[en] This paper's purpose is to show some experiments performed in the 'Carlo Novero' labs of the Optics Division of the National Institute of Metrological Research (INRIM, Torino, Italy) in the last years, aiming to discriminate between Standard Quantum Mechanics and some specific, restricted class of Hidden Variable Theories (HVTs).The first experiment, realized in two different configurations, will perform the Alicki - Van Ryn non-classicality test on single particles, in our specific case heralded single photons. The second experiment instead will be on the testing of two restricted Local Realistic Theories (LRTs), properly built to describe polarization entangled photons experiments, whose inequalities are not affected by the detection loophole.

[en] Quantum Mechanics (QM) is one of the pillars of modern physics: an impressive amount of experiments have confirmed this theory and many technological applications are based on it. Nevertheless, at one century since its development, various aspects concerning its very foundations still remain to be clarified. Among them, the transition from a microscopic probabilistic world into a macroscopic deterministic one and quantum non-locality. A possible way out from these problems would be if QM represents a statistical approximation of an unknown deterministic theory. This review is addressed to present the most recent progresses on the studies related to hidden variable theories (HVT), both from an experimental and a theoretical point of view, giving a larger emphasis to results with a direct experimental application. More in details, the first part of the review is a historical introduction to this problem. The Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen argument and the first discussions about HVT are introduced, describing the fundamental Bell's proposal for a general experimental test of every local HVT and the first attempts to realise it. The second part of the review is devoted to elucidate the recent progresses toward a conclusive Bell inequalities experiment obtained with entangled photons and other physical systems. Finally, the last sections are targeted to shortly discuss non-local HVT

[en] In this paper we will show some recent experiments performed in the 'Carlo Novero' labs of the Optics Division of the National Institute of Metrological Research (INRIM, Torino, Italy), in order to discriminate between Standard Quantum Mechanics and some specific, restricted class of Hidden Variable Theories (HVTs). The first experiment will be on the testing of two restricted Local Realistic Theories (LRTs), properly built to describe polarization entangled photons experiments, whose inequalities are not affected by the detection loophole. The second and third experiments instead will perform the Alicki - Van Ryn non-classicality test on single particles, by means of two different setups based on heralded single photon sources.

[en] Properties of quantum states have disclosed new and revolutionary technologies, ranging from quantum information to quantum imaging. This last field is intended to overcome the limits of classical imaging by exploiting specific properties of quantum states of light. One of the most interesting proposed schemes exploits spatial quantum correlations between twin beams for realizing sub-shot-noise imaging of weakly absorbing objects, leading ideally to a noise-free imaging. Here we discuss in detail the experimental realization of this scheme, showing its capability to reach a larger signal-to-noise ratio with respect to classical imaging methods and therefore its potential for future practical applications.

[en] Since, in general, nonorthogonal states cannot be cloned, any eavesdropping attempt in a quantum-communication scheme using nonorthogonal states as carriers of information introduces some errors in the transmission, leading to the possibility of detecting the spy. Usually, orthogonal states are not used in quantum-cryptography schemes since they can be faithfully cloned without altering the transmitted data. Nevertheless, L. Goldberg and L. Vaidman [Phys. Rev. Lett. 75, 1239 (1995)] proposed a protocol in which, even if the data exchange is realized using two orthogonal states, any attempt to eavesdrop is detectable by the legal users. In this scheme the orthogonal states are superpositions of two localized wave packets traveling along separate channels. Here we present an experiment realizing this scheme.

[en] In previous years the possibility of creating and manipulating quantum states of light has paved the way for the development of new technologies exploiting peculiar properties of quantum states, such as quantum information, quantum metrology and sensing, quantum imaging, etc. In particular quantum imaging addresses the possibility of overcoming limits of classical optics by using quantum resources such as entanglement or sub-Poissonian statistics. Albeit, quantum imaging is a more recent field than other quantum technologies, e.g. quantum information, it is now mature enough for application. Several different protocols have been proposed, some of them only theoretically, others with an experimental implementation and a few of them pointing to a clear application. Here we present a few of the most mature protocols ranging from ghost imaging to sub shot noise imaging and sub-Rayleigh imaging. (topical review)

[en] In this article we present recent activity of our laboratories on testing specific hidden variable models and in particular we discuss the realizations of Alicki - van Ryn test and tests of SED and of Santos' models.

[en] We study the frequency-angular line shape for a phase-matched nonlinear process producing entangled states and show that there is a continuous variety of maximally entangled states generated for different mismatch values within the natural bandwidth. Detailed considerations are made for two specific methods of polarization entanglement preparation, based on type-II spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) and on SPDC in two subsequent type-I crystals producing orthogonally polarized photon pairs. It turns out that different Bell states are produced at the center of the SPDC line and on its slopes, corresponding to about half-maximum intensity level. These Bell states can be filtered out by either frequency selection or angular selection, or both. Our theoretical calculations are confirmed by a series of experiments, performed for the two above-mentioned schemes of producing polarization-entangled photon pairs and with two kinds of measurements: frequency selective and angular selective

[en] Prompted by the need for various studies ranging from quantum information to foundations of quantum mechanics, we systematically study the possibility of the absolute calibration of analog photodetectors based on the properties of parametric amplifiers. Our results show that such a method can be effectively developed with interesting possible applications in metrology

[en] We propose a new scheme for measuring the quantum efficiency of a single-photon detection apparatus by using polarization-entangled states. The scheme consists of measuring the polarization of a member of a polarization-entangled pair after a 90 deg. polarization rotation conditional on the detection of the correlated photon after polarization selection. We present experimental results obtained with this scheme compared with traditional biphoton calibration. Our results show the interesting potentiality of the suggested scheme