We show that a thermal light random in transverse direction can perform subwavelength double slit interference in a joint-intensity measurement. This is the classical version of quantum lithography, and it can be explained with the correlation of rays instead of the entanglement of photons.
Differing from the traditional method of achieving subwavelength interference, we have demonstrated the two-photon subwavelength interference effect of broadband chaotic light in a polarization-selective Michelson interferometer with an ultrafast two-photon absorption detector the first time, which is achieved by manipulating two-photon probability amplitudes involved in the interference. In theory, the two-photon polarization coherence matrix and probability amplitudes matrix are combined to develop polarized two-photon interference terms, which explains the experimental results well. In orde…
Recently, we have showed a mechanism that could provide a great transmission enhancement of the light waves passed through subwavelength aperture arrays in thin metal films not by the plasmon-polariton waves, but by the constructive interference of diffracted waves (beams generated by the apertures) at the detector placed in the far-field zone. We now present a quantum reformulation of the model. The Hamiltonian describing the interference-induced enhancement of the intensity and energy of a multimode quantum optical field is derived. Such a field can be produced, for instance, by a subwavelen…
The 'Ghost' interference experiment is analyzed when the source of entangled photons is a multimode Optical Parametric Amplifier(OPA) whose weak limit is the two-photon Spontaneous Parametric Downconversion(SPDC) beam. The visibility of the double-slit pattern is calculated, taking the finite coincidence time window of the photon counting detectors into account. It is found that the coincidence window and the bandwidth of light reaching the detectors play a crucial role in the loss of visibility on coincidence detection, not only in the 'Ghost' interference experiment but in all experiments in…
We report on the observation of a high visibility Hong-Ou-Mandel interference of two heralded photons emitted from a spontaneous parametric down conversion~(SPDC) pumped by continuous-wave~(cw) light. A non-degenerate photon pair at 1541~nm and 1580~nm is generated by cw-pumped SPDC through a periodically poled lithium niobate waveguide. The heralded single photon at 1541~nm is prepared by the detection of the photon at 1580~nm. We performed the experiment of the Hong-Ou-Mandel interference between heralded single photons in separated time bins and observed a high visibility interference. All …
Many quantum information protocols require a Bell-state measurement of entangled systems. Most optical Bell-state measurements utilize two-photon interference at a beam splitter. By creating polarization-entangled photons with spontaneous parametric down-conversion using a first-order Hermite-Gaussian pump beam, we invert the usual interference behavior and perform an incomplete Bell-state measurement in the coincidence basis. We discuss the possibility of a complete Bell-state measurement in the coincidence basis using hyperentangled states [Phys. Rev. A, \textbf{58}, R2623 (1998)].
We demonstrate and characterize interference between discrete photons emitted by two separate semiconductor quantum dot states in different samples excited by a pulsed laser. Their energies are tuned into resonance using strain. The photons have a total coalescence probability of 18.1% and the coincidence rate is below the classical limit. Post-selection of coincidences within a narrow time window increases the coalescence probability to 47%. The probabilities are reduced from unity because of dephasing and the postselection value is also reduced by the detector time response.
Looking Beyond Visibility: Resolving the Temporal Structure of Continuous-Wave Four-Photon Hong-Ou-Mandel Interference
Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering(弗劳恩霍夫应用光学和精密工程研究所);Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Institute of Applied Physics, Abbe Center of Photonics(耶拿弗里德里希·席勒大学应用物理学院阿贝光子学中心);Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh Campus(赫瑞-瓦特大学爱丁堡校区)
A peak in coincidence events has been observed in a modified Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer fed with weak coherent states inside the region of overlapping wave-packets. The inversion of the usual interference pattern represented by the HOM dip is equally observed when the wave packets are frequency displaced. The higher rate of coincidences indicates that photons are more likely to take on different output paths of the interferometer. This effect was harnessed so a detection on one of the arms could herald the presence of a photon in the other. The second order autocorrelation function at zero …
Single photon, emitted in a transition between two states, has a frequency distribution of intensity, which is given by Lorentzian if the transition is only naturally broadened and the period of observation $T$ is long compared to the lifetime $T_{1}$ of the excited state. However, when the observation time $T$ is short or comparable to $T_{1}$, the frequency spectrum is appreciably broadened. If only the delayed part of the emitted radiation field is detected, then the radiation spectrum does not change. However, if the radiation field is transmitted through a resonant absorber and then detec…
Recently, Chen \em et al\rm.\ [New J. Phys. {\bf 13} (2011) 083018] presented experimental results, accompanied by quantum-mechanical analysis, showing that the quantum interference behavior of Bell states could be simulated in a modified Mach-Zehnder interferometer whose inputs are pseudothermal light beams obtained by passing laser light through a rotating ground-glass diffuser. Their experiments and their theory presumed low-flux operation in which the simulated quantum interference is observed via photon-coincidence counting. We first show that the Chen \em et al\rm.\ photon-coincidence co…
High-precision measurements implemented by means of light is desired in all fields of science. However, light is a wave and Rayleigh criterion gives us a diffraction limitation in classical optics which restricts to get arbitrary high resolution. Sub-wavelength interference has a potential application in lithography to beat the classical Rayleigh limit of resolution. We carefully study the second-order correlation theory to get the physics behind sub-wavelength interference in photon coincidence detection. A Young's double-slit experiment with pseudo-thermal light is carried out to test the se…
In classical optics, Young's double-slit experiment with colored coherent light gives rise to individual interference fringes for each light frequency, referring to single-photon interference. However, two-photon double-slit interference has been widely studied only for wavelength-degenerate biphoton, known as subwavelength quantum lithography. In this work, we report double-slit interference experiments with two-color biphoton. Different from the degenerate case, the experimental results depend on the measurement methods. From a two-axis coincidence measurement pattern we can extract complete…
The Hong-Ou-Mandel effect lies at the heart of quantum interferometry, having multiple applications in the field of quantum information processing and no classical counterpart. Despite its popularity, only a few works have considered polarization-frequency interaction within the interferometer. In this paper, we fill this gap. Our system of interest is a general biphoton polarization state that experiences effective dephasing noise by becoming entangled with the same photons' frequency state, as the photons propagate through birefringent media. The photons then meet at a beam splitter, where e…
We describe a multi-mode passive linear optical network which emulates the two-photon number statistics of a beam splitter, irrespective on where the two photons enter the network. This is done by firstly defining general properties that the generator of the network matrix must fulfil. We then show that the network's effective transmission coefficient can be freely set to replicate either the absence of coincidence counts (i.e. the Hong-Ou-Mandel dip), or a 100% coincidence rate, as well as all possible two-photon beam splitter statistics between these two extremal points. Finally, we demonstr…
We show a simulation of quantum random walks with multiple photons using a staggered array of 50/50 beam splitters with a bank of detectors at any desired level. We discuss the multiphoton interference effects that are inherent to this setup, and introduce one, two, and threefold coincidence detection schemes. The use of Feynman diagrams are used to intuitively explain the unique multiphoton interference effects of these quantum random walks.
We report on a Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) interference experiment for quantum states with photon numbers per mode as large as 10^6 generated via high-gain parametric down conversion (PDC). The standard technique of coincidence counting leads in this case to a dip with a very low visibility. By measuring, instead of coincidence rate, the variance of the photon-number difference, we observe a peak with 99.99% visibility. From the shape of the peak, one can infer information about the temporal mode structure of the PDC radiation, including the degree of frequency/time entanglement.
We present the first observation of two-photon polarization interference structure in the second-order Glauber's correlation function of two-photon light generated via type-II spontaneous parametric down-conversion. In order to obtain this result, two-photon light is transmitted through an optical fibre and the coincidence distribution is analyzed by means of the START-STOP method. Beyond the experimental demonstration of an interesting effect in quantum optics, these results also have considerable relevance for quantum communications.
We present a new realization of the textbook experiment consisting in single-photon interference based on the pulsed, optically excited photoluminescence of a single colour centre in a diamond nanocrystal. Interferences are created by wavefront-splitting with a Fresnel's biprism and observed by registering the "single-photon clicks" with an intensified CCD camera. This imaging detector provides also a real-time movie of the build-up of the single-photon fringes. We perform a second experiment with two detectors sensitive to photons that follow either one or the other interference path. Evidenc…
Non-classical interference of photons lies at the heart of optical quantum information processing. This effect is exploited in universal quantum gates as well as in purpose-built quantum computers that solve the BosonSampling problem. Although non-classical interference is often associated with perfectly indistinguishable photons this only represents the degenerate case, hard to achieve under realistic experimental conditions. Here we exploit tunable distinguishability to reveal the full spectrum of multi-photon non-classical interference. This we investigate in theory and experiment by contro…
Elucidating similarities and differences between quantum-optics biphoton interference phenomena and the quantum physics of quasi-one-dimensional double-well optically-trapped ultracold neutral bosonic or fermionic atoms, we show that the analog of the optical biphoton joint-coincidence spectral correlations, studied with massless non-interacting biphotons emanating from EPR-Bell-Bohm single-occupancy sources, corresponds to a distinct contribution in the total second-order momentum correlations of the massive, interacting, and time-evolving ultracold atoms. This single-occupancy contribution c…
The experimental characterization of multi-photon quantum interference effects in optical networks is essential in many applications of photonic quantum technologies, which include quantum computing and quantum communication as two prominent examples. However, such characterization often requires technologies which are beyond our current experimental capabilities, and today's methods suffer from errors due to the use of imperfect sources and photodetectors. In this paper, we introduce a simple experimental technique to characterise multi-photon quantum interference by means of practical laser …
The distinguishing of the multiphoton quantum interference effect from the classical one forms one of the most important issues in modern quantum mechanics and experimental quantum optics. For a long time, the two-photon interference (TPI) of correlated photons has been recognized as a pure quantum effect that cannot be simulated with classical lights. In the meantime, experiments have been carried out to investigate the classical analogues of the TPI. In this study, we conduct TPI experiments with uncorrelated photons with different center frequencies from a luminescent light source, and we c…
Subwavelength aperture arrays in thin metal films enable enhanced transmission of light and matter waves [for example, see T.W. Ebbesen et al., Nature (London) 391, 667 (1998) and E. Moreno et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 170406 (2005)]. The phenomenon relies on resonant excitation of the surface electron or matter waves. We show another mechanism that provides a great transmission enhancement not by coupling to the surface waves but by the interference of diffracted evanescent waves in the far-field zone. Verification of the mechanism is presented by comparison with recently published data.
Multiphoton interference is an important phenomenon in modern quantum mechanics and experimental quantum optics, and it is fundamental for the development of quantum information science and technologies. Over the last three decades, several theoretical and experimental studies have been performed to understand the essential principles underlying such interference and to explore potential applications. Recently, the two-photon interference (TPI) of phase-randomized weak coherent states has played a key role in the realization of long-distance quantum communication based on the use of classical …
We propose a novel femtosecond stimulated Raman spectroscopy (FSRS) technique that combines entangled photons with interference detection to select matter pathways and enhance the resolution. Following photo excitation by an actinic pump, the measurement uses a pair of broadband entangled photons, one (signal) interacts with the molecule together with a third narrowband pulse induces the Raman process. The other (idler) photon provides a reference for the coincidence measurement. This interferometric photon-coincidence counting detection allows to separately measure Raman gain and loss signals…