Entanglement of the orbital angular momentum states of photons

Entangled quantum states are not separable, regardless of the spatial separation of their components. This is a manifestation of an aspect of quantum mechanics known as quantum non-locality1,2. An important consequence of this is that the measurement of the state of one particle in a two-particle entangled state defines the state of the second particle instantaneously, whereas neither particle possesses its own well-defined state before the measurement. Experimental realizations of entanglement have hitherto been restricted to two-state quantum systems3,4,5,6, involving, for example, the two orthogonal polarization states of photons. Here we demonstrate entanglement involving the spatial modes of the electromagnetic field carrying orbital angular momentum. As these modes can be used to define an infinitely dimensional discrete Hilbert space, this approach provides a practical route to entanglement that involves many orthogonal quantum states, rather than just two Multi-dimensional entangled states could be of considerable importance in the field of quantum information7,8, enabling, for example, more efficient use of communication channels in quantum cryptography9,10,11.