Why a hole is like a beam splitter: A general diffraction theory for multimode quantum states of light

Zhihao Xiao, R. Nicholas Lanning, Mi Zhang, Irina Novikova, Eugeniy E. Mikhailov, and Jonathan P. Dowling
Phys. Rev. A 96, 023829 – Published 14 August 2017

Abstract

Within the second-quantization framework, we develop a formalism for describing a spatially multimode optical field diffracted through a spatial mask and show that this process can be described as an effective interaction between various spatial modes. We demonstrate a method to calculate the quantum state in the diffracted optical field for any given quantum state in the incident field. We also give several additional examples of how the theory works, for various quantum input states, which may be easily tested in the laboratory, including two single-mode squeezed vacuums, single- and two-photon inputs, where we show that the diffraction process produces a two-mode squeezed vacuum, number-path entanglement, and a Hong-Ou-Mandel-like effect analogous to that of a beam splitter.

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  • Received 29 March 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.96.023829

©2017 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Atomic, Molecular & Optical

Authors & Affiliations

Zhihao Xiao1,*, R. Nicholas Lanning1, Mi Zhang2, Irina Novikova2, Eugeniy E. Mikhailov2, and Jonathan P. Dowling1

  • 1Hearne Institute for Theoretical Physics and Department of Physics & Astronomy, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803, USA
  • 2Department of Physics, College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia 23187, USA

  • *zxiao3@lsu.edu

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Issue

Vol. 96, Iss. 2 — August 2017

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