Plasma interactions with entangled photons

Entangled photons are in a quantum state of light that cannot be described classically using Maxwell’s equations. Entangled photon-matter interactions have been studied in solid, liquid and gas, but less in plasmas. Furthermore, photon entanglement has been exploited for secure communication, quantum teleportation, quantum metrology, and ghost imaging. Leveraging the latest single-photon detectors and correlated photon-detection schemes, quantum-enhanced plasma sensing options are available through detection of minute phase and polarization changes [a]. Furthermore, relativistic plasmas are known to generate entangled particles and their interactions with entangled state of light are of great interest to both plasma and quantum information science (P-QIS). We summarize several complementary directions for P-QIS: (1) Phase and polarization modulation of entangled photons by laboratory plasmas over 10 orders of magnitude in density; (2) Incoherent and coherent scattering of entangled photons by plasmas; and (3) Entangled-photon interactions with relativistic plasmas and generation of entangled X-ray photons. Recent results on entangled photon interferometry for plasmas will be highlighted [a].

 

[a] Z. Wang and Y.-H. Shih, ‘Entangled-photon interferometry for plasmas.’ Physics of Plasmas 28, 060703 (2021); also https://arxiv.org/abs/2104.05386.

  Physics of Plasmas) (2021); also https://arxiv.org/abs/2104.05386.