Transformation of Bell states using linear optics

Abstract

Bell states form a complete set of four maximally polarization entangled two-qubit quantum state. Being a key ingredient of many quantum applications such as entanglement based quantum key distribution protocols, superdense coding, quantum teleportation, entanglement swapping etc, Bell states have to be prepared and measured. Spontaneous parametric down conversion is the easiest way of preparing Bell states and a desired Bell state can be prepared from any entangled photon pair through single-qubit logic gates. In this paper, we present the generation of complete set of Bell states, only by using unitary transformations of half-wave plate (HWP). The initial entangled state is prepared using a combination of a nonlinear crystal and a beam-splitter (BS) and the rest of the Bell states are created by applying single-qubit logic gates on the entangled photon pairs using HWPs. Our results can be useful in many quantum applications, especially in superdense coding where control over basis of maximally entangled state is required.