Inspecting the use of SLMs for the control of photonic quantum states

Abstract

Spatial light modulators (SLMs) are widely used to coherently control quantum states of light. Whencarrying out these experiments, some assumptions are made. For instance, it is supposed that theposition-momentum correlations between twin photon pairs are not affected by the use of a liquidcrystal display (LCD) as a SLM. Furthermore, it is assumed that the characterization of such devicesperformed with an intense laser source, is still valid in the single photon regime. In this work, we showthat such assumptions are acceptable, within the experimental uncertainties, for a liquid crystal onsilicon (LCoS) display. This is especially important when considering the use of this kind of displaysfor the coherent control of quantum states based on twin photon sources.