Two electron interference experiments which are far from each other are considered. They are irradiated with correlated nonclassical electromagnetic fields, produced by the same source. The phase factors are in this case operators, and their expectation values with respect to the density matrix of the electromagnetic field quantify the observed electron fringes. The correlated photons create correlations between the observed electron intensities. Both cases of classically correlated (separable) and quantum mechanically correlated (entangled) electromagnetic fields are considered. It is shown that the induced correlation between the distant electron interferences is sensitive to the nature of the correlation between the irradiating photons.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, two-column pape

Electron interference in mesoscopic devices irradiated by external nonclassical microwaves is considered. In the case of one-mode microwaves, it is shown that both the average intensity and the spectral density of the interfering electrons are sensitive to the quantum noise of the microwaves. The results for various quantum states of the microwaves are compared and contrasted with the classical case. Separable and entangled twomode microwaves are also considered and their effect on electron average intensity and autocorrelation, is discussed.

Abstract. The interaction of mesoscopic interference devices with nonclassical electromagnetic fields is studied. The external quantum fields induce a phase factor on the electric charges. This phase factor, which is a generalization of the standard Aharonov-Bohm phase factor, is in the case of nonclassical electromagnetic fields a quantum mechanical operator. Its expectation value depends on the density matrix describing the nonclassical photons and determines the interference. Several examples are discussed, which show that the quantum noise of the nonclassical photons destroys slightly the electron interference fringes. An interesting application arises in the context of distant electron interference devices, irradiated with entangled photons. In this case the interfering electrons in the two devices become entangled. The same ideas are applied in the context of SQUID rings irradiated with nonclassical electromagnetic fields. It is shown that the statistics of the Cooper pairs tunneling through the Josephson junction depend on the statistics of the photons.

Two mesoscopic SQUID rings which are far from each other, are considered. A source of twomode nonclassical microwaves irradiates the two rings with correlated photons. The Josephson currents are in this case quantum mechanical operators, and their expectation values with respect to the density matrix of the microwaves, yield the experimentally observed currents. Classically correlated (separable) and quantum mechanically correlated (entangled) microwaves are considered, and their effect on the Josephson currents is quantified. Results for two different examples that involve microwaves in number states and coherent states are derived. It is shown that the quantum statistics of the tunnelling electron pairs through the Josephson junctions in the two rings, are correlated.

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