Second order interference in two photon absorption

Oded Kafri, Sol Kimel

M. W. Hamilton, Daniel S. Elliott

Two photon absorption is considered in the context of second order coherence measurements. We examine second order interference fringes for the typical Doppler free spectroscopic layout which involves a retro-reflecting mirror. The fringes are manifested in the wings of the absorption spectrum and their observability requires partial decoherence of the exciting laser light.

Paul G. Kwiat

David S. Simon, Gregg S. Jaeger, Alexander V. Sergienko

Yuchen He, Yu Zhou, Jianbin Liu +6 more

Two-photon interference of broadband chaotic light in a Michelson interferometer is theoretically and numerically studied with a two-photon-absorption detector when polarizations are taken into account. Under the frame of quantum optics, the theoretical analysis is based on two-photon interference and Feynman path integral theory. A two-photon coherence matrix is introduced to calculate the second-order interference pattern. Our research shows that polarization is another dimension, as well as time and space, to tune the second-order interference pattern in the two-photon interference process. Polarizations can act as switches to manipulate the interference process and may open the door to some new experimental schemes. The quantum optical vector model is also helpful to understand the physics of second-order interference when the light source is quantum.

Jianbin Liu, Yu Zhou, Huaibin Zheng +3 more