Demonstration of an optical quantum controlled-NOT gate without path interference

We report the first experimental demonstration of an optical quantum controlled-NOT gate without any path interference, where the two interacting path interferometers of the original proposals (Phys. Rev. A {\bf 66}, 024308 (2001), Phys. Rev. A {\bf 65}, 012314 (2002)) have been replaced by three partially polarizing beam splitters with suitable polarization dependent transmittances and reflectances. The performance of the device is evaluated using a recently proposed method (Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 94}, 160504 (2005)), by which the quantum process fidelity and the entanglement capability can be estimated from the 32 measurement results of two classical truth tables, significantly less than the 256 measurement results required for full quantum tomography.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Beating the Standard Quantum Limit with Four Entangled Photons

Precision measurements are important across all fields of science. In particular, optical phase measurements can be used to measure distance, position, displacement, acceleration and optical path length. Quantum entanglement enables higher precision than would otherwise be possible. We demonstrate an optical phase measurement with an entangled four photon interference visibility greater than the threshold to beat the standard quantum limit--the limit attainable without entanglement. These results open the way for new high-precision measurement applications.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures Author name was slightly modifie

Distinguishing genuine entangled two-photon-polarization states from independently generated pairs of entangled photons

A scheme to distinguish entangled two-photon-polarization states (ETP) from two independent entangled one-photon-polarization states (EOP) is proposed. Using this scheme, the experimental generation of ETP by parametric down-conversion is confirmed through the anti-correlations between three orthogonal two-photon-polarization states. The estimated fraction of ETP among the correlated photon pairs is 37% in the present experimental setup.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure