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Abstract
Engineering vector spatial modes of photons is an important approach for manipulating high-dimension photonic states in various quantum optical experiments. In this work, we demonstrate the generation of heralded single photons with well-defined vector spatial modes by using a self-stable polarizing interferometer comprising a spatial light modulator. Specifically, it is shown that, by carefully tailoring and compensating the spatial and temporal amplitudes of manipulated photons, one can exactly convert ultrafast single photons into desired spin-orbit states with an extremely high purity. This compact and robust device provides a versatile way for not only the generation, but also the manipulation and characterization of arbitrary photonic spin-orbit states.
Highlights
Structured photons with well-defined vector spatial modes are paraxial light fields whose polarization and transverse modes are non-separable with each other, known as spinorbit coupled (SOC) states [1,2,3,4]
It is possible to represent any spatial mode as a superposition of the orbital angular momentum (OAM) carrying modes, e.g., Laguerre-Gauss (LG) modes, that is, vector spatial modes can be generally regarded as photonic SOC states, and can be denoted using the Dirac notation as α ψ+, e+ + β ψ−, e−
The key components comprise of a pair of polarizing beam displacing (PBD) prisms made by fused silica
Summary
Structured photons with well-defined vector spatial modes are paraxial light fields whose polarization and transverse modes are non-separable with each other, known as spinorbit coupled (SOC) states [1,2,3,4]. Exploiting photonic SOC states can benefit many quantum technologies based on the photonic platforms, such as high-dimension quantum information [5,6,7,8,9] To explore this area, one requires on-demand control of both spin and orbital degrees of freedom (DoFs) of photons namely, having an ability of polarization-dependent spatial mode modulation. All these elements can only provide a phase-only modulation lacking the ability to modulate the spatial complex amplitude of light fields These devices can only work to generate approximate cylindrical vector (CV) modes [12, 13], characterized by a series of propagation-variant radial rings, whose spatial parts are more precisely described as radial-mode degenerated orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes [14]. To simultaneously shape and control the phase and amplitude of vectorially structured photons, the only feasible way at present is to use spatial light modulators (SLM) combined with various polarizing interferometer schemes
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