The ability that one system immediately affects another one by using local measurements is regarded as quantum steering, which can be detected by various steering criteria. Recently, Mondal et al. [Phys. Rev. A 98, 052330 (2018)] derived the complementarity relations of coherence steering criteria, and revealed that the quantum steering of a system can be observed through the average coherence of a subsystem. Here, we experimentally verify the complementarity relations between quantum steering criteria by employing two-photon Bell-like states and three Pauli operators. The results demonstrate that if prepared quantum states can violate two setting coherence steering criteria and turn out to be steerable states, then they cannot violate the complementary settings criteria. Three measurement settings inequalities, which establish a set of complementarity relations between these two coherence steering criteria, are always obeyed by all prepared quantum states in experiment. In addition, we experimentally certify that the strengths of coherence steering criteria depend on the choice of coherence measure. In comparison with two setting coherence steering criteria based on $l_1$ norm of coherence and relative entropy of coherence, our experimental results show that the steering criterion based on skew information of coherence is the strongest in detecting the steerability of two-photon Bell-like states. Thus, our experimental demonstration can deepen the understanding of the relation between the quantum steering and quantum coherence.

• Received 27 July 2020
• Revised 18 January 2021
• Accepted 28 January 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.103.022207