Estimation of von Neumann entropy of different light sources using array detectors

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method using array detectors to measure the von Neumann Entropy of various light sources, revealing how entropy varies with spatial binning and polarization states, with implications for quantum optics applications.

Contribution

The study demonstrates a novel approach to estimating von Neumann Entropy of different light sources using array detectors, including classical and quantum light, and analyzes the effect of pixel binning.

Findings

Von Neumann Entropy varies with light source type and polarization.

Array detector method effectively measures entropy in diverse light sources.

Entropy depends on pixel binning and polarization parameters.

Abstract

We employ a method involving an array detector to measure the transverse spatial variation of the von Neumann Entropy (VNE) associated with the polarization state of light for different light sources including the coherent light from a diode laser, the chaotic light from an LED, the fluorescent emission from a dye widely used as a contrast agent and also the downconverted output from the process of Spontaneous Parametric Down Conversion which has widespread applications in Quantum Optics as a source of entangled photon pairs. Additionally, we studied the variation of the Stokes parameters as well as von Neumann entropy with pixel binning in the array detector output.