Entangled Singularity patterns of Photons in Ince-Gauss modes

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates for the first time the entanglement of photons in Ince-Gauss modes, revealing complex singularity patterns and non-local control of these structures, with implications for high-dimensional quantum communication.

Contribution

It introduces the first experimental demonstration of entanglement in Ince-Gauss modes, showing non-local steering of singularity patterns and defining a new quantum correlation function.

Findings

Verified 2D and 3D entanglement of Ince-Gauss modes

Demonstrated non-local control of singularity structures

Measured a specific quantum-correlation function for future protocols

Abstract

Photons with complex spatial mode structures open up possibilities for new fundamental high-dimensional quantum experiments and for novel quantum information tasks. Here we show for the first time entanglement of photons with complex vortex and singularity patterns called Ince-Gauss modes. In these modes, the position and number of singularities vary depending on the mode parameters. We verify 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional entanglement of Ince-Gauss modes. By measuring one photon and thereby defining its singularity pattern, we non-locally steer the singularity structure of its entangled partner, while the initial singularity structure of the photons is undefined. In addition we measure an Ince-Gauss specific quantum-correlation function with possible use in future quantum communication protocols.