Entanglement, Dephasing, and Phase Recovery via Cross-Correlation Measurements of Electrons

Abstract

Determination of the path taken by a quantum particle leads to a suppression of interference and to a classical behavior. We employ here a quantum "which path" detector to perform accurate path determination in a two-path Mach-Zehnder electron interferometer, leading to full suppression of the interference. Following the dephasing process we recover the interference by measuring the cross correlation between the interferometer and detector currents. Under our measurement conditions every interfering electron is dephased by approximately a single electron in the detector-leading to mutual entanglement of approximately single pairs of electrons.