Generation of Spatially Broadband Twin Beams for Quantum Imaging

Abstract

We generate spatially multimode twin beams using 4-wave mixing in a hot atomic vapor in a phase-insensitive traveling-wave amplifier configuration. The far-field coherence area measured at 3.5 MHz is shown to be much smaller than the angular bandwidth of the process and bright twin images with independently quantum-correlated subareas can be generated with little distortion. The available transverse degrees of freedom form a high-dimensional Hilbert space that we use to produce quantum-correlated twin beams with finite orbital angular momentum.