Amplification of polarization NOON states
Chiara Vitelli, Nicolò Spagnolo, Fabio Sciarrino, F. De Martini · Journal of the Optical Society of America B · 2009
We analyze the quantum states obtained by optical parametric amplification of polarization NOON states. First we study, theoretically and experimentally, the amplification of a two-photon state by a collinear quantum injected optical parametric amplifier (QIOPA). We compare the stimulated emission regime with the spontaneous one, studied by Sciarrino et al. [Phys. Rev. A77, 012324 (2008)]. As a second step, we show that the collinear amplifier cannot be successfully used for amplifying N-photon states with N>2, and we propose to adopt a different scheme, based on a noncollinear QIOPA. We show that the state obtained by the latter amplification process preserves the λ/N feature and exhibits a high resilience to losses. Furthermore, measurement of part of the output state can be adopted to increase the pattern visibility.