Experimental characterization of quantum polarization of three-photon states

Abstract

We experimentally investigate various quantum polarization features of three-photon quantum states, including product and entangled states with varying purity. The three-photon quantum states are categorized into six classes based on the rotation symmetry of mean, variance, and skewness of the polarization distribution. The representative three-photon quantum states in each category are prepared from double-pair emission from pulsed spontaneous parametric down-conversion and quantum interferometry. We demonstrate that the three-photon quantum states show interesting quantum polarization properties, such as maximum sum-uncertainty and hidden polarizations.