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METHODOLOGICAL NOTES

A simple method of preparing pure states of an optical field, of implementing the Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen experiment, and of demonstrating the complementarity principle

D. N. Klyshko

Lomonosov Moscow State University

Abstract: A description is given of a device that periodically transforms a field from the vacuum state to a pure excited state that corresponds to the propagation of two correlated photons. It employs the phenomenon of parametric scattering, i.e., the emission of pairs of photons by a nonlinear crystal excited by a pulsed coherent pump under phase-matched conditions. In accordance with the well-known Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen gedanken experiment, the device can be used to observe the correlation of either the transverse momenta of the photons (when the two detectors are located in the far-field zone) or their transverse coordinates (when the detectors are in the near-field zone). The device may be of interest in photometry, and also from the methodological point of view as a clear demonstration of the EPR paradox and the complementarity of the transverse coordinate and momentum of a photon.

UDC: 530.145

PACS: 42.50.Dv, 42.79.Pw

DOI: 10.3367/UFNr.0154.198801e.0133

 English version: Physics–Uspekhi, 1988, 31:1, 74–85