Partial-immunity of two-photon correlation against wavefront distortion for spatially entangled photons

Abstract

High-dimensional quantum entanglement in photons offers notable technological advancements over traditional qubit-based systems, including increased information density and enhanced security. However, such high-dimensional states are vulnerable to disruption by complex disordered media, presenting significant challenges in practical applications. Spatially-entangled photons are conventionally generated using a nonlinear crystal via spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC). While the effect of disorder on spatially entangled photons in the near field of the crystal is well understood, the impact of disorder in the far field is more complex. In this work, we present a systematic study of the randomization of two-photon correlations caused by arbitrary phase distortions in the far field by breaking it down into odd and even parity components. First, we theoretically show that the two-photon field is only sensitive to the even-parity part of the phase distortion. In follow-up experiments, we employ a deformable mirror to implement random phase distortions, separating the contributions of odd and even parity phases using Zernike polynomials. The experimental results are in agreements with the theoretical predictions. Subsequently, we perform numerical simulations to show that these results extend to stronger degrees of disorder. Our key finding is that, since two-photon correlations are only affected by the even-parity component of phase modulations, the number of independent adaptive optics elements required for optimizing the correlation can be effectively halved, offering a significant practical advantage in managing disorder in quantum systems.