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arXiv:2104.15084 · Physical Review Letters

Experimental Demonstration of Conjugate-Franson Interferometry

Changchen Chen, Jeffrey H. Shapiro, Franco N. C. Wong

Published Aug 27, 2021• 11 citations

Abstract

Franson interferometry is a well-known quantum measurement technique for probing photon-pair frequency correlations that is often used to certify time-energy entanglement. We demonstrate, for the first time, the complementary technique in the time basis called conjugate-Franson interferometry. It measures photon-pair arrival-time correlations, thus providing a valuable addition to the quantum toolbox. We obtain a conjugate-Franson interference visibility of 96±1% without background subtraction for entangled photon pairs generated by spontaneous parametric down-conversion. Our measured result surpasses the quantum-classical threshold by 25 standard deviations and validates the conjugate-Franson interferometer (CFI) as an alternative method for certifying time-energy entanglement. Moreover, the CFI visibility is a function of the biphoton's joint temporal intensity, and is therefore sensitive to that state's spectral phase variation: something that is not the case for Franson interferometry or Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometry. We highlight the CFI's utility by measuring its visibilities for two different biphoton states: one without and the other with spectral phase variation, observing a 21% reduction in the CFI visibility for the latter. The CFI is potentially useful for applications in areas of photonic entanglement, quantum communications, and quantum networking.

DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.127.093603

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Many quantum advantages in metrology and communication arise from interferometric phenomena. Such phenomena can occur on ultrafast timescales, particularly when energy-time entangled photons are employed. These have been relatively unexplored as their observation necessitates time resolution much shorter than conventional photon counters. Integrating nonlinear optical gating with conventional photon counters can overcome this limitation and enable subpicosecond time resolution. Here, using this technique and a Franson interferometer, we demonstrate high-visibility quantum interference with two entangled photons, where the one- and two-photon coherence times are both subpicosecond. We directly observe the spectral and temporal interference patterns, measure a visibility in the two-photon coincidence rate of $(85.3\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.4)%$, and report a Clauser--Horne--Shimony--Holt--Bell parameter of $2.42\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.02$, violating the local-hidden variable bound by 21 standard deviations. The demonstration of energy-time entanglement with ultrafast interferometry provides opportunities for examining and exploiting entanglement in previously inaccessible regimes.

In classical optics, interference occurs between two optical fields when they are indistinguishable from one another. The same holds true in quantum optics, where a particular experiment, the Franson interferometer, involves the interference of a photon pair with a time-delayed version of itself. The canonical version of this interferometer requires that the time delay be much shorter than the coherence length of the pump used to generate the photon pair, so as to guarantee indistinguishability. However, when this time delay is comparable to the coherence length, conventional wisdom suggests that interference visibility degrades significantly. In this work, though, we show that the interference visibility can be restored through judicious temporal post-selection. Utilizing correlated photon pairs generated by a pump whose pulsewidth (460 ps) is shorter than the interferometer’s time delay (500 ps), we are able to observe a fringe visibility of 97.4±4.3%. We believe this new method can be used for the encoding of high-dimensional quantum information in the temporal domain.

The Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer is a versatile tool for analyzing the joint properties of photon pairs, relying on a truly quantum interference effect between two-photon probability amplitudes. While the theory behind this form of two-photon interferometry is well established, the development of advanced photon sources and exotic two-photon states has highlighted the importance of quantifying precisely what information can and cannot be inferred from features in a Hong-Ou-Mandel interference trace. Here we examine Hong-Ou-Mandel interference with regard to a particular class of states, so-called quantum frequency combs, and place special emphasis on the role spectral phase plays in these measurements. We find that this form of two-photon interferometry is insensitive to the relative phase between different comb line pairs. This is true even when different comb line pairs are mutually coherent at the input of a Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer and the fringe patterns display sharp temporal features. Consequently, Hong-Ou-Mandel interference cannot speak to the presence of high-dimensional frequency-bin entanglement in two-photon quantum frequency combs.

Superposition and indistinguishablility between probability amplitudes have played an essential role in observing quantum interference effects of correlated photons. The Hong-Ou-Mandel interference and interferences of the path-entangled photon number state are of special interest in the field of quantum information technologies. However, a fully generalized two-photon quantum interferometric scheme accounting for the Hong-Ou-Mandel scheme and path-entangled photon number states has not yet been proposed. Here we report the experimental demonstrations of the generalized two-photon interferometry with both the interferometric properties of the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect and the fully unfolded version of the path-entangled photon number state using photon-pair sources, which are independently generated by spontaneous parametric down-conversion. Our experimental scheme explains two-photon interference fringes revealing single- and two-photon coherence properties in a single interferometer setup. Using the proposed interferometric measurement, it is possible to directly estimate the joint spectral intensity of a photon pair source.

We propose theoretically a quantum interferometer in which the NOON state interferometer is combined with the Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer. With this interferometer, the temporal interference patterns associated with biphoton frequency sum and difference can be shown in different parts of a single interferogram. It is thus possible to simultaneously obtain the spectral correlation information of biphotons in both frequency sum and difference by taking the Fourier transform from such an interferogram. This provides a method for complete spectral characterization of an arbitrary two-photon state with exchange symmetry and might be useful in quantum Fourier-transform spectroscopy where direct spectral measurement is difficult. Furthermore, as it can realize the measurement of time intervals on three scales at the same time, we expect that it can provide a method in quantum metrology. Finally, we discuss another potential application of such an interferometer in the generation and characterization of high-dimensional and phase-controlled frequency entanglement.