QUANTUM ERASER

By, Sqn Ldr SN Sudheendra

What is Quantum Eraser?

Complimentarity and the Uncertainity in Quantum mechanics. Wave-particle duality. Study of behavior of particles in Interferometers by Yoon-Ho Kim, R. Yu, S.P. Kulik, Y.H. Shih, and Marlan O. Scully. The visibility of fringes and which way information are complimentary quantities.

What is Quantum Eraser?

In the Youngs double slit experiment a particle exhibits wave like behavior if it passes through both slits. If we determine which way information then Interference disappears and a particle like behavior is observed. Now what if we erase which way information after the particle has passed through the slits?

What is Quantum Eraser?

Yes! The interference fringes are now restored. The process of erasure is known as Quantum eraser. The original experimenters carried out quantum eraser using interference of photons emitted by two distinct atoms, which behave much the same way as two slit in the double slit experiment.

What is Quantum Eraser?

However we will be studying the experiment based on actual set up used in a double slit arrangement using photons.

PRECURSORS
Entangled light Correlations defined by Bell states SPDC Process
Ar+ Laser operating at 351.1nm BBO crystal converts this light into 702.2nm

DOUBLE SLIT INTERFERENCE

Where s and p represent two beams and x and y represent two orthogonal linear polarizations.

DOUBLE SLIT INTERFERENCE

DOUBLE SLIT INTERFERENCE

If Dp registers a photon it sends a click to coincidence counter. The counter awaits for entangled partner s to be registered by Ds. Above two clicks are recorded as a count.

DOUBLE SLIT INTERFERENCE

No. of counts for 400sec. are tallied. Ds is moved a millimetre and the number of counts in 400 second interval is recorded for the new detector position. The above step is repeated until entire scan area is covered.

DOUBLE SLIT INTERFERENCE

After the s beam passes through double slit it transforms into:-

where,

s1,s2 indicate beams generated by slit 1 and 2 respectively

DOUBLE SLIT INTERFERENCE

Emerging interference pattern due overlapping of s1 and s2 at the screen is given by:where, = path diff. between s1 to Ds and s2 to Ds.

WHICH-WAY MARKER

WHICH-WAY MARKER
Which-way detection, is done by quarter wave plate (QWP) in front of each slit. QWPs are used to change linearly polarized light into circularly polarized light. One of the wave plate would change light into RCP while the other would change it to LCP.

WHICH-WAY MARKER
Hence it is possible to figure out which slit the s photon went through as summarised below:Polarization of Polarization of Detected Polarization of photon s after photon s after polarization for photon s before going through going through photon p the QWP's QWP1 and slit 1 QWP2 and slit 2

x y

y x

R L

L R

WHICH-WAY MARKER
Thus presence of QWP is used determine

which slit s photon passed through. Or in other words s photons are marked. Therefore the interference fringes

disappear.

WHICH-WAY MARKER
Introduction of QWP leads to:-

where, R and L represent RCP and LCP. since |1> and |2> have orthogonal polarization there is no possibility of interference.

WHICH-WAY MARKER
Now the output counter will produce the following:-

QUANTUM ERASURE
Now we place a polarizer in the path of p beam oriented so that it will pass light that is a combination of x and y. Hence it is no longer possible to find out polarisation of s photons before QWPs with certainity. Hence the marking information is deleted and hence potential to gain which-way information is lost.

QUANTUM ERASURE

QUANTUM ERASURE
Representing|1> and |2> in a way that expresses them as combinations of symmetric and antisymmetric polarisations as given below:-

Therefore the complete state |> upon the introduction of polarizer can be written as:-

QUANTUM ERASURE
Now the interference pattern returns and the output of counter is as below:-

QUANTUM ERASURE
Up to this point, experiment has been performed by detecting photon p before photon s. That means p has some means to communicate with s so that presence or absence of interference is controlled. However this is not the case!

DELAYED ERASURE
In order verify the path of beam p is lengthened so that photon s can be detected first. The steps of Which-way marking and Erasure are repeated. In this case also results obtained are the same as observed earlier. Thus it can be inferred that quantum erasure can be performed even after the interfering particle has been detected.

CONCLUSION
From this experiment it is apparent that interference is destroyed by a "which-way" marker and that it can be restored through erasure of the marker, accomplished by making the appropriate measurement on the entangled partner photon p. "Which-way" measurement does not alter the momentum or position of the photons to cause destruction of the interference pattern.

CONCLUSION
The loss of interference as being due only to the fact that the photons are entangled and that the presence of the QWPs changes this entanglement. The interference pattern can be brought back through the erasure measurement because of the entanglement of the photons, and the way that the presence of the QWPs and polarizer changes the entanglement.

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