sense of unsharp observables. These theoretical predictions are confirmed experimentally by a photon split-beam experiment using a modified Mach—Zehnder interferometer.     

Two narrow bandwidth photons interfering in an electromagnetically induced transparency （EIT） system

In this paper, we have analysed in detail the quantum interference of the degenerate narrowband two-photon state by using a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, in which an electromagnetically induced transparency （EIT） medium is placed in one of two interfering beams. Our results clearly show that it is possible to coherently keep the quantum state at a single photon level in the EIT process, especially when the transparent window of the EIT medium is much larger than the bandwidth of the single photon. This shows that the EIT medium is possibly a kind of memory or repeater for the narrowband photons in the areas of quantum communication and quantum computer. This kind of experiment is feasible within the current technology.     

Multiple exciton generation in semiconductor nanocrystals: Toward efficient solar energy conversion

Within the range of photon energies illuminating the Earth's surface, absorption of a photon by a conventional photovoltaic semiconductor device results in the production of a single electron‐hole pair; energy of a photon in excess of the semiconductor's bandgap is efficiently converted to heat through interactions between the electron and hole with the crystal lattice. Recently, colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals and nanocrystal films have been shown to exhibit efficient multiple electron‐hole pair generation from a single photon with energy greater than twice the effective band gap. This multiple carrier pair process, referred to as multiple exciton generation (MEG), represents one route to reducing the thermal loss in semiconductor solar cells and may lead to the development of low cost, high efficiency solar energy devices. We review the current experimental and theoretical understanding of MEG, and provide views to the near‐term future for both fundamental research and the development of working devices which exploit MEG.     

Bragg grating recording in low-defect optical fibers using ultraviolet femtosecond radiation and a double-phase mask interferometer

The fabrication of Bragg reflectors in fluorine depressed cladding silicate glass and SMF-28 fibers by employing a double-phase mask interferometer and 248 nm, 500 fs laser radiation is demonstrated here. The maximum refractive index changes obtained were of the order of 6 x 10(-4) for pulse intensities of 220 GW/cm(2) and accumulated energy densities of 3.5 kJ/cm(2). The Bragg gratings fabricated in the F-doped fiber endured temperatures greater than 700 degrees C, while those inscribed in the standard telecom fiber demarcated at 900 degrees C. The experimental results presented depict that the combination of the two phase mask interferometer and the 248 nm photon at sub-TW/cm(2) intensities constitute an efficient route in the fabrication of Bragg gratings in low-defect silicate glass optical fibers.     

Multichannel polarization-entangled photonpair source for entanglement distribution

A multichannel polarization-entangled photon-pair source in an Mg O-doped periodically poled lithium niobate(Mg O:PPLN) waveguide is proposed. Based on type I quasi-phase-matched spontaneous parametric down conversion in a single Mg O: PPLN waveguide placed inside a Sagnac interferometer and pumped by monochromatic light, a source capable of supporting tens to hundreds of channels of polarization-entangled photon pairs in fiber communication bands simultaneously can be achieved. An inherent channel switch of this source is investigated,which will be significant for future entanglement distribution networks.     

Experimental Realization of Popper's Experiment: Violation of the Uncertainty Principle?

An entangled pair of photons (1 and 2) are emitted in opposite directions. A narrow slit is placed in the path of photon 1 to provide the precise knowledge of its position on the y-axis and this also determines the precise y-position of its twin, photon 2, due to quantum entanglement. Is photon 2 going to experience a greater uncertainty in momentum, that is, a greater Δp_y because of the precise knowledge of its position y? The experimental data show Δy Δ p_y < h for photon 2. Can this recent realization of the thought experiment of Karl Popper signal a violation of the uncertainty principle?     

A phase sensitive optical rotation measurement in a scattered chiral medium using a Zeeman laser

A novel circular polarized optical heterodyne interferometer using a Zeeman laser to measure optical rotation both in nonscattered and scattered chiral medium is proposed. A pair of correlated orthogonal circular polarized light waves of different temporal frequency propagating in the chiral medium at different speed is studied. This results in phase retardation between circular polarized light waves of which the phase difference is proportional to the optical rotation angle of a linear polarized light in a chiral medium. In the mean time, two orthogonal circular polarized light waves can be treated as a circular polarized photon pair that is able to reduce the scattering effect in a scattered chiral medium. Then the optical rotation angle can be measured in the scattering medium. In addition, a common-path configuration with respect to circular polarized light waves immune the background noise. This further improves the sensitivity on optical rotation measurement based on phase difference detection.     

Wavelength shift determination using a dual-path heterodyne Mach-Zehnder interferometer

This paper introduces a dual-path heterodyne Mach-Zehnder interferometer adopted for wavelength shift determinations. In this interferometer, two parallel incident beams are separated into two interference pairs which are then recombined to generate two interference signals. A parallel plate is placed on the path of one wave of an interference pair, so the phase difference of the interference signals is a function of the plate and beam wavelength, and the interferometer is thus able to determine the wavelength shift of the incident beam. A setup constructed to realize the proposed interferometer is described, it shows that the interferometer has a resolution up to 1.1 × 10⁻¹⁰ (λ²/nm), and the experimental results of applying this setup not only agree the validity of the interferometer but also indicate that the interferometer has a stability of 6.5 × 10⁻¹⁰ (λ²/nm).