Photon entanglement router

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9784622-B2
Application number	US-201715426364-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 7, 2017
Priority date	Aug 12, 2015
Publication date	Oct 10, 2017
Grant date	Oct 10, 2017

Abstract

A photon entanglement router comprises a modified birefringent spectral filter followed by a polarization beam splitter (PBS). Frequency degenerate or non-degenerate entangled photons, generated by a collinear laser source and incident on one input port of the photon entanglement router, are comprised of congruent photons and/or incongruent photons. The invention adds a plurality of additional filter stacks at each output port such that they invert the action of the first birefringent stack at the input port. Intermediate output photons from the invention is input to two ports of an additional PBS where they are spatially projected according to their frequencies and polarizations. Two congruent photons of an entangled photon pair exit as an entangled pair in one direction, while two incongruent photons exit as an entangled pair in the orthogonal direction. If one photon is congruent and the other photon incongruent, the photons remain entangled but are spectrally divided into orthogonal directions. The invention's birefringent spectral filter accepts specific input frequencies from the ITU optical C-band grid for proper operation.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for creating correlated polarization measurements of photons at distinct locations, comprising steps of
birefringent filtering those photons in a polarization entangled photon pair having incongruent frequencies so as to rotate the polarization state thereof;
directing said polarization entangled photon pair into a first beam splitter;
beam splitting said polarization entangled photon pair so as to pass those photons having a polarization aligned with a first beam splitter and reflecting in an orthogonal direction those photons having a polarization not aligned with said first beam splitter;
birefringent filtering:
those photons having been passed having incongruent frequencies; and
those photons having been orthogonally directed having incongruent frequencies so as to invert the polarization state rotation imparted by birefringent filtering;
reflecting said passed and said orthogonally directed photons into a second beam splitter;
beam splitting said reflected photons so as to pass those photons having a polarization aligned with said second beam splitter and reflecting in an orthogonal direction those photons having a polarization not aligned with said second beam splitter; and
measuring the polarization of said photons exiting said second beam splitter.

2. The method of claim 1 , said steps of birefringent filtering comprise rotating said polarization state by 90 degrees.

3. The method of claim 1 , said step of reflecting comprises redirecting by impingement on a mirrored surface.

4. The method of claim 1 , said steps of birefringent filtering possess equivalent birefringence.

5. The method of claim 1 , said step of birefringent filtering a congruent photon and an incongruent photon pair at a polarization perpendicular to said first beam splitter's plane of incidence will result in said step of beam splitting producing:
the congruent photon perpendicular to said first polarization beam splitter's plane of incidence, and
the incongruent photon perpendicular to said first polarization beam splitter plane of incidence.

6. The method of claim 1 , said step of birefringent filtering a congruent photon and a congruent photon pair at a polarization parallel to said first beam splitter's plane of incidence will result in said step of beam splitting producing:
the congruent photon parallel to said first polarization beam splitter's plane of incidence, and
the incongruent photon parallel to said first polarization beam splitter's plane of incidence.

7. The method of claim 1 , said step of birefringent filtering a first congruent photon and a second congruent photon pair at a polarization perpendicular to said first beam splitter's plane of incidence will result in said step of beam splitting producing:
the first congruent photon perpendicular to said first polarization beam splitter's plane of incidence, and
the second congruent photon perpendicular to said first polarization beam splitter's plane of incidence.

8. The method of claim 1 , said step of birefringent filtering a first congruent photon and a second congruent photon pair at a polarization parallel to said first beam splitter's plane of incidence will result in said step of beam splitting producing:
the first congruent photon parallel to said first polarization beam splitter's plane of incidence, and
the second congruent photon parallel to said first polarization beam splitter's plane of incidence.

9. The method of claim 1 , said step of birefringent filtering an first incongruent photon and an second incongruent photon pair at a polarization perpendicular to said first beam splitter's plane of incidence will result in said step of beam splitting producing:
the first incongruent photon perpendicular to said first polarization beam splitter's plane of incidence, and
the second incongruent photon perpendicular to said first polarization beam splitter's plane of incidence.

10. The method of claim 1 , said step of birefringent filtering an first incongruent photon and an second incongruent photon pair at a polarization parallel to said first beam splitter's plane of incidence will result in said step of beam splitting producing:
the first incongruent photon parallel to said first polarization beam splitter's plane of incidence, and
the second incongruent photon parallel to said first polarization beam splitter's plane of incidence.

Assignees

• The United States Of America As Represetned By The Secretary Of The Air Force
• Us Air Force

Inventors

• Hughes David H
• Erdmann Reinhard

Classifications

• G01J4/02 Primary

  Polarimeters of separated-field type; Polarimeters of half-shadow type · CPC title

• G02B5/3083

  Birefringent or phase retarding elements (G02B5/3008, G02B5/3016 take precedence; systems for polarisation control G02B27/286; manufacturing phase modulating patterns by lithographic processes G03F7/001) · CPC title

• G02B27/283 Primary

  used for beam splitting or combining · CPC title

• G01J4/04

  Polarimeters using electric detection means (G01J4/02 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G02B2207/114

  Two photon or multiphoton effect · CPC title