Classical reconstruction of interference patterns of position-wavevector-entangled photon pairs by time-reversal method

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the classical reconstruction of interference patterns of position-wavevector-entangled photon pairs using the time-reversal method, extending previous applications from time-frequency to position-wavevector entanglement.

Contribution

It is the first to apply the time-reversal method to position-wavevector-entangled photon systems, experimentally verifying the reconstruction of interference patterns.

Findings

Successfully reconstructed interference patterns of position-wavevector-entangled photons.

Extended the application of the time-reversal method to new entanglement domains.

Confirmed the equivalence of classical and quantum interference patterns in these systems.

Abstract

The quantum interference of entangled photons forms a key phenomenon underlying various quantum-optical technologies. It is known that the quantum interference patterns of entangled photon pairs can be reconstructed classically by the time-reversal method; however, the time-reversal method has been applied only to time-frequency-entangled two-photon systems in previous experiments. Here, for the first time, we apply the time-reversal method to the position-wavevector-entangled two-photon systems: the two-photon Young interferometer and the two-photon beam focusing system. We experimentally demonstrate that the time-reversed systems classically reconstruct the same interference patterns as the position-wavevector-entangled two-photon systems.