Manipulating the Spatial Structure of Second-Order Quantum Coherence Using Entangled Photons

High-order quantum coherence reveals the statistical correlation of quantum particles. Manipulation of quantum coherence of light in the temporal domain enables the production of the single-photon source, which has become one of the most important quantum resources. High-order quantum coherence in the spatial domain plays a crucial role in a variety of applications, such as quantum imaging, holography, and microscopy. However, the active control of second-order spatial quantum coherence remains a challenging task. Here we predict theoretically and demonstrate experimentally the first active manipulation of second-order spatial quantum coherence,which exhibits the capability of switching between bunching and anti-bunching, by mapping the entanglement of spatially structured photons. We also show that signal processing based on quantum coherence exhibits robust resistance to intensity disturbance. Our findings not only enhance existing applications but also pave the way for broader utilization of higher-order spatial quantum coherence.

Asymptotical Locking Tomography of High-Dimensional Entanglement

High-dimensional(HD)entanglement provides a very promising way of transcending the limitations of the twodimensional entanglement between qubits for increasing channel capacity in many quantum protocols.In the pursuit of capitalizing on the HD entangled states,one of the central issues is to unambiguously and comprehensively quantilfy and reconstruct them.The full quantum state tomography is a unique solution,but it is undesirable and even impractical because the measurements increase rapidly in d^4 for a bipartite d-dimensional quantum state.Here we present a very efficient and practical tomography method—asymptotical locking tomography(ALT),which can harvest full information of bipartite d-dimensional entangled states by very few measurements less than 2 d^2 only.To showcase the validity and reasonableness of our ALT,we carry out the test with the two-photon spin-orbital angular momentum hyperentangled states in a four-dimensional subspace.Besides high-efficiency and practicality,our ALT is also universal and can be generalized into multipartite HD entanglement and other quantum systems.

Identifying the Symmetry of an Object Based on Orbital Angular Momentum through a Few-Mode Fiber

In recent years,orbital angular momentum(OAM),as a new usable degree of freedom of photons,has been widely applied in both classical optics and quantum optics.For example,digital spiral imaging uses the OAM spectrum of the output beam from the object to restore the symmetry information of the object.However,the related experiments have been carried out in free space so far.Due to the poor anti-noise performance,limited transmission distance and other reasons,the practicability is seriously restricted.Here,we have carried out a digital spiral imaging experiment through a few-mode fiber,to achieve the identification of the symmetry of object by measuring the OAM spectrum of the output beam.In experiment,we have demonstrated the identification of the symmetry of amplitude-only and phase-only objects with the two-,three-and four-fold rotational symmetries.We also give the understanding of the physics.We believe that our work has greatly improved the practical application of digital spiral imaging in remote sensing.

Two-Photon Interference Constructed by Two Hong–Ou–Mandel Effects in One Mach-Zehnder Interferometer

We present a two-photon interference experiment in a modified Mach-Zehnder （MZ） interferometer in which two Hong-Ou-Mandel effects occur in tandem and construct superposed two-photon states. The signal photons pass both the arms of the MZ interferometer while the idler photons pass one arm only. Interestingly, the probability of the idler photons emerging from any output port still shows a sine oscillation with the two-photon phase difference and it can be characterized only by the indistinguishability of the two-photon amplitudes. We also observe a two-photon interference pattern with a period being equal to the wavelength of the parametric photons instead of the two-photon photonie de Broglie wavelength due to the presence of two-photon phase difference, in particular, with complementary probabilities of finding the two-photon pairs in two output ports. The abundant observations can facilitate a more comprehensive understanding of the two-photon interference.

Double-slit interference of single twisted photons

Optical orbital angular momentum(OAM) is a special property of photons and has evoked research onto the light–matter interaction in both classical and quantum regimes. In classical optics, OAM is related to an optical vortex with a helical phase structure. In quantum optics, photons with a twisted or helical phase structure will carry a quantized OAM. To our knowledge, however, so far, no experiment has demonstrated the fundamental property of the OAM at the single-photon level. In this Letter, we have demonstrated the average photon trajectories of twisted photons in a double-slit interference. We have experimentally captured the double-slit interference process of twisted photons by a time-gated intensified charge-coupled device camera, which is trigged by a heralded detection. Our work provides new perspectives for understanding the micro-behaviors of twisted particles and enables new applications in imaging and sensing.