We present a new optical scheme enabling the implementation of highly stable and configurable non-Markovian dynamics. Here one photon qubit can circulate in a multipass bulk geometry consisting of two concatenated Sagnac interferometers to simulate the so called collisional model, where the system interacts at discrete times with a vacuum environment. We show the optical features of our apparatus and three different implementations of it, replicating a pure Markovian scenario and two non-Markovian ones, where we quantify the information backflow by tracking the evolution of the initial entanglement between the system photon and an ancillary one.

Many disordered systems show a superdiffusive dynamics, intermediate between the diffusive one, typical of a classical stochastic process, and the so called ballistic behaviour, which is generally expected for the spreading in a quantum process. We have experimentally investigated the superdiffusive behaviour of a quantum walk (QW), whose dynamics can be related to energy transport phenomena, with a resolution which is high enough to clearly distinguish between different disorder regimes. By our experimental setup, the region between ballistic and diffusive spreading can be effectively scanned by suitably setting few degrees of freedom and without applying any decoherence to the QW evolution.

In this work we demonstrate the use of stimulated emission tomography to characterize a hyperentangled state generated by spontaneous parametric down-conversion in a CW-pumped source. In particular, we consider the generation of hyper-entangled states consisting of photon pairs entangled in polarisation and path. These results extend the capability of stimulated emission tomography beyond the polarisation degree of freedom, and demonstrate the use of this technique to study states in higher dimension Hilbert spaces. arXiv:1812.08423v1 [quant-ph]

No abstract

A novel bulk optics scheme for quantum walks is presented. It consists of a one-dimensional lattice built on two concatenated displaced Sagnac interferometers that make it possible to reproduce all the possible trajectories of an optical quantum walk. Because of the closed loop configuration, the interferometric structure is intrinsically stable in phase. Moreover, the lattice structure is highly configurable, as any phase component perceived by the walker is accessible, and finally, all output modes can be measured at any step of the quantum walk evolution. We report here on the experimental implementation of ordered and disordered quantum walks.