Quantifying entanglement of parametric down-converted states in all degrees of freedom

Abstract

The amount of entanglement that exists in a parametric down-converted state is investigated in terms of all the degrees of freedom of the state. We quantify the amount of entanglement by the Schmidt number of the state, represented as a pure bipartite state by tagging the down-converted photons in terms of orthogonal states of polarization with the aid of type-II phase matching. To facilitate our calculations, we use a Wigner functional approach, which allows the incorporation of the full infinite dimensional spatiotemporal degrees of freedom. A quantitative example with reasonably achievable experimental conditions is considered to demonstrate that extremely large Schmidt numbers are achievable.