Optimal quantum cloning of orbital angular momentum photon qubits through Hong-Ou-Mandel coalescence

Year: 2009

Authors: Nagali E., Sansoni L., Sciarrino F., De Martini F., Marrucci L., Piccirillo B., Karimi K., Santamato E.

Autors Affiliation: Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Università di Roma, Roma 00185, Italy; CNR – Istituto Nazionale di Ottica Applicata, Firenze 50125, Italy; Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, via della Lungara 10, Roma 00165, Italy; Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche, Universitá di Napoli ‘Federico II’, Compl. Univ. di Monte S. Angelo, 80126 Napoli, Italy; CNR-INFM Coherentia, Compl. Univ. di Monte S. Angelo, 80126 Napoli, Italy; Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Scienze Fisiche della Materia, Napoli

Abstract: The orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light, associated with a helical structure of the wavefunction, has great potential in quantum photonics, as it allows a higher dimensional quantum space to be attached to each photon(1,2). Hitherto, however, the use of OAM has been hindered by difficulties in its manipulation. Here, by making use of the recently demonstrated spin-OAM information transfer tools(3,4), we report the first observation of the Hong-Ou-Mandel coalescence(5) of two incoming photons having non-zero OAM into the same outgoing mode of a beamsplitter. The coalescence can be switched on and off by varying the input OAM state of the photons. Such an effect has then been used to carry out the 1 -> 2 universal optimal quantum cloning of OAM-encoded qubits(6-8), using the symmetrization technique already developed for polarization(9,10). These results are shown to be scalable to quantum spaces of arbitrary dimensions, even combining different degrees of freedom of the photons.

Journal/Review: NATURE PHOTONICS

Volume: 3 (12)      Pages from: 720  to: 723

KeyWords: quantum optics
DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2009.214

Citations: 189
data from “WEB OF SCIENCE” (of Thomson Reuters) are update at: 2024-04-14
References taken from IsiWeb of Knowledge: (subscribers only)
Connecting to view paper tab on IsiWeb: Click here
Connecting to view citations from IsiWeb: Click here