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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2010

Parameter Estimation with Entangled Photons Produced by Parametric Down-Conversion

We explore the advantages offered by twin light beams produced in parametric down-conversion for precision measurement. The symmetry of these bipartite quantum states, even under losses, suggests that monitoring correlations between the divergent beams permits a high-precision inference of any symmetry-breaking effect, e.g., fiber birefringence. We show that the quantity of entanglement is not the key feature for such an instrument. In a lossless setting, scaling of precision at the ultimate "Heisenberg" limit is possible with photon counting alone. Even as photon losses approach 100% the precision is shot-noise limited, and we identify the crossover point between quantum and classical precision as a function of detected flux. The predicted hypersensitivity is demonstrated with a Bayesian simulation.

Cable, Hugo↗
NASA NTRS1992

The energy-time uncertainty principle and the EPR paradox: Experiments involving correlated two-photon emission in parametric down-conversion

The energy-time uncertainty principle is on a different footing than the momentum position uncertainty principle: in contrast to position, time is a c-number parameter, and not an operator. As Aharonov and Bohm have pointed out, this leads to different interpretations of the two uncertainty principles. In particular, one must distinguish between an inner and an outer time in the definition of the spread in time, delta t. It is the inner time which enters the energy-time uncertainty principle. We have checked this by means of a correlated two-photon light source in which the individual energies of the two photons are broad in spectra, but in which their sum is sharp. In other words, the pair of photons is in an entangled state of energy. By passing one member of the photon pair through a filter with width delta E, it is observed that the other member's wave packet collapses upon coincidence detection to a duration delta t, such that delta E(delta t) is approximately equal to planks constant/2 pi, where this duration delta t is an inner time, in the sense of Aharonov and Bohm. We have measured delta t by means of a Michelson interferometer by monitoring the visibility of the fringes seen in coincidence detection. This is a nonlocal effect, in the sense that the two photons are far away from each other when the collapse occurs. We have excluded classical-wave explanations of this effect by means of triple coincidence measurements in conjunction with a beam splitter which follows the Michelson interferometer. Since Bell's inequalities are known to be violated, we believe that it is also incorrect to interpret this experimental outcome as if energy were a local hidden variable, i.e., as if each photon, viewed as a particle, possessed some definite but unknown energy before its detection.

Chiao, Raymond Y.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Quantum Entanglement Molecular Absorption Spectrum Simulator

Quantum Entanglement Molecular Absorption Spectrum Simulator (QE-MASS) is a computer program for simulating two photon molecular-absorption spectroscopy using quantum-entangled photons. More specifically, QE-MASS simulates the molecular absorption of two quantum-entangled photons generated by the spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) of a fixed-frequency photon from a laser. The two-photon absorption process is modeled via a combination of rovibrational and electronic single-photon transitions, using a wave-function formalism. A two-photon absorption cross section as a function of the entanglement delay time between the two photons is computed, then subjected to a fast Fourier transform to produce an energy spectrum. The program then detects peaks in the Fourier spectrum and displays the energy levels of very short-lived intermediate quantum states (or virtual states) of the molecule. Such virtual states were only previously accessible using ultra-fast (femtosecond) laser systems. However, with the use of a single-frequency continuous wave laser to produce SPDC photons, and QEMASS program, these short-lived molecular states can now be studied using much simpler laser systems. QE-MASS can also show the dependence of the Fourier spectrum on the tuning range of the entanglement time of any externally introduced optical-path delay time. QE-MASS can be extended to any molecule for which an appropriate spectroscopic database is available. It is a means of performing an a priori parametric analysis of entangled photon spectroscopy for development and implementation of emerging quantum-spectroscopic sensing techniques. QE-MASS is currently implemented using the Mathcad software package.

Nguyen, Quang-Viet↗
NASA NTRS2019

Bell Inequality Experiment for a High Brightness Time-Energy Entangled Source

A periodically poled MgO doped LiNbO3 (MgO:LN) non-degenerate photon pair source is utilized for spontaneous parametric down-conversion of 532 nm photons into time-energy entangled pairs of 800 and 1600 nm photons. The entangled photons are separated using previously detailed sorting optics, such that each wavelength is independently directed through one of two modified Mach-Zehnder interferometers also known as a Franson interferometer after which they are fiber-optically guided to high-efficiency photon detectors. Output from the detectors is sent to a high resolution time tagger, where coincidences between the entangled photons are recorded. By varying the length of the long path in one Mach-Zehnder interferometer, it is possible to observe high visibility sinusoidal fringes in the measured coincidence rates (while no variation is seen in single photon detection rates). These fringes due to interference between the photon probability amplitudes are indicative of a violation of the Bell inequality, and confirm inconsistencies with local hidden variable theory for the correlations of the time-energy entangled photon pairs.

time-energy entanglement↗
NASA NTRS2019

Bell Inequality Experiment for a High Brightness Time-Energy Entangled Source

A periodically poled MgO - doped LiNbO3 (MgO:LN) non-degenerate photon pair source is utilized for spontaneous parametric down-conversion of 532-nanometer photons into time-energy entangled pairs of 800- and 1600-nanometer photons. The entangled photons are separated using previously detailed sorting optics, such that each wavelength is independently directed through one of two modified Mach-Zehnder interferometers - also known as a Franson interferometer - after which they are fiber-optically guided to high-efficiency photon detectors. Output from the detectors is sent to a high resolution time tagger, where coincidences between the entangled photons are recorded. By varying the length of the long path in one Mach-Zehnder interferometer, it is possible to observe high visibility sinusoidal fringes in the measured coincidence rates (while no variation is seen in single photon detection rates). These fringes - due to interference between the photon probability amplitudes - are indicative of a violation of the Bell inequality, and confirm inconsistencies with local hidden variable theory for the correlations of the time-energy entangled photon pairs.

Time-Energy Entanglement↗
NASA NTRS1994

Nonlocal effects on the polarization state of a photon, induced by distant absorbers

A variant of a Franson's two-photon correlation experiment is discussed, in which the linear polarization state of one of the photons depends on the path followed in the interferometer. It is shown that although the path difference is greater than the coherence length, the photon can be found in a polarization state represented by the superposition of the polarization states associated to the paths when there is coincident detection. Since the photons, produced via parametric down-conversion, are fairly well localized in space and time, the situation in which one of the photons is detected before the other can reach the interferometer raises an intriguing point: it seems that in some cases the second photon would have to be described by two wave packets simultaneously. Unlike previous experiments, in which nonlocal effects were induced by means of polarizers of phase shifters, in the proposed experiment nonlocal effects can be induced by means of variable absorbers.

Ryff, Luis Carlos B.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Two-Photon Entanglement and EPR Experiments Using Type-2 Spontaneous Parametric Down Conversion

Simultaneous entanglement in spin and space-time of a two-photon quantum state generated in type-2 spontaneous parametric down-conversion is demonstrated by the observation of quantum interference with 98% visibility in a simple beam-splitter (Hanburry Brown-Twiss) anticorrelation experiment. The nonlocal cancellation of two-photon probability amplitudes as a result of this double entanglement allows us to demonstrate two different types of Bell's inequality violations in one experimental setup.

Sergienko, A. V.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Quantum Sensing and Communications Being Developed for Nanotechnology

An interdisciplinary quantum communications and sensing research effort has been underway at the NASA Glenn Research Center since the summer of 2000. Researchers in the Communications Technology, Instrumentation and Controls, and Propulsion and Turbomachinery Divisions have been working together to study and develop techniques that use the principle of quantum entanglement (QE). This work is supported principally by the Nanotechnology Base R&T program at Glenn. As applied to communications and sensing, QE is an emerging technology that holds promise as a new and innovative way to communicate faster and farther, and to sense, measure, and image environmental properties in ways that are not possible with existing technology. Quantum entangled photons are "inseparable" as described by a wave function formalism. For two entangled photons, the term "inseparable" means that one cannot describe one photon without completely describing the other. This inseparability gives rise to what appears as "spooky," or nonintuitive, behavior because of the quantum nature of the process. For example, two entangled photons of lower energy can be created simultaneously from a single photon of higher energy in a process called spontaneous parametric down-conversion. Our research is focused on the use of polarization-entangled photons generated by passing a high-energy (blue) photon through a nonlinear beta barium borate crystal to generate two red photons that have orthogonal, but entangled, polarization states. Although the actual polarization state of any one photon is not known until it is measured, the act of measuring the polarization of one photon completely determines the polarization state of its twin because of entanglement. This unique relationship between the photons provides extra information about the system. For example, entanglement makes it easy to distinguish entangled photons from other photons impinging on a detector. For many other applications, ranging from quantum computation and information to quantum sensing, the entanglement property is critical.

Nguyen, Quang-Viet↗
NASA NTRS2005

Analysis of Quantum Information Test-Bed by Parametric Down-Converted Photons Interference Measurement

Quantum optical experiments require all the components involved to be extremely stable relative to each other. The stability can be "measured" by using an interferometric experiment. A pair of coherent photons produced by parametric down-conversion could be chosen to be orthogonally polarized initially. By rotating the polarization of one of the wave packets, they can be recombined at a beam splitter such that interference will occur. Theoretically, the interference will create four terms in the wave function. Two terms with both photons going to the same detector, and two terms will have the photons each going to different detectors. However, the latter will cancel each other out, thus no photons will arrive at the two detectors simultaneously under ideal conditions. The stability Of the test-bed can then be inferred by the dependence of coincidence count on the rotation angle.

To, Wing H.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Using Correlated Photons to Suppress Background Noise

A proposed method of suppressing the effect of background noise in an optical communication system would exploit the transmission and reception of correlated photons at the receiver. The method would not afford any advantage in a system in which performance is limited by shot noise. However, if the performance of the system is limited by background noise (e.g., sunlight in the case of a free-space optical communication system or incoherently scattered in-band photons in the case of a fiber-optic communication system), then the proposed method could offer an advantage: the proposed method would make it possible to achieve a signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) significantly greater than that of an otherwise equivalent background- noise-limited optical communication system based on the classical transmission and reception of uncorrelated photons. The figure schematically depicts a classical optical-communication system and a system according to the proposed method. In the classical system, a modulated laser beam is transmitted along an optical path to a receiver, the optics of which include a narrow-band-pass filter that suppresses some of the background noise. A photodetector in the receiver detects the laser-beam and background photons, most or all of which are uncorrelated. In the proposed system, correlated photons would be generated at the transmitter by making a modulated laser beam pass through a nonlinear parametric down-conversion crystal. The sum of frequencies of the correlated photons in each pair would equal the frequency of the incident photon from which they were generated. As in the classical system, the correlated photons would travel along an optical path to a receiver, where they would be band-pass filtered and detected. Unlike in the classical system, the photodetector in the receiver in this system would be one that intrinsically favors the detection of pairs of correlated photons over the detection of uncorrelated photons. Even though there would be no way of knowing the precise location and time of creation of a given pair of correlated signal photons in the nonlinear down-conversion crystal, the fact that the photons are necessarily created at the same time and place makes it possible to utilize conventional geometrical imaging optics to reunite the photons in coincidence in the receiving photodetector. Because most or all of the signal photons would be correlated while most or all of the noise photons would be uncorrelated, the S/N would be correspondingly enhanced in the photodetector output. An additional advantage to be gained by use of a correlated-photon detector is that it could be capable of recovering the signal even in the presence of background light so bright that a classical uncorrelated-photon detector would be saturated. A blocked-impurity-band (BIB) photodetector that preferentially detects pairs of correlated photons over uncorrelated ones and that operates at a quantum efficiency of 88 percent is commercially available. This detector must be cooled to the temperature of liquid helium to obtain the desired low-noise performance. It is planned to use this detector in a proof-of-principle demonstration. In addition, it may be possible to develop GaN-based photodetectors that could offer the desired low-noise performance at room temperature.

Jackson, Deborah↗
NASA NTRS2024

Modeling Entanglement-Based Quantum Key Distribution for the NASA Quantum Communications Analysis Suite

One of the most practical, and sought after, applications of quantum mechanics in the field of information science is the use of entanglement distribution to communicate quantum information effectively. Similar to the continued improvements of functional quantum computers over the past decade, advances in demonstrations of entanglement distribution over long distances may enable new applications in aeronautics and space communications. The existing NASA Quantum Communications Analysis Suite (NQCAS) software models such applications, but limited experimental data exists to verify the model’s theoretical results. There is, however, a large body of experimental data in the relevant literature for entanglement-based quantum key distribution (QKD). This paper details a Monte Carlo based QKD model that uses NQCAS input parameters to generate an estimated QKD link budget for verification of NQCAS. The model generates link budget statistics like key rates, error rates, and S values that can then be compared to the experimental values in the literature. Preliminary comparisons show many similarities between the simulated and experimental data, supporting the model’s validity. A verified NQCAS model will inform experimental work conducted in Glenn Research Center’s (GRC) NASA Quantum Metrology Laboratory (NQML), supporting the United States Quantum Initiative and potential NASA missions.

NASA Quantum Communications Analysis Suite↗
NASA NTRS1989

Nonlinear optical processes for the mid-IR region

The 2 - 5 micron (mid-IR) region is of interest for a number of applications. Efficient up-conversion and down-conversion techniques are being developed to obtain optical sources at mid-IR wavelengths. These techniques are reviewed and recent results using AgGaSe2 are reported. Gain in AgGaSe2 as high as 13 has been observed with a pump wavelength of 1.73 microns and a signal wavelength of 3.39 microns. Optical parametric oscillation in the 2.9 - 6.8 micron region has also been demonstrated.

Schepler, K. L.↗