I. N. Agafonov

High-visibility, high-order lensless ghost imaging with thermal light

High-visibility Nth-order ghost imaging with thermal light has been realized by recording only the intensities in two optical paths in a lensless setup. It is shown that the visibility is dramatically enhanced as the order N increases, but longer integration times are required owing to the increased fluctuations of higher-order intensity correlation functions. It is also demonstrated that the required integration time for a good image depends on the partition ratio of the intensities on the two detectors and the complexity of the object.

Two-color bright squeezed vacuum

In a strongly pumped nondegenerate traveling-wave optical parametric amplifier, we produce a two-color squeezed vacuum with up to millions of photons per pulse. Our approach to registering this macroscopic quantum state is direct detection of a large number of transverse and longitudinal modes, which is achieved by making the detection time and area much larger than the coherence time and area, respectively. Using this approach, we obtain a record value of twin-beam squeezing for direct detection of bright squeezed vacuum. This makes direct detection of macroscopic squeezed vacuum a practical tool for quantum information applications.

High-visibility multiphoton interference of Hanbury Brown–Twiss type for classical light

Difference-phase (or Hanbury Brown\char21{}Twiss type) intensity interference of classical light is considered in higher orders in the intensity. It is shown that, while the visibility of sum-phase (NOON-type) interference for classical sources drops with the order of interference, the visibility of difference-phase interference has opposite behavior. For three-photon and four-photon interference of two coherent sources, the visibility can be as high as 81.8% and 94.4%, respectively. High-visibility three-photon and four-photon interference of space-time and polarization types has been observed in experiment, for both coherent and pseudothermal light.

High-visibility intensity interference and ghost imaging with pseudo-thermal light

We consider higher-order intensity correlations in thermal light and show that they can be used for observing high-visibility interference of the Hanbury Brown–Twiss-type as well as high-visibility ghost imaging. Experimental results are obtained for third- and fourth-order intensity interference, by processing images made with a digital photographic camera.

Polarization-entangled light pulses of 10(5) photons.

We experimentally demonstrate polarization entanglement for squeezed vacuum pulses containing more than 10(5) photons. We also study photon-number entanglement by calculating the Schmidt number and measuring its operational counterpart. Theoretically, our pulses are the more entangled the brighter they are. This promises important applications in quantum technologies, especially photonic quantum gates and quantum memories.

Absolute calibration of photodetectors: photocurrent multiplication versus photocurrent subtraction

We report testing of the new absolute method of photodetector calibration based on the difference-signal measurement for two-mode squeezed vacuum by comparison with the traditional absolute method based on coincidence counting. Using low-gain parametric downconversion, we have measured the quantum efficiency of a counting detector by both methods. The difference-signal method was adapted for the counting detectors by taking into account the dead-time effect.

Three-dimensional quantum polarization tomography of macroscopic Bell states

The polarization properties of macroscopic Bell states are characterized using three-dimensional quantum polarization tomography. This method utilizes three-dimensional (3D) inverse Radon transform to reconstruct the polarization quasiprobability distribution function of a state from the probability distributions measured for various Stokes observables. The reconstructed 3D distributions obtained for the macroscopic Bell states are compared with those obtained for a coherent state with the same mean photon number. The results demonstrate squeezing in one or more Stokes observables.

COMPARATIVE TEST OF TWO METHODS OF QUANTUM EFFICIENCY ABSOLUTE MEASUREMENT BASED ON SQUEEZED VACUUM DIRECT DETECTION

We realize and test in experiment a method recently proposed for measuring absolute quantum efficiency of analog photodetectors. Similar to the traditional (Klyshko) method of absolute calibration, the new one is based on the direct detection of two-mode squeezed vacuum at the output of a traveling wave OPA. However, in the new method, one measures the difference-photocurrent variance rather than the correlation function of photocurrents (number of coincidences), which makes the technique applicable for high-gain OPA. In this work we test the new method versus the traditional one for the case of photon-counting detectors where both techniques are valid.

Polarization tomography of bright states of light

Polarization quantum tomography is performed on 4-mode squeezed vacuum states. Three-dimensional polarization quasiprobability functions are obtained and compared to that of an equal intensity coherent state. These distributions clearly demonstrate the difference in the polarization properties of the considered states. The reconstruction quality of the coherent state distribution is also analyzed by comparing the theoretically and experimentally obtained shapes for this state.

Classical visibility limit for three-photon interference

It is shown theoretically and experimentally that the third-order interference of intensities, which is studied in many works performed in the last decade and is usually attributed to three-photon entanglement, can also be observed for classical light with a high visibility up to 81.8%. The calculations show that classical sources ensure an even higher visibility of the interference pattern up to 94.4% for fourth order intensity interference. Thus, a large visibility of the interference pattern of the third and higher orders cannot be considered an attribute of the nonclassical character of the effect.