Contextuality in spin-orbit laser modes

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the experimental violation of noncontextuality inequalities using spin-orbit laser modes, showing that such classical optical systems can emulate quantum contextuality and improve the violation of Bell inequalities.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental violation of Kujula-Dzhafarov inequalities with laser modes and enhances non-separable mode preparation for stronger Bell inequality violations.

Findings

Violation of Kujula-Dzhafarov inequalities observed

Enhanced non-separable modes lead to greater Bell inequality violation

Results align well with quantum mechanical predictions

Abstract

We experimentally observed the violation of Kujula-Dzhafarov noncontextuality inequalities by non-separable spin-orbit laser modes. Qubits are encoded on polarization and transverse modes of an intense laser beam. A spin-orbit non-separable mode was produced by means of a radial polarization converter (S-plate). The results show that contextuality can be investigated by using spin-orbit modes in a simple way, corroborating recent works stating that such system can emulate single-photon experiments. Additionally, an improvement in the non-separable mode preparation allowed us to observe a greater violation of the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality for such system. The results are in very good agreement with the theoretical predictions of quantum mechanics.