Maximally Entangled Mixed-State Generation via Local Operations

Abstract

We present a general theoretical method to generate maximally entangled mixed states of a pair of photons initially prepared in the singlet polarization state. This method requires only local operations upon a single photon of the pair and exploits spatial degrees of freedom to induce decoherence. We report also experimental confirmation of these theoretical results.

5 pages, 2 figures, to be published in Physical Review A