Quantum Aberrations: Entangling Photons with Zernike Polynomials

Abstract

We introduce Zernike polynomials as a novel degree of freedom for encoding quantum information in the spatial structure of photons. Building on their orthogonality and completeness over the unit disc, we develop a framework for generating, manipulating, and detecting photons in Zernike modes, and propose methods for realizing single-photon and two-photon Zernike wave packets. We demonstrate analytically that two-photon states generated via spontaneous parametric down- conversion exhibit mode entanglement in the Zernike basis, with correlations arising from selection rules enforced by Clebsch-Gordan coefficients. Our results open a new pathway for structured spatial entanglement, complementary to schemes based on Laguerre-Gaussian or Hermite-Gaussian modes, and suggest practical experimental implementations based on holographic modulation and optical Fourier techniques.