Verification of high-dimensional entanglement generated in quantum interference

Abstract

Entanglement and quantum interference are key ingredients in a variety of quantum information processing tasks. Harnessing the generation and characterization of entanglement in high-dimensional state spaces is a necessary prerequisite towards practical quantum protocols. Here, we use quantum interference on a beam splitter to engineer hyperentanglement in polarization and discrete frequency degrees of freedom (DOF). We show how independent measurements of polarization and frequency DOF allow for the verification of high-dimensional entanglement in the combined state space. These results may indicate new paths towards practical exploitation of entanglement stored in multiple degrees of freedom, in particular in the context of high-dimensional quantum information processing protocols.