Efficient and Inexpensive Source of Entangled Photons For The Undergraduate Physics Laboratory

Reed College, Portland OR

Investigators

Abstract

Physics (13) Entanglement of particles is one of the most strikingly non-classical features of quantum mechanics and gives insight into the questions of quantum measurement and quantum nonlocality. In addition, schemes to exploit entanglements have applications in cryptography, communication and computation. Due to their high cost, controlled sources of entangled particles have historically been limited to the research laboratory. Recently, advances in downconversion source efficiency have opened the possibility of generating entangled photons at undergraduate institutions. This project will adapt these new techniques to the undergraduate physics laboratory to develop a relatively low-cost downconversion source. An immediate application of the source will be the demonstration of quantum nonlocality by violation of Bell's inequalities. This work will actively involve undergraduates at Reed College and will introduce into the undergraduate laboratory curriculum concepts and technologies from a very active research field. The source that we develop will be usable at a variety of undergraduate institutions.