No Arabic abstract
Vectorially structured light has emerged as an enabling tool in many diverse applications, from communication to imaging, exploiting quantum-like correlations courtesy of a non-separable spatially varying polarization structure. Creating these states at the source remains challenging and is presently limited to two-dimensional vectorial states by customized lasers. Here we invoke ray-wave duality in a simple laser cavity to produce polarization marked multi-path modes that are non-separable in three degrees of freedom and in eight dimensions. As a topical example, we use our laser to produce the complete set of Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) basis states, mimicking high-dimensional multi-partite entanglement with classical light, which we confirm by a new projection approach. We offer a complete theoretical framework for our laser based on SU(2) symmetry groups, revealing a rich parameter space for further exploitation. Our approach requires only a conventional laser with no special optical elements, is easily scaleable to higher dimensions, and offers a simple but elegant solution for at-the-source creation of classically entangled states of structured light, opening new applications in simulating and enhancing high-dimensional quantum systems.
Cavity-free efficient coupling between emitters and guided modes is of great current interest for nonlinear quantum optics as well as efficient and scalable quantum information processing. In this work, we extend these activities to the coupling of organic dye molecules to a highly confined mode of a nanofiber, allowing mirrorless and low-threshold laser action in an effective mode volume of less than 100 femtoliters. We model this laser system based on semi-classical rate equations and present an analytic compact form of the laser output intensity. Despite the lack of a cavity structure, we achieve a coupling efficiency of the spontaneous emission to the waveguide mode of 0.07(0.01), in agreement with our calculations. In a further experiment, we also demonstrate the use of a plasmonic nanoparticle as a dispersive output coupler. Our laser architecture is promising for a number of applications in optofluidics and provides a fundamental model system for studying nonresonant feedback stimulated emission.
Photonic molecules are composed of two or more optical resonators, arranged such that some of the modes of each resonator are coupled to those of the other. Such structures have been used for emulating the behaviour of two-level systems, lasing, and on-demand optical storage and retrieval. Coupled resonators have also been used for dispersion engineering of integrated devices, enhancing their performance for nonlinear optical applications. Delicate engineering of such integrated nonlinear structures is required for developing scalable sources of non-classical light to be deployed in quantum information processing systems. In this work, we demonstrate a photonic molecule composed of two coupled microring resonators on an integrated nanophotonic chip, designed to generate strongly squeezed light uncontaminated by noise from unwanted parasitic nonlinear processes. By tuning the photonic molecule to selectively couple and thus hybridize only the modes involved in the unwanted processes, suppression of parasitic parametric fluorescence is accomplished. This strategy enables the use of microring resonators for the efficient generation of degenerate squeezed light: without it, simple single-resonator structures cannot avoid contamination from nonlinear noise without significantly compromising pump power efficiency, and are thus limited to generating only weak degenerate squeezing. We use this device to generate 8(1) dB of broadband degenerate squeezed light on-chip, with 1.65(1) dB directly measured, which is the largest amount of squeezing yet reported from any nanophotonic source.
High-dimensional entangled states are promising candidates for increasing the security and encoding capacity of quantum systems. While it is possible to witness and set bounds for the entanglement, precisely quantifying the dimensionality and purity in a fast and accurate manner remains an open challenge. Here, we report an approach that simultaneously returns the dimensionality and purity of high-dimensional entangled states by simple projective measurements. We show that the outcome of a conditional measurement returns a visibility that scales monotonically with entanglement dimensionality and purity, allowing for quantitative measurements for general photonic quantum systems. We illustrate our method using transverse spatial modes of photons that carry orbital angular momentum and verify high-dimensional entanglement over a wide range of state purities. Our approach advances the high-dimensional tool box for characterising quantum states by providing a simple and direct dimensionality and purity measure, even for mixed entangled states.
Photonic entangled states lie at the heart of quantum science for the demonstrations of quantum mechanics foundations and supply as a key resource for approaching various quantum technologies. An integrated realization of such states will certainly guarantee a high-degree of entanglement and improve the performance like portability, stability and miniaturization, hence becomes an inevitable tendency towards the integrated quantum optics. Here, we report the compact realization of steerable photonic path-entangled states from a monolithic quadratic nonlinear photonic crystal. The crystal acts as an inherent beam splitter to distribute photons into coherent spatial modes, producing the heralded single-photon even appealing beamlike two-photon path-entanglement, wherein the entanglement is characterized by quantum spatial beatings. Such multifunctional entangled source can be further extended to high-dimensional fashion and multi-photon level as well as involved with other degrees of freedom, which paves a desirable way to engineer miniaturized quantum light source.
Tracking the kinematics of fast-moving objects is an important diagnostic tool for science and engineering. Existing optical methods include high-speed CCD/CMOS imaging, streak cameras, lidar, serial time-encoded imaging and sequentially timed all-optical mapping. Here, we demonstrate an entirely new approach to positional and directional sensing based on the concept of classical entanglement in vector beams of light. The measurement principle relies on the intrinsic correlations existing in such beams between transverse spatial modes and polarization. The latter can be determined from intensity measurements with only a few fast photodiodes, greatly outperforming the bandwidth of current CCD/CMOS devices. In this way, our setup enables two-dimensional real-time sensing with temporal resolution in the GHz range. We expect the concept to open up new directions in photonics-based metrology and sensing.