Erasing the orbital angular momentum information of a photon

Nape, I., Ndagano, B. and Forbes, A. (2017) Erasing the orbital angular momentum information of a photon. Physical Review A: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, 95(5), 053859. (doi: 10.1103/physreva.95.053859)

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Abstract

Quantum erasers with paths in the form of physical slits have been studied extensively and proven instrumental in probing wave-particle duality in quantum mechanics. Here we replace physical paths (slits) with abstract paths of orbital angular momentum (OAM). Using spin-orbit hybrid entanglement of photons, we show that the OAM content of a photon can be erased with a complementary polarization projection of one of the entangled pair. The result is the (dis)appearance of azimuthal fringes based on whether the “which-OAM” information was erased. We extend this concept to a delayed measurement scheme and show that the OAM information and fringe visibility are complementary.

Item Type:Articles
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Ndagano, Mr Bienvenu
Authors: Nape, I., Ndagano, B., and Forbes, A.
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy
Journal Name:Physical Review A: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics
Publisher:American Physical Society
ISSN:1050-2947
ISSN (Online):1094-1622
Published Online:24 May 2017

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