Control of quantum interference in the quantum eraser

Abstract

We have implemented an optical quantum eraser with the aim of studying this phenomenon in the context of state discrimination. An interfering single photon is entangled with another one serving as a which-path marker. As a consequence, the visibility of the interference as well as the which-path information are constrained by the overlap (measured by the inner product) between the which-path marker states, which in a more general situation are non-orthogonal. In order to perform which-path or quantum eraser measurements while analyzing non-orthogonal states, we resort to a probabilistic method for the unambiguous modification of the inner product between the two states of the which-path marker in a discrimination-like process.