Abstract
As is well known, angular position and orbital angular momentum (OAM) of photons are a conjugate pair of variables that have been extensively explored for quantum information science and technology. In contrast, the radial degrees of freedom remain relatively unexplored. Here we exploit the radial variables, i.e., radial position and radial momentum, to demonstrate Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen correlations between down-converted photons. In our experiment, we prepare various annular apertures to define the radial positions and use eigenmode projection to measure the radial momenta. The resulting correlations are found to violate the Heisenberg-like uncertainty principle for independent particles, thus manifesting the entangled feature in the radial structure of two-photon wave functions. Our work suggests that, in parallel with angular position and OAM, the radial position and radial momentum can offer a new platform for a fundamental test of quantum mechanics and for novel application of quantum information.
- Received 30 April 2019
- Revised 24 June 2019
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.060403
© 2019 American Physical Society
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
Synopsis
Entangling the Radial Parts of Photons
Published 8 August 2019
Correlations between the radial position and radial momentum of entangled photons demonstrate the suitability of these properties for quantum information applications.
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