Experimental demonstration of three mutually orthogonal polarization states of entangled photons

• Linearly polarized classical light can be expressed in a vertical and a horizontal component. Geometrically rotating vertically polarized light by 90 degrees will convert it to the orthogonal horizontal polarization. We have experimentally generated a two-photon state of light which evolves into an orthogonal state upon geometrical rotation by 60 degrees. Rotating this state by an additional 60 degrees will yield a state which is mutually orthogonal to the first two states. Generalizing this procedure, one can generate N + 1 mutually orthogonal N-photon states that cyclicly evolve from one to another upon a geometric rotation by 180/(N + 1) degrees.

Keyword

quantum fluctuations

stokes parameters

kerr medium

light

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art (subject category)