Geometric phases in two-photon interference experiments

Topological Hong-Ou-Mandel interference

The interplay of topology and optics provides a route to pursue robust photonic devices, with the application to photonic quantum computation in its infancy. However, the possibilities of harnessing topological structures to process quantum information with linear optics, through the quantum interference of photons, remain largely uncharted. Here, we present a Hong-Ou-Mandel interference effect of topological origin. We show that this interference of photon pairs-ranging from constructive to destructive-is solely determined by a synthetic magnetic flux, rendering it resilient to errors on a fundamental level. Our implementation establishes a quantized flux that facilitates exclusively destructive quantum interference. Our findings pave the way toward the development of next-generation photonic quantum circuitry and scalable quantum computing protected by virtue of topologically robust quantum gates.

Fractional topological phase measurement with a hyperentangled photon source

Pairs of photons simultaneously entangled in their path and polarization degrees of freedom are used to measure the topological phase acquired by bipartite entangled states. Conditional phase local unitary operations having the polarization degree of freedom as the control variable are applied. Qudits of arbitrary dimensions are encoded on the photons transverse positions while polarization entanglement is used as an auxiliary resource for quantum interference measurements. With this scheme the fractional phases predicted for dimensions d = 2, 3 and 4 could be measured with visibilities for the interference curves beyond the limit allowed for classical sources, which is expected for a source of quantum correlated photons. The strategy of perform a quantum interferometry experiment with photons entangled in an auxiliary degree of freedom and apply unitary local operations conditioned to this auxiliary variable shows an increase to the signal to noise ratio, simplifies alignment and can be used in different applications. This offers an interesting perspective for the efficient implementation of phase gates in quantum computing with hyperentangled photon sources in polarization and path degrees of freedom. Furthermore, one can conjecture whether the measured phase can serve as a dimensionality identifier of the Hilbert space dimension for an unknown state preparation.

Observation of quantum interference as a function of Berry's phase in a complex Hadamard optical network

Emerging models of quantum computation driven by multiphoton quantum interference, while not universal, may offer an exponential advantage over classical computers for certain problems. Implementing these circuits via geometric phase gates could mitigate requirements for error correction to achieve fault tolerance while retaining their relative physical simplicity. We report an experiment in which a geometric phase is embedded in an optical network with no closed loops, enabling quantum interference between two photons as a function of the phase.

Exploring energy-time entanglement using geometric phase

Using the signal and idler photons produced by parametric down-conversion, we report an experimental observation of a violation of the Bell inequality for energy and time based purely on the geometric phases of the signal and idler photons. We thus show that energy-time entanglement between the signal and idler photons can be explored by means of their geometric phases. These results may have important practical implications for quantum information science by providing an additional means by which entanglement can be manipulated.

Measurement of geometric phase for mixed states using single photon interferometry

Geometric phase may enable inherently fault-tolerant quantum computation. However, due to potential decoherence effects, it is important to understand how such phases arise for mixed input states. We report the first experiment to measure mixed-state geometric phases in optics, using a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, and polarization mixed states that are produced in two different ways: decohering pure states with birefringent elements; and producing a nonmaximally entangled state of two photons and tracing over one of them, a form of remote state preparation.

Nonlinearity of Pancharatnam's geometric phase in polarizing interferometers

Earlier investigations show a time-variable nonlinear shift of the fringe pattern in a polarizing interferometer while rotating a polarizer at the exit. This effect was identified as Pancharatnam's geometrical phase and proposed for applications in interferometry and fast optical switching devices. A heterodyne analysis attributes moving fringes to a frequency difference between the interfering beams; thus changing fringe velocities point to a dynamic frequency development within the period of the uniformly rotating analyzer. This explanation offends the intuition and we undertake an experimental and theoretical investigation of the effect to solve the paradox. We determine, e.g., the complete frequency and mode spectrum of an arbitrary state of polarization P0 behind a rotating linear analyzer and behind a rotating arbitrary linear birefringent plate. We find that, in spite of a fast changing phase in the interferometer, no other (higher) frequency components appear in the spectral distribution of the intensity at the exit than the double of the rotary frequency of the analyzer: phase nonlinearities are compensated for by intensity changes. Only a phase-sensitive detector like an array of photodetectors is able to observe the nonlinearity of Pancharatnam's geometrical phase. A single detector only finds a sinusoidal intensity variation. Our insight into these relations leads us to two new applications of Pancharatnam's phase: supersensitivity of a polarizing double beam interferometer with a video camera acting as a phase detector and external tuning of a Fizeau interferometer.