Quantum entanglement of angular momentum states with quantum numbers up to 10010

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates quantum entanglement involving photons with extremely high orbital angular momentum (over 10,000 quanta), pushing the limits of quantum mechanics and opening new avenues in quantum information and optical technologies.

Contribution

It introduces a novel technique using spiral phase mirrors to generate photons with unprecedented high OAM and demonstrates their entanglement with polarization, reaching the largest quantum number entangled in experiments.

Findings

Generated photons with over 10,000 quanta of OAM.

Demonstrated entanglement between high OAM and polarization.

Opened possibilities for advanced quantum information applications.

Abstract

Photons with a twisted phase front carry a quantized amount of orbital angular momentum (OAM) and have become important in various fields of optics, such as quantum and classical information science or optical tweezers. Because no upper limit on the OAM content per photon is known, they are also interesting systems to experimentally challenge quantum mechanical prediction for high quantum numbers. Here, we take advantage of a recently developed technique to imprint unprecedented high values of OAM, namely spiral phase mirrors (SPM), to generate photons with more than 10,000 quanta of OAM. Moreover, we demonstrate quantum entanglement between these large OAM quanta of one photon and the polarization of its partner photon. To our knowledge, this corresponds to entanglement with the largest quantum number that has been demonstrated in an experiment. The results may also open novel ways to couple single photons to massive objects, enhance angular resolution and highlight OAM as a promising way to increase the information capacity of a single photon.