Exploring quantum optics and quantum information: from the interferometer to the generation of correlated photons

Abstract

This thesis investigates, in photonics, how to design, diagnose, and exploit open quantum dynamics and light–matter interactions along three complementary fronts. First, we present a programmable interferometer in linear optics in which the path degree of freedom encodes the system and polarization serves as an ancilla qubit to implement Kraus maps; we implement decoherence and dissipation channels (dephasing, amplitude damping, and Pauli), including finite-temperature extensions (GAD/SGAD). Next, using a recently defined quantum-reality quantifier, we demonstrate that Alice’s local operations correlate with the erasure of the reality of observables in Bob’s photon in a scenario of causally disconnected measurements; a modified optical quantum eraser, with entangled pairs and quantum-state tomography, confirms this correlation experimentally. Finally, we investigate the generation and control of Stokes–anti-Stokes correlations in Raman scattering and propose an experimental route to (i) analyze orbital-angular-momentum conservation in this process and (ii) study field-induced anisotropy in polar liquids under a uniform electric field.