The Schmidt modes of biphoton qutrits: Poincare-sphere representation

For a general-form polarization biphoton qutrit, physically corresponding to a pair of arbitrarily polarized photons in a single frequency and wavevector mode, we explicitly find polarization Schmidt modes. A simple method is suggested for factorizing the state vector and the explicit expressions for the factorizing photon creation operators are found. The degrees of entanglement and polarization of a qutrit are shown to depend directly on the commutation features of the factorizing operators. Clear graphic representations for the Stokes vectors of the qutrit state as a whole, its Schmidt modes, and factorizing single-photon creation operators are given, based on the Poincar\'e sphere. An experimental scheme is proposed for measuring the parameters of the Schmidt decomposition as well as for demonstrating the operational meaning of qutrit entanglement.Comment: 20 pages, 3 figure

Accessing higher order correlations by time-multiplexing

We experimentally measured higher order normalized correlation functions (nCF) of pulsed light with a time-multiplexing-detector. We demonstrate excellent performance of our device by verifying unity valued nCF up to the eighth order for coherent light, and factorial dependence of the nCF for pseudothermal light. We applied our measurement technique to a type-II parametric downconversion source to investigate mutual two-mode correlation properties and ascertain nonclassicality.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Testing Ultrafast Two-Photon Spectral Amplitudes via Optical Fibres

We test two-dimensional TPSA of biphoton light emitted via ultrafast spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) using the effect of group-velocity dispersion in optical fibres. Further, we apply this technique to demonstrate the engineering of biphoton spectral properties by acting on the pump pulse shape

Effects of anisotropy in a nonlinear crystal for squeezed vacuum generation

Squeezed vacuum (SV) can be obtained by an optical parametric amplifier (OPA) with the quantum vacuum state at the input. We are interested in a degenerate type-I OPA based on parametric down-conversion (PDC) where due to phase matching requirements, an extraordinary polarized pump must impinge onto a birefringent crystal with a large \chi(2) nonlinearity. As a consequence of the optical anisotropy of the medium, the direction of propagation of the pump wavevector does not coincide with the direction of propagation of its energy, an effect known as transverse walk-off. For certain pump sizes and crystal lengths, the transverse walk-off has a strong influence on the spatial spectrum of the generated radiation, which in turn affects the outcome of any experiment in which this radiation is employed. In this work we propose a method that reduces the distortions of the two-photon amplitude (TPA) of the states considered, by using at least two consecutive crystals instead of one. We show that after anisotropy compensation the TPA becomes symmetric, allowing for a simple Schmidt expansion, a procedure that in practice requires states that come from experimental systems free of anisotropy effects

Bright squeezed vacuum in a nonlinear interferometer: frequency/temporal Schmidt-mode description

Control over the spectral properties of the bright squeezed vacuum (BSV), a highly multimode non-classical macroscopic state of light that can be generated through high-gain parametric down conversion, is crucial for many applications. In particular, in several recent experiments BSV is generated in a strongly pumped SU(1,1) interferometer to achieve phase supersensitivity, perform broadband homodyne detection, or tailor the frequency spectrum of squeezed light. In this work, we present an analytical approach to the theoretical description of BSV in the frequency domain based on the Bloch-Messiah reduction and the Schmidt-mode formalism. As a special case we consider a strongly pumped SU(1,1) interferometer. We show that different moments of the radiation at its output depend on the phase, dispersion and the parametric gain in a nontrivial way, thereby providing additional insights on the capabilities of nonlinear interferometers. In particular, a dramatic change in the spectrum occurs as the parametric gain increases