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arXiv:2201.13333 · Physical Review X

Quantifying n -Photon Indistinguishability with a Cyclic Integrated Interferometer

Mathias Pont, Riccardo Albiero, Sarah E. Thomas, Nicolò Spagnolo, Francesco Ceccarelli, Giacomo Corrielli, Alexandre Brieussel, Niccolò Somaschi, Hêlio Huet, Abdelmounaïm Harouri, Aristide Lemaître, Isabelle Sagnes, Nadia Belabas, Fabio Sciarrino, Roberto Osellame, P. Senellart, Andrea Crespi

Published Sep 2, 2022• 42 citations
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Abstract

We report on a universal method to measure the genuine indistinguishability of n photons-a crucial parameter that determines the accuracy of optical quantum computing.Our approach relies on a low-depth cyclic multiport interferometer with N ¼ 2n modes, leading to a quantum interference fringe whose visibility is a direct measurement of the genuine n-photon indistinguishability.We experimentally demonstrate this technique for an eight-mode integrated interferometer fabricated using femtosecond laser micromachining and four photons from a quantum dot single-photon source.We measure a fourphoton indistinguishability up to 0.81 Æ 0.03.This value decreases as we intentionally alter the photon pairwise indistinguishability.The low-depth and low-loss multiport interferometer design provides an original path to evaluate the genuine indistinguishability of resource states of increasing photon number.

DOI
10.1103/physrevx.12.031033

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We report on a universal method to measure the genuine indistinguishability of n photons-a crucial parameter that determines the accuracy of optical quantum computing.Our approach relies on a low-depth cyclic multiport interferometer with N ¼ 2n modes, leading to a quantum interference fringe whose visibility is a direct measurement of the genuine n-photon indistinguishability.We experimentally demonstrate this technique for an eight-mode integrated interferometer fabricated using femtosecond laser micromachining and four photons from a quantum dot single-photon source.We measure a fourphoton indistinguishability up to 0.81 Æ 0.03.This value decreases as we intentionally alter the photon pairwise indistinguishability.The low-depth and low-loss multiport interferometer design provides an original path to evaluate the genuine indistinguishability of resource states of increasing photon number.
The generation of quantum states of many indistinguishable photons is a crucial resource for the realization of photonic computer architectures that can enable a quantum speedup and create fault-tolerant multi-party quantum networks. On the experimental side, the measurement of indistinguishability for a multi-photon state is a challenging task. In the case of a two-photon state, the photon indistinguishability is fully assessed by the visibility of the interference fringe of the Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) interference experiment on a balanced beam splitter. However, pairwise HOM experiments are unable to completely determine the multi-photon indistinguishability when more than two photons are involved [1]–[2].
Abstract Photon indistinguishability plays a fundamental role in information processing, with applications such as linear-optical quantum computation and metrology. It is then necessary to develop appropriate tools to quantify the amount of this resource in a multiparticle scenario. Here we report a four-photon experiment in a linear-optical interferometer designed to simultaneously estimate the degree of indistinguishability between three pairs of photons. The interferometer design dispenses with the need of heralding for parametric down-conversion sources, resulting in an efficient and reliable optical scheme. We then use a recently proposed theoretical framework to quantify four-photon indistinguishability, as well as to obtain bounds on three unmeasured two-photon overlaps. Our findings are in high agreement with the theory, and represent a new resource-effective technique for the characterization of multiphoton interference.
The investigation of multi-photon quantum interference in symmetric multi-port splitters has both fundamental and applicative interest. Destructive quantum interference in devices with specific symmetry leads to the suppression of a large number of possible output states, generalizing the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect; simple suppression laws have been developed for interferometers implementing the Fourier or the Hadamard transform over the modes. In fact, these enhanced interference features in the output distribution can be used to assess the indistinguishability of single-photon sources, and symmetric interferometers have been envisaged as benchmark or validation devices for Boson-Sampling machines. In this work we devise an innovative approach to implement symmetric multi-mode interferometers that realize the Fourier and Hadamard transform over the optical modes, exploiting integrated waveguide circuits. Our design is based on the optical implementations of the Fast-Fourier and Fast-Hadamard transform algorithms, and exploits a novel three-dimensional layout which is made possible by the unique capabilities of femtosecond laser waveguide writing. We fabricate devices with m = 4 and m = 8 modes and we let two identical photons evolve in the circuit. By characterizing the coincidence output distribution we are able to observe experimentally the known suppression laws for the output states. In particular, we characterize the robustness of this approach to assess the photons' indistinguishability and to rule out alternative non-quantum states of light. The reported results pave the way to the adoption of symmetric multiport interferometers as pivotal tools in the diagnostics and certification of quantum photonic platforms.
We present a method for using the Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) interference technique to quantify photon indistinguishability within an associated uncertainty. The method allows the relative importance of various experimental factors affecting the HOM visibility to be identified, and enables the actual indistinguishability, with an associated uncertainty, to be estimated from experimentally measured quantities. A measurement equation has been derived that accounts for the non-ideal performance of the interferometer. The origin of each term of the equation is explained, along with procedures for their experimental evaluation and uncertainty estimation. These uncertainties are combined to give an overall uncertainty for the derived photon indistinguishability. The analysis was applied to measurements from an interferometer sourced with photon pairs from a parametric downconversion process. The measured photon indistinguishably was found to be 0.954+/-0.036 by using the prescribed method.