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arXiv:2005.01743 · Physical Review Letters

Hong-Ou-Mandel Interference with Imperfect Single Photon Sources

H. Ollivier, Sarah E. Thomas, Stephen C. Wein, Ilse Maillette de Buy Wenniger, Nathan Coste, J. C. Loredo, Niccolò Somaschi, Abdelmounaïm Harouri, Aristide Lemaître, Isabelle Sagnes, L. Lanco, Christoph Simon, C. Antón, O. Krebs, P. Senellart

Published Feb 12, 2021• 93 citations

Abstract

Hong-Ou-Mandel interference is a cornerstone of optical quantum technologies. We explore both theoretically and experimentally how unwanted multiphoton components of single-photon sources affect the interference visibility, and find that the overlap between the single photons and the noise photons significantly impacts the interference. We apply our approach to quantum dot single-photon sources to access the mean wave packet overlap of the single-photon component. This study provides a consistent platform with which to diagnose the limitations of current single-photon sources on the route towards the ideal device.

DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.126.063602

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Hong-Ou-Mandel interference is a cornerstone of optical quantum technologies. We explore both theoretically and experimentally how unwanted multiphoton components of single-photon sources affect the interference visibility, and find that the overlap between the single photons and the noise photons significantly impacts the interference. We apply our approach to quantum dot single-photon sources to access the mean wave packet overlap of the single-photon component. This study provides a consistent platform with which to diagnose the limitations of current single-photon sources on the route towards the ideal device.

Imperfect photon sources degrade the performance of interference-based linear-optical entangling gates. We derive a universal fidelity law for these gates in terms of two standard source metrics: Hong-Ou-Mandel visibility and second-order coherence. We model the multiphoton component as an arbitrary overlap between noise and signal photons. While different values of the signal-noise overlap produce different error structures, associated with different physical platforms, all result in the same fidelity law. We test the model on our actively synchronized CNOT-gate experiment and against published results across different platforms, with no free parameters. This framework turns source characterization into a unified benchmark for photonic quantum computing.

Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometers are valuable tools in many Quantum Information and Quantum Optics applications that require photon indistinguishability. The theoretical limit for the Hong-Ou-Mandel visibility is 0.5 for indistinguishable weak coherent photon states, but several device imperfections may hinder achieving this value experimentally. In this work, we examine the dependence of the interference visibility on various factors, including 1) detector side imperfections due to after-pulses, 2) mismatches in the intensities and states of polarization of the input signals, and 3) the overall intensity of the input signals. We model all imperfections and show that theoretical modeling is in good agreement with the experimental results.

While two-photon Hong-Ou-Mandel interference visibility has become a standard metric for single-photon sources, many optical quantum technologies require the generation and manipulation of larger photonic states. To date, efficiency limitations have prevented scaling quantum dot-based interference to the coalescence of more than two photons at a single beamsplitter. We overcome this limitation by combining a state-of-the-art quantum dot source with deterministic demultiplexing, enabling the direct observation of quantum interference fringes arising from up to four photons. We measure high mean interference contrasts of

93.0 \pm 0.1~\%

for two photons, and

84.1 \pm 1.0~\%

for four photons, with the complex fringe structure fully reproduced by a theoretical model. These results reveal the existence of "deep fringes" whose minima are unaffected by distinguishable photons, rendering the maximum contrast of four-photon interference highly sensitive to multi-photon emission but robust against photon distinguishability. We predict that these phenomena will extend to interference of larger numbers of photons, with relevance across a range of potential optical quantum technologies. A Fisher information analysis demonstrates that interference fringes from our source can exhibit phase sensitivity beyond the standard quantum limit, illustrating potential applications in quantum metrology.