Parametric source of two-photon states with a tunable degree of entanglement and mixing: Experimental preparation of Werner states and maximally entangled mixed states

A parametric source of polarization-entangled photon pairs with striking spatial characteristics is reported. The distribution of the output electromagnetic k modes excited by spontaneous parametric down-conversion and coupled to the output detectors can be very broad. Using these states realized over a full entanglement ring output distribution, the nonlocal properties of the generated entanglement have been tested by standard Bell measurements and by Ou-Mandel interferometry. A "mode-patchwork" technique based on the quantum superposition principle is adopted to synthesize in a straightforward and reliable way any kind of mixed state, of large conceptual and technological interest in modern quantum information. Tunable Werner states and maximally entangled mixed states have indeed been created by this technique and investigated by quantum tomography. A study of the entropic and nonlocal properties of these states has been undertaken experimentally and theoretically, by a unifying variational approach.