Preparation and Analysis of Two-Dimensional Four-Qubit Entangled States with Photon Polarization and Spatial Path

Entanglement states serve as the central resource for a number of important applications in quantum information science, including quantum key distribution, quantum precision measurement, and quantum computing. In pursuit of more promising applications, efforts have been made to generate entangled states with more qubits. However, the efficient creation of a high-fidelity multiparticle entanglement remains an outstanding challenge due to the difficulty that increases exponentially with the number of particles. We design an interferometer that is capable of coupling the polarization and spatial paths of photons and prepare 2-D four-qubit GHZ entanglement states. Using quantum state tomography, entanglement witness, and the violation of Ardehali inequality against local realism, the properties of the prepared 2-D four-qubit entangled state are analyzed. The experimental results show that the prepared four-photon system is an entangled state with high fidelity.