Entangled Optical Vortex Links

J. Romero, J. Leach, B. Jack, M. R. Dennis, S. Franke-Arnold, S. M. Barnett, M. J. Padgett
2011 Physical Review Letters  
Optical vortices are lines of phase singularity which percolate through all optical fields. We report the entanglement of linked optical vortex loops in the light produced by spontaneous parametric downconversion. As measured by using a Bell inequality, this entanglement between topological features extends over macroscopic and finite volumes. The entanglement of photons in complex three-dimensional topological states suggests the possibility of entanglement of similar features in other quantum
more » ... systems describable by complex scalar functions, such as superconductors, superfluids, and Bose-Einstein condensates.
doi:10.1103/physrevlett.106.100407 pmid:21469778 fatcat:65mc46qxfjgqbbwhcb5ulto3gi