S. P. Kulik

Quantum teleportation of a polarization state with a complete bell state measurement.

We report a quantum teleportation experiment in which nonlinear interactions are used for the Bell state measurements. The experimental results demonstrate the working principle of irreversibly teleporting an unknown arbitrary polarization state from one system to another distant system by disassembling into and then later reconstructing from purely classical information and nonclassical EPR correlations. The distinct feature of this experiment is that all four Bell states can be distinguished in the Bell state measurement. Teleportation of a polarization state can thus occur with certainty in principle.

Identifying entanglement using quantum "ghost" interference and imaging

We report a quantum interference and imaging experiment which shows quantitatively that entangled two-photon violate the EPR inequality. This measurement provides a direct way to distinguish quantum entanglement from classical correlation in continuous variables

Qutrit state engineering with biphotons.

The novel experimental realization of three-level optical quantum systems is presented. We use the polarization state of biphotons to generate a specific sequence of states that are used in the extended version of four-state QKD protocol quantum key distribution protocol. We experimentally verify the orthogonality of the basic states and demonstrate the ability to easily switch between them. The tomography procedure is employed to reconstruct the density matrices of generated states.

Polarization state of a biphoton: Quantum ternary logic

Polarization state of biphoton light generated via collinear frequency-degenerate spontaneous parametric down-conversion is considered. A biphoton is described by a three-component polarization vector, its arbitrary transformations relating to the SU(3) group. A subset of such transformations, available with retardation plates, is realized experimentally. In particular, two independent orthogonally polarized beams of type-I biphotons are transformed into a beam of type-II biphotons. Polarized biphotons are suggested as ternary analogs of two-state quantum systems (qubits).

Anisotropically and high entanglement of biphoton states generated in spontaneous parametric down-conversion

We show both theoretically and experimentally that biphoton wave packets generated via spontaneous parametric down-conversion can be strongly anisotropic and highly entangled. The conditions under which these effects exist are found and discussed.

Experimental entanglement concentration and universal Bell-state synthesizer

We report a Bell-state synthesizer in which an interferometric entanglement concentration scheme is used. An initially mixed polarization state from type-II spontaneous parametric down-conversion becomes entangled after the interferometric entanglement concentration. This Bell-state synthesizer is universal in the sense that the output polarization state is not affected by spectral filtering, crystal thickness, and, most importantly, the choice of pump source. It is also robust against environmental disturbance and a more general state, partially mixed-partially entangled state, can be readily generated as well.

Interferometric Bell-state preparation using femtosecond-pulse-pumped spontaneous parametric down-conversion

We present a theoretical and experimental study of preparing maximally entangled two-photon polarization states, or Bell states, using femtosecond-pulse-pumped spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC). First, we show how the inherent distinguishability in femtosecond-pulse-pumped type-II SPDC can be removed by using an interferometric technique without spectral and amplitude postselection. We then analyze the recently introduced Bell-state preparation scheme using type-I SPDC. Theoretically, both methods offer the same results, however, type-I SPDC provides experimentally superior methods of preparing Bell states in femtosecond-pulse-pumped SPDC. Such a pulsed source of highly entangled photon pairs is useful in quantum communications, quantum cryptography, quantum teleportation, etc.

Statistical reconstruction of qutrits

We discuss a procedure of measurement followed by the reproduction of the quantum state of a three-level optical system - a frequency- and spatially degenerate two-photon field. The method of statistical estimation of the quantum state based on solving the likelihood equation and analyzing the statistical properties of the obtained estimates is developed. Using the root approach of estimating quantum states, the initial two-photon state vector is reproduced from the measured fourth moments in the field . The developed approach applied to quantum states reconstruction is based on the amplitudes of mutually complementary processes. Classical algorithm of statistical estimation based on the Fisher information matrix is generalized to the case of quantum systems obeying Bohrs complementarity principle. It has been experimentally proved that biphoton-qutrit states can be reconstructed with the fidelity of 0.995-0.999 and higher.

Infrared spectroscopy with visible light

The refractive index and absorption coefficient of a medium in the infrared range are measured using visible spectral range components. The technique relies on nonlinear interference of infrared and visible photons, produced by down-conversion. Spectral measurements in the infrared optical range provide unique fingerprints of materials, which are useful for material analysis, environmental sensing and health diagnostics1. Current infrared spectroscopy techniques require the use of optical equipment suited for operation in the infrared range, components of which face challenges of inferior performance and high cost. Here, we develop a technique that allows spectral measurements in the infrared range using visible-spectral-range components. The technique is based on nonlinear interference of infrared and visible photons, produced via spontaneous parametric down conversion2,3. The intensity interference pattern for a visible photon depends on the phase of an infrared photon travelling through a medium. This allows the absorption coefficient and refractive index of the medium in the infrared range to be determined from the measurements of visible photons. The technique can substitute and/or complement conventional infrared spectroscopy and refractometry techniques, as it uses well-developed components for the visible range.

Statistical estimation of the efficiency of quantum state tomography protocols.

Y u. I. Bogdanov, G.Brida,M.Genovese, S. P. Kulik, E. V. Moreva, A. P. Shurupov 1 Institute of Physics and Technology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia 2 INRIM, I-10135, Torino, Italy 3 Faculty of Physics, Moscow State University, 119992, Moscow, Russia 4 Moscow National Research Nuclear University ”MEPHI”, Russia and 5 Dipartimento di Fisica, Politecnico di Torino, I-10129, Torino, Italy (Dated: February 18, 2010)