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Physical Review A

Time control of two-photon interference

M. A. Sagioro, C. Olindo, Carlos Henrique Monken, Sebastião Pádua

Published May 25, 2004• 22 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The interference of photons with the same polarization generated by spontaneous parametric down conversion in a Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer, after one of them passed through a symmetric cavity, is demonstrated experimentally. In the regime where the cavity length is larger than the one-photon coherence length, photon coalescence and anticoalescence interference is observed. We show that by changing the cavity length, coincidence peaks can be transformed in dips and vice versa, even though the coherence length of the photon wave packet is smaller than the cavity length. The photon pair coalescence or anticoalescence at the beam splitter can be controlled by changing the length of the cavity.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.69.053817

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The interference of photons with the same polarization generated by spontaneous parametric down conversion in a Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer, after one of them passed through a symmetric cavity, is demonstrated experimentally. In the regime where the cavity length is larger than the one-photon coherence length, photon coalescence and anticoalescence interference is observed. We show that by changing the cavity length, coincidence peaks can be transformed in dips and vice versa, even though the coherence length of the photon wave packet is smaller than the cavity length. The photon pair coalescence or anticoalescence at the beam splitter can be controlled by changing the length of the cavity.
We herein study the rate of coincidences in a Hong–Ou–Mandel interferometer exit whose arms have been supplemented by two optical cavities which reflect the photons generated by parametric down conversion. The fourth-order correlation function at the beam-splitter exit is calculated. In the regime where the coherence length of the photons is larger than the cavities lengths, photon coalescence and anti-coalescence interferences are observed. In particular, complete anti-coalescence between photons generated by parametric down conversion Type I is evidenced. The photons reshaping as they are reflected by the cavities are also studied and path diagrams for the indistinguishable processes that lead to quantum interference are presented.
We present a general theory on the interference of a two-photon wave packet associated with spatial modes at a beam splitter. We find that the topological symmetry of the two-photon angular spectrum governs the nature of the two-photon interference. We distinguish between the coalescence interference and anticoalescence interference according to the decrease or increase of the coincidence probability in the absence of interference, respectively, and demonstrate that the symmetric and antisymmetric two-photon angular spectra are responsible for perfect coalescence interference and anticoalescence interference, respectively. Then we prove that anticoalescence interference never occurs for two independent photons, and it turns out that anticoalescence interference is the signature of two-photon entanglement. On the basis of this feature, we propose a special Mach-Zehnder interferometer, incorporated with two spiral phase plates, which can change the interference from a coalescence to an anticoalescence type only for a two-photon entangled state. The scheme is simple and straightforward compared with a test of Bell's inequality.
Using type I parametric down conversion, coincidence detection and the Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer modified with the introduction of a Fabry-Perot cavity in one of its arms, we map the temporal distribution of the photon (one of those generated by the parametric down conversion), that pass through the cavity and we also measure the displacement of the peak of its temporal distribution after the cavity, in the photon longitudinal coherence length greater than the cavity length regime. We study the opposite regime, that is, where the cavity length is greater than the photon coherence length, and we found coalescence and anti-coalescence effects. The coincidence pattern, in this regime, is formed, in general, by peaks and dips which born from a constant value platform. The platform value depends only on the mirrors (that form the cavity) transmission and reflection coefficients, and it is proportional to the number of photons that cross the cavity. We complicated a little more, still in the cavity length greater than the photons coherence length regime, putting two cavities (each one in each of the interferometer arm), and we study the coincidence pattern for this case. The coincidence pattern is essentially the same of that found for the one cavity case. One of the main differences is that at this time the platform value depends also on the cavities lengths, and do not represents the number of the photons that cross the cavities anymore. We can simulate a C-NOT gate using this apparatus.Finally, using type II parametric down conversion, we study the case of two cavities which the transmission coefficients are polarization dependents. With this apparatus it is possible to distinguish conclusively the four Bell states: +, , _+ and _.
We show that temporal two-photon interference effects involving the signal and idler photons created by parametric down-conversion can be fully characterized in terms of the variations of two length parameters---called the biphoton path-length difference and the biphoton path-asymmetry-length difference---which we construct using the six different length parameters that a general two-photon interference experiment involves. We perform an experiment in which the effects of the variations of these two parameters can be independently controlled and studied. In our experimental setup, which does not involve mixing of signal and idler photons at a beam splitter, we further report observations of Hong-Ou-Mandel- (HOM-)like effects both in coincidence and in one-photon count rates. As an important consequence, we argue that the HOM and the HOM-like effects are best described as observations of how two-photon coherence changes as a function of the biphoton path-asymmetry-length difference.
We report on two-photon quantum interference experiments in the standard telecommunication band. Two identical photons in the 1.5 mm wavelength band were generated in spatially separated modes by a type-I spontaneous parametric down-conversion process, and injected into a fiber-optic Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer. Two-photon interference patterns of dip and spatial beating in the coincidence counting rate were observed by varying the difference in optical path lengths. The visibilities obtained in the net coincidences were close to the theoretical value of 100%. The raw visibilities were also well above the classical limit.
We study the number of coincidences in a Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer exit whose arms have been supplemented with the addition of one or two optical cavities. The fourth-order correlation function at the beam splitter exit is calculated. In the regime where the cavities lengths are larger than the one-photon coherence length, photon coalescence and anticoalescence interference is observed. Feynman's path diagrams for the indistinguishable processes that lead to quantum interference are presented. The construction of an optical XOR gate is discussed as an application for the Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer with two cavities.