Two-photon Wavefunction Research Articles

Entangled photons

Based on the quantum behavior of entangled photon pairs generated via spontaneous parametric down conversion, this paper reviews the concept of effective two-photon wavefunction or biphoton wavepacket and emphasize the very different physics associated with the entangled two-photon system and with its "individual" subsystems. Experimental approaches for Bell state preparation, pumped by continuous wave and ultrashort pulse, and the propagation of biphoton wavepacket in dispersive media are discussed.

Statistical reconstruction of the quantum states of three-level optical systems

The procedure of measurement followed by the reconstruction of the quantum state of a three-level optical system is implemented for a frequency-and spatially degenerate two-photon field. The method of statistical estimation of the quantum state from a solution to the likelihood equation and the analysis of the statistical properties of the obtained estimators is developed. Using the root method of estimating quantum states, the initial two-photon (qutrit) wave function is reconstructed from the measured fourth-order field moments.

Nonperturbative quantum solutions to resonant four-wave mixing of two single-photon wave packets

We analyze both analytically and numerically the resonant four-wave mixing of two co-propagating single-photon wave packets. We present analytic expressions for the two-photon wave function, and show that quantum solutions exist which display a shape-preserving oscillatory exchange of excitations between the modes. Potential applications including quantum-information processing are discussed.

Generation of pulsed polarization-entangled two-photon state via temporal and spectral engineering

The quantum state of the photon pair generated from type-II spontaneous parametric downconversion pumped by an ultrafast laser pulse exhibits strong decoherence in its polarization entanglement, an effect which can be attributed to the clock effect of the pump pulse or, equivalently, to distinguishing spectral information in the two-photon state. Here, we propose novel temporal and spectral engineering techniques to eliminate these detrimental decoherence effects. The temporal engineering of the two-photon wavefunction results in a universal Bell-state synthesizer that is independent of the choice of pump source, crystal parameters, wavelengths of the interacting photons and the bandwidth of the spectral filter. In the spectral engineering technique, the distinguishing spectral features of the two-photon state are eliminated through modifications to the two-photon source. In addition, spectral engineering also provides a means for the generation of polarization-entangled states with novel spectral characteristics: the frequency-correlated state and the frequency-uncorrelated state.