Abstract:

The Polarimeter is a useful tool in nearly every branch of modern optics, providing a complete, real-time, graphical measurement of the polarization of an optical field.  From the perspective of quantum information processing, a polarimeter actively monitors the complete quantum state of a single qubit system.  Here we present advances in two-qubit state visualization and quantum state tomography which have made it possible to realize a complete, real-time, graphical measurement of a two-qubit system.  In addition, we present work on the fiber-based, telecom-band entanglement sources for which this type of tool will be immediately useful.