arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to A. Aiello.
We present a general theoretical method to generate maximally entangled mixed states of a pair of photons initially prepared in the singlet polarization state. This method requires only local operations upon a single photon of the pair and exploits spatial degrees of freedom to induce decoherence. We report also experimental confirmation of these theoretical results.
We report experimental results on mixed-state generation by multiple scattering of polarization-entangled photon pairs created from parametric down-conversion. By using a large variety of scattering optical systems we have experimentally obtained entangled mixed states that lie upon and below the Werner curve in the linear entropy-tangle plane. We have also introduced a simple phenomenological model built on the analogy between classical polarization optics and quantum maps. Theoretical predictions from such model are in full agreement with our experimental findings.
We present a theoretical analysis of the connection between classical polarization optics and quantum mechanics of two-level systems. First, we review the matrix formalism of classical polarization optics from a quantum information perspective. In this manner the passage from the Stokes-Jones-Mueller description of classical optical processes to the representation of one- and two-qubit quantum operations, becomes straightforward. Second, as a practical application of our classical-\emph{vs}-quantum formalism, we show how two-qubit maximally entangled mixed states (MEMS), can be generated by using polarization and spatial modes of photons generated via spontaneous parametric down conversion.
We show that it is possible to achieve maximally entangled mixed states of two qubits from the singlet state via the action of local non-trace-preserving quantum channels. Moreover, we present a simple, feasible linear optical implementation of one of such channels.
We give a self-contained exposition of some mathematical aspects of the Mueller-Stokes formalism. In the first part we review some basic notions of linear algebra and establish a proper notation. In the second part we introduce the Mueller-Stokes formalism and derive some useful mathematical relation between physical quantities. Finally a useful decomposition theorem is reviewed.
We introduce a generalized angular spectrum representation for quantized light beams. By using our formalism, we are able to derive simple expressions for the electromagnetic vector potential operator in the case of: {a)} time-independent paraxial fields, {b)} time-dependent paraxial fields, and {c)} non-paraxial fields. For the first case, the well known paraxial results are fully recovered.
We show that the method of maximum-likelihood estimation, recently introduced in the context of quantum process tomography, can be applied to the determination of Mueller matrices characterizing the polarization properties of classical optical systems. Contrary to linear reconstruction algorithms, the proposed method yields physically acceptable Mueller matrices even in presence of uncontrolled experimental errors. We illustrate the method on the case of an unphysical measured Mueller matrix taken from the literature.
We propose an interferometric method to investigate the non-locality of high-dimensional two-photon orbital angular momentum states generated by spontaneous parametric down conversion. We incorporate two half-integer spiral phase plates and a variable-reflectivity output beam splitter into a Mach-Zehnder interferometer to build an orbital angular momentum analyzer. This setup enables testing the non-locality of high-dimensional two-photon states by repeated use of the Clauser-Horne inequality.
The singular nature of a non-integer spiral phase plate allows easy manipulation of spatial degrees of freedom of photon states. Using two such devices, we have observed very high dimensional (D > 3700) spatial entanglement of twin photons generated by spontaneous parametric down-conversion.
We review a few useful concepts about polarization measurements in the quantum domain. Using a perfectly general formalism, we show how to build the quantum counterpart of some classical quantities like Stokes parameters and Mueller matrices, which are well known in classical polarization-measurement theory.
A non-perturbative quantization of a paraxial electromagnetic field is achieved via a generalized dispersion relation imposed on the longitudinal and the transverse components of the photon wave vector. The theoretical formalism yields a seamless transition between the paraxial- and the Maxwell-equation solutions. This obviates the need to introduce either "ad hoc" or perturbatively-defined field operators. In the limit of narrow beam-like fields, the theory is in agreement with approximated quantization schemes provided by other authors.
We analyze an experimental setup in which a quasi-monochromatic spatially coherent beam of light is used to probe a paraxial optical scatterer. We discuss the effect of the spatial coherence of the probe beam on the Mueller matrix representing the scatterer. We show that according to the degree of spatial coherence of the beam, the \emph{same} scattering system can be represented by \emph{different} Mueller matrices. This result should serve as a warning for experimentalists.
We propose a novel setup to investigate the quantum non-locality of orbital angular momentum states living in a high-dimensional Hilbert space. We incorporate non-integer spiral phase plates in spatial analyzers, enabling us to use only two detectors. The resulting setup is somewhat reminiscent of that used to measure polarization entanglement. However, the two-photon states that are produced, are not confined to a 2X2-dimensional Hilbert space, and the setup allows the probing of correlations in a high-dimensional space. For the special case of half-integer spiral phase plates, we predict a violation of the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt version of the Bell inequality (S<=2), that is even stronger than achievable for two qubits (S=2*(2^1/2)), namely S=16/5
Relations between photon scattering, entanglement and multi-mode detection are investigated. We first establish a general framework in which one- and two-photon elastic scattering processes can be discussed, then we focus on the study of the intrinsic entanglement degradation caused by a multi-mode detection. We show that any multi-mode scattered state cannot maximally violate the Bell-CHSH inequality because of the momentum spread. The results presented here have general validity and can be applied to both deterministic and random scattering processes.
We present a theoretical study of multi-mode scattering of light by optically random media, using the Mueller-Stokes formalism which permits to encode all the polarization properties of the scattering medium in a real $4 \times 4$ matrix. From this matrix two relevant parameters can be extracted: the depolarizing power $D_M$ and the polarization entropy $E_M$ of the scattering medium. By studying the relation between $E_M$ and $D_M$, we find that {\em all} scattering media must satisfy some {\em universal} constraints. These constraints apply to both classical and quantum scattering processes. The results obtained here may be especially relevant for quantum communication applications, where depolarization is synonymous with decoherence.
We present a formal wave theory for the calculation of the spectrum and the eigenmodes for a certain class of ray-chaotic optical cavities introduced by A. Aiello, M. P. van Exter, and J. P. Woerdman [quant-ph/0307119].
We investigate the ray dynamics in an optical cavity when a ray splitting mechanism is present. The cavity is a conventional two-mirror stable resonator and the ray splitting is achieved by inserting an optical beam splitter perpendicular to the cavity axis. Using Hamiltonian optics, we show that such a simple device presents a surprisingly rich chaotic ray dynamics.
We present a numerical investigation of the ray dynamics in a paraxial optical cavity when a ray splitting mechanism is present. The cavity is a conventional two-mirror stable resonator and the ray splitting is achieved by inserting an optical beam splitter perpendicular to the cavity axis. We show that depending on the position of the beam splitter the optical resonator can become unstable and the ray dynamics displays a positive Lyapunov exponent.