Preservation and destruction of the purity of two-photon states in the interaction with a nanoscatterer

Abstract: The optical resonances supported by nanostructures offer the possibility to enhance the interaction between matter and the quantum states of light. In this work, we provide a framework to study the scattering of quantum states of light with information encoded in their helicity by a nanostructure. We analyze the purity of the scattered output quantum state, and we find that the purity of the incident state can be lost, when it interacts with the optical resonances of the nanostructure. To explain the loss of quantum purity, we develop a physical picture based on time delays and frequency shifts between the output two-photon modes. The framework and analysis proposed in this work establishes a tool to address the interaction between quantum light and nanoenvironments.