Quantum interferometry with multiports: entangled photons in optical fibres

This thesis is the result of theoretical and experimental work on the physics of optical multiports, which are the logical generalization of the beam splitter in classical and quantum optics. The experimental results are discussed in the context of Bell's inequalities and the physics of entanglement. The theoretical results show that multiport interferometers can be used to realize any discrete unitary transformation operating on modes of a classical or a quantum radiation field. Tests of a Bell-type inequality for higher-dimensional entangled states are thus possible using entangled photon pairs from a parametric downconversion source. The experimental work measured the nonclassical interferences at the fiber-optical three-way beam splitters (tritters) and three-path fiber interferometers. An experiment with a three-path all-fiber interferometer with HeNe laser light revealed the typical features of multipath interferometry. In another experiment, entangled photon pairs from the spontaneous parametric downconversion process were used to demonstrate a purely quantum effect, the antibunching of photon pairs at the output of an integrated fiber multiport. In the main experiment, time-energy entanglement of photon pairs from a parametric downconversion source in two threepath interferometers was used to built the first realization of an entangled three-state system. The interferences measured in this experiment are the first demonstration of two-photon three-path interferences. The quantum and classical pictures of the experiment are discussed giving an outlook to new experiments. Technical details about the experiments, a MATHEMATICA program for the design of unitary interferometers, some calculations, and photographs of type-II downconversion light are included in the appendices. (author)