Quantum interference with photon pairs created in spatially separated sources

We report on a quantum interference experiment to probe the coherence between two photons coming from non degenerate photon pairs at telecom wavelength created in spatially separated sources. The two photons are mixed on a beam splitter and we observe a reduction of up to 84% in the coincidence count rate when the photons are made indistinguishable. This experiment constitutes an important step towards the realization of quantum teleportation and entanglement swapping with independent sources.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, changes according to referee's comments, discussions partly rewritte

Polarization Entangled W State using Parametric Down-Conversion

An experimental scheme for preparing a polarization entangled W states from four photons emitted by parametric down-conversion is proposed. We consider two different configurations and a method of improving the yield by using single photon sources. In the proposed scheme, one uses only linear optical elements and photon detectors, so that this scheme is feasible by current technologies.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure