We report a quantum interference and imaging experiment which allows identifying the entanglement in momentum and position variables of a two-photon system. The measurements show indeed that the uncertainties in the sum of momenta and in the difference of positions of the entangled two-photon satisfy both EPR inequalities $\Delta (k_1+k_2)<\min (\Delta k_1,\Delta k_2)$ and $\Delta (x_1-x_2)<\min (\Delta x_1,\Delta x_2)$. These two inequalities, together, represent a nonclassicality condition. Our measurements provide a direct way to distinguish between quantum entanglement and classical correlation in continuous variables for systems of pairs of photons.

Taming decoherence is essential in realizing quantum computation and quantum communication. Here we experimentally demonstrate that decoherence due to amplitude damping can be suppressed by exploiting quantum measurement reversal in which a weak measurement and the reversing measurement are introduced before and after the decoherence channel, respectively. We have also investigated the trade-off relation between the degree of decoherence suppression and the channel transmittance.

We report complete measurement of the spectral properties of photon pairs generated via spontaneous parametric downconversion. The measurements, which include not only single-photon spectra but also two-photon joint spectra, were performed for both cw and ultrafast-pumping configurations. In agreement with theoretical predictions, the spectra for the ultrafast-pumped case reveal asymmetries that are not present with cw pumping.

We demonstrate sub-Rayleigh limit imaging of an object via speckle illumination. Imaging beyond the conventional Rayleigh limit is achieved by illuminating the object with pseudothermal light that exhibits a random speckle pattern. An object image is reconstructed from the second-order correlation measurement and the resolution of the image, which exceeds the Rayleigh limit, is shown to be related to the size of the speckle pattern that is tied to the lateral coherence length of the pseudothermal light.

The weak value concept has enabled fundamental studies of quantum measurement and, recently, found potential applications in quantum and classical metrology. However, most weak value experiments reported to date do not require quantum mechanical descriptions, as they only exploit the classical wave nature of the physical systems. In this work, we demonstrate measurement of the sequential weak value of two incompatible observables by making use of two-photon quantum interference so that the results can only be explained quantum physically. We then demonstrate that the sequential weak value measurement can be used to perform direct quantum process tomography of a qubit channel. Our work not only demonstrates the quantum nature of weak values but also presents potential new applications of weak values in analyzing quantum channels and operations.

Quantum-mechanical wave–particle duality implies that probability distributions for granular detection events exhibit wave-like interference. On the single-particle level, this leads to self-interference—e.g., on transit across a double slit—for photons as well as for large, massive particles, provided that no which-way information is available to any observer, even in principle. When more than one particle enters the game, their specific many-particle quantum features are manifested in correlation functions, provided the particles cannot be distinguished. We are used to believe that interference fades away monotonically with increasing distinguishability—in accord with available experimental evidence on the single- and on the many-particle level. Here, we demonstrate experimentally and theoretically that such monotonicity of the quantum-to-classical transition is the exception rather than the rule whenever more than two particles interfere. As the distinguishability of the particles is continuously increased, different numbers of particles effectively interfere, which leads to interference signals that are, in general, nonmonotonic functions of the distinguishability of the particles. This observation opens perspectives for the experimental characterization of many-particle coherence and sheds light on decoherence processes in many-particle systems.