8,237 research outputs found
Efficient separation of the orbital angular momentum eigenstates of light
Orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light is an attractive degree of freedom
for funda- mentals studies in quantum mechanics. In addition, the discrete
unbounded state-space of OAM has been used to enhance classical and quantum
communications. Unambiguous mea- surement of OAM is a key part of all such
experiments. However, state-of-the-art methods for separating single photons
carrying a large number of different OAM values are limited to a theoretical
separation efficiency of about 77 percent. Here we demonstrate a method which
uses a series of unitary optical transformations to enable the measurement of
lights OAM with an experimental separation efficiency of more than 92 percent.
Further, we demonstrate the separation of modes in the angular position basis,
which is mutually unbiased with respect to the OAM basis. The high degree of
certainty achieved by our method makes it particu- larly attractive for
enhancing the information capacity of multi-level quantum cryptography systems
Orbital Angular Momentum Waves: Generation, Detection and Emerging Applications
Orbital angular momentum (OAM) has aroused a widespread interest in many
fields, especially in telecommunications due to its potential for unleashing
new capacity in the severely congested spectrum of commercial communication
systems. Beams carrying OAM have a helical phase front and a field strength
with a singularity along the axial center, which can be used for information
transmission, imaging and particle manipulation. The number of orthogonal OAM
modes in a single beam is theoretically infinite and each mode is an element of
a complete orthogonal basis that can be employed for multiplexing different
signals, thus greatly improving the spectrum efficiency. In this paper, we
comprehensively summarize and compare the methods for generation and detection
of optical OAM, radio OAM and acoustic OAM. Then, we represent the applications
and technical challenges of OAM in communications, including free-space optical
communications, optical fiber communications, radio communications and acoustic
communications. To complete our survey, we also discuss the state of art of
particle manipulation and target imaging with OAM beams
Quantum Sensors: Improved Optical Measurement via Specialized Quantum States
Classical measurement strategies in many areas are approaching their maximum
resolution and sensitivity levels, but these levels often still fall far short
of the ultimate limits allowed by the laws of physics. To go further,
strategies must be adopted that take into account the quantum nature of the
probe particles and that optimize their quantum states for the desired
application. Here, we review some of these approaches, in which quantum
entanglement, the orbital angular momentum of single photons, and quantum
interferometry are used to produce optical measurements beyond the classical
limit
Orbital Angular Momentum-based Space Division Multiplexing for High-capacity Underwater Optical Communications
To increase system capacity of underwater optical communications, we employ
the spatial domain to simultaneously transmit multiple orthogonal spatial
beams, each carrying an independent data channel. In this paper, we multiplex
and transmit four green orbital angular momentum (OAM) beams through a single
aperture. Moreover, we investigate the degrading effects of
scattering/turbidity, water current, and thermal gradient-induced turbulence,
and we find that thermal gradients cause the most distortions and turbidity
causes the most loss. We show systems results using two different data
generation techniques, one at 1064 nm for 10-Gbit/s/beam and one at 520 nm for
1-Gbit/s/beam, we use both techniques since present data-modulation
technologies are faster for infrared (IR) than for green. For the higher-rate
link, data is modulated in the IR, and OAM imprinting is performed in the green
using a specially-designed metasurface phase mask. For the lower rates, a green
laser diode is directly modulated. Finally, we show that inter-channel
crosstalk induced by thermal gradients can be mitigated using multi-channel
equalisation processing.Comment: 26 pages, 5 figure
Overcoming Noise in Entanglement Distribution
Noise can be considered the natural enemy of quantum information. An often
implied benefit of high-dimensional entanglement is its increased resilience to
noise. However, manifesting this potential in an experimentally meaningful
fashion is challenging and has never been done before. In infinite dimensional
spaces, discretisation is inevitable and renders the effective dimension of
quantum states a tunable parameter. Owing to advances in experimental
techniques and theoretical tools, we demonstrate an increased resistance to
noise by identifying two pathways to exploit high-dimensional entangled states.
Our study is based on two separate experiments utilising canonical
spatio-temporal properties of entangled photon pairs. Following these different
pathways to noise resilience, we are able to certify entanglement in the
photonic orbital-angular-momentum and energy-time degrees of freedom up to
noise conditions corresponding to a noise fraction of 72 % and 92 %
respectively. Our work paves the way towards practical quantum communication
systems that are able to surpass current noise and distance limitations, while
not compromising on potential device-independence.Comment: 12 pages main text, 7 pages supplementary information, 6 figure
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