1,409 research outputs found
Superpositions of the Orbital Angular Momentum for Applications in Quantum Experiments
Two different experimental techniques for preparation and analyzing
superpositions of the Gaussian and Laguerre-Gassian modes are presented. This
is done exploiting an interferometric method on the one hand and using computer
generated holograms on the other hand. It is shown that by shifting the
hologram with respect to an incoming Gaussian beam different superpositions of
the Gaussian and the Laguerre-Gaussian beam can be produced. An analytical
expression between the relative phase and the amplitudes of the modes and the
displacement of the hologram is given. The application of such orbital angular
momenta superpositions in quantum experiments such as quantum cryptography is
discussed.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures. to appear in Journal of Optics
Angular Schmidt Modes in Spontaneous Parametric Down-Conversion
We report a proof-of-principle experiment demonstrating that appropriately
chosen set of Hermite-Gaussian modes constitutes a Schmidt decomposition for
transverse momentum states of biphotons generated in the process of spontaneous
parametric down conversion. We experimentally realize projective measurements
in Schmidt basis and observe correlations between appropriate pairs of modes.
We perform tomographical state reconstruction in the Schmidt basis, by direct
measurement of single-photon density matrix eigenvalues.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Triggered qutrits for Quantum Communication protocols
A general protocol in Quantum Information and Communication relies in the
ability of producing, transmitting and reconstructing, in general, qunits. In
this letter we show for the first time the experimental implementation of these
three basic steps on a pure state in a three dimensional space, by means of the
orbital angular momentum of the photons. The reconstruction of the qutrit is
performed with tomographic techniques and a Maximum-Likelihood estimation
method. In this way we also demonstrate that we can perform any transformation
in the three dimensional space
Quantized Rotation of Atoms From Photons with Orbital Angular Momentum
We demonstrate the coherent transfer of the orbital angular momentum of a
photon to an atom in quantized units of hbar, using a 2-photon stimulated Raman
process with Laguerre-Gaussian beams to generate an atomic vortex state in a
Bose-Einstein condensate of sodium atoms. We show that the process is coherent
by creating superpositions of different vortex states, where the relative phase
between the states is determined by the relative phases of the optical fields.
Furthermore, we create vortices of charge 2 by transferring to each atom the
orbital angular momentum of two photons.Comment: New version, 4 pages and 3 figures, accepted for publication in
Physical Review Letter
Quantum key distribution over 30km of standard fiber using energy-time entangled photon pairs: a comparison of two chromatic dispersion reduction methods
We present a full implementation of a quantum key distribution system using
energy-time entangled photon pairs and functioning with a 30km standard telecom
fiber quantum channel. Two bases of two orthogonal states are implemented and
the setup is quite robust to environmental constraints such as temperature
variation. Two different ways to manage chromatic dispersion in the quantum
channel are discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure
Direct detection of a single photon by humans
Despite investigations for over 70 years, the absolute limits of human vision have remained unclear. Rod cells respond to individual photons, yet whether a single-photon incident on the eye can be perceived by a human subject has remained a fundamental open question. Here we report that humans can detect a single-photon incident on the cornea with a probability significantly above chance. This was achieved by implementing a combination of a psychophysics procedure with a quantum light source that can generate single-photon states of light. We further discover that the probability of reporting a single photon is modulated by the presence of an earlier photon, suggesting a priming process that temporarily enhances the effective gain of the visual system on the timescale of seconds
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