Chirped-pulse interferometry with finite frequency correlations

Chirped-pulse interferometry is a new interferometric technique encapsulating the advantages of the quantum Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer without the drawbacks of using entangled photons. Both interferometers can exhibit even-order dispersion cancellation which allows high resolution optical delay measurements even in thick optical samples. In the present work, we show that finite frequency correlations in chirped-pulse interferometry and Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometry limit the degree of dispersion cancellation. Our results are important considerations in designing practical devices based on these technologies.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure

Discriminating single-photon states unambiguously in high dimensions

The ability to uniquely identify a quantum state is integral to quantum science, but for non-orthogonal states, quantum mechanics precludes deterministic, error-free discrimination. However, using the non-deterministic protocol of unambiguous state discrimination (USD) enables error-free differentiation of states, at the cost of a lower frequency of success. We discriminate experimentally between non-orthogonal, high-dimensional states encoded in single photons; our results range from dimension $d=2$ to $d=14$. We quantify the performance of our method by comparing the total measured error rate to the theoretical rate predicted by minimum-error state discrimination. For the chosen states, we find a lower error rate by more than one standard deviation for dimensions up to $d=12$. This method will find immediate application in high-dimensional implementations of quantum information protocols, such as quantum cryptography.Comment: 4 pages + 3 pages supplementary, 4 figure

Experimental bound entanglement in a four-photon state

Entanglement [1, 2] enables powerful new quantum technologies [3-8], but in real-world implementations, entangled states are often subject to decoherence and preparation errors. Entanglement distillation [9, 10] can often counteract these effects by converting imperfectly entangled states into a smaller number of maximally entangled states. States that are entangled but cannot be distilled are called bound entangled [11]. Bound entanglement is central to many exciting theoretical results in quantum information processing [12-14], but has thus far not been experimentally realized. A recent claim for experimental bound entanglement is not supported by their data [15]. Here, we consider a family of four-qubit Smolin states [16], focusing on a regime where the bound entanglement is experimentally robust. We encode the state into the polarization of four photons and show that our state exhibits both entanglement and undistillability, the two defining properties of bound entanglement. We then use our state to implement entanglement unlocking, a key feature of Smolin states [16].Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures. For a simultaneously submitted related work see arXiv:1005.196