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Physical Review A

Phase-tunable inverse Hong-Ou-Mandel interference: Principles and demonstration in a photon pair source

Csaba Tamás Holló, Tamás Sarkadi, Attila Barócsi, Pál Koppa, Gábor Erdei

Published Jan 31, 2025• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A method is presented for the separation of polarization-entangled, frequency-degenerate photon pairs based on inverse Hong-Ou-Mandel interference. Adjusting the phase between photon states is achieved by exploiting the wavelength dispersion of optical glass, for which process a complete mathematical description is given. To experimentally demonstrate the phenomenon, a custom photon pair source has been built using spontaneous parametric downconversion of type-0 phase matching and a Sagnac interferometer. The effect of phase tuning was characterized by the modulation of coincidence probability. The visibility of quantum interference was found to be 0.820 and 0.720 for photons being in purely horizontal or vertical polarization state. In case of polarization entanglement, the measured state fidelity with respect to the $|{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Phi}}}^{\ensuremath{-}}\ensuremath{\rangle}$ Bell state was 0.914.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.111.013531

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A method is presented for the separation of polarization-entangled, frequency-degenerate photon pairs based on inverse Hong-Ou-Mandel interference. Adjusting the phase between photon states is achieved by exploiting the wavelength dispersion of optical glass, for which process a complete mathematical description is given. To experimentally demonstrate the phenomenon, a custom photon pair source has been built using spontaneous parametric downconversion of type-0 phase matching and a Sagnac interferometer. The effect of phase tuning was characterized by the modulation of coincidence probability. The visibility of quantum interference was found to be 0.820 and 0.720 for photons being in purely horizontal or vertical polarization state. In case of polarization entanglement, the measured state fidelity with respect to the ∣\ensuremathΦ\ensuremath−\ensuremath⟩|{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Phi}}}^{\ensuremath{-}}\ensuremath{\rangle}∣\ensuremathΦ\ensuremath−\ensuremath⟩ Bell state was 0.914.
The concept of "flat optics" is quickly conquering different fields of photonics, but its implementation in quantum optics is still in its infancy. In particular, polarization entanglement, strongly required in quantum photonics, is so far not realized on "flat" platforms. Meanwhile, relaxed phase matching of "flat" nonlinear optical sources enables enormous freedom in tailoring their polarization properties. Here we use this freedom to generate photon pairs with tunable polarization entanglement via spontaneous parametric downconversion (SPDC) in a 400-nm GaP film. By changing the pump polarization, we tune the polarization state of photon pairs from maximally entangled to almost disentangled, which is impossible in a single bulk SPDC source. Polarization entanglement, together with the broadband frequency spectrum, results in an ultranarrow (12 fs) Hong-Ou-Mandel effect and promises extensions to hyperentanglement.
Quantum interference, like Hong-Ou-Mandel interference, has played an important role to test fundamental concepts in quantum physics. We experimentally show that the multiple quantum interference effects enable the generation of high-performance polarization entangled photons. These photons have a high-emission rate, are degenerate, have a broadband distribution, and are postselection free. A quantum interferometric scheme, based on a round-trip configuration of a double-pass polarization Sagnac interferometer, makes it possible to use the large generation efficiency of polarization entangled photons in the process of parametric down-conversion and to separate degenerate photon pairs into different optical modes with no requirement of postselection. We demonstrate experimentally that multiple quantum interference is not only an interesting fundamental quantum optical phenomenon but can be used for novel photonic quantum information technologies.
We have constructed and experimentally characterized what we believe to be the first fiber-based source of degenerate polarization-entangled photon pairs in the telecommunication band. Our source design utilizes bichromatic pump pulses and an optical-fiber Sagnac loop aligned to deterministically separate degenerate photon pairs at a central wavelength. The source exhibits 0.997+/-0.006 fidelity with a maximally entangled state, measured using quantum state tomography. When reconfigured to produce identical photon pairs, the source exhibits a Hong-Ou-Mandel interference visibility of 0.97+/-0.04.
The transverse momentum correlation of photon pairs generated by noncollinear spontaneous parametric down-conversion with type-I phase matching is transformed into polarization entanglement. A robust wavefront-splitting interferometer scheme is used, due to which the phase of the entangled state does not require active stabilization. Frequency-degenerate signal and idler photons are separated and coupled into single-mode optical fibers. The concept is demonstrated in a compact and modular setup. A straightforward alignment process for producing any of the Bell states is presented. The entangled source has an output photon flux of $8.33\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1.27$ kcps/mW normalized to pump power (150 mW), and $17\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}3%$ heralding ratio. The measured state fidelity with respect to the negative anticorrelated Bell state is $0.951\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.004$.
The critical design aspects of a free space Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer illuminated with pair photons from a non-collinearly phasematched spontaneous parametric downconversion process are discussed. In particular the efficient generation and collection of pair photons at a specified wavelength and a procedure for constructing the interferometer are presented. Two major requirements in the construction are the alignment and length-balancing of two optical paths, which were achieved using a new method incorporating long and short coherence length light sources, and requiring no custom optics or expensive equipment. The method balanced the optical paths to within an average of 11.6 mm, considerably shortening set-up time and two-photon interference features with visibilities ~ 0.9 were produced. The importance of interferometer characterization is discussed in the context of the application of Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometry to single photon source evaluation.
We present two-photon interference experiments with polarization-entangled photon pairs in a polarization-based Franson-type interferometer. Although the two photons do not meet at a common beamsplitter, a phase-insensitive Hong-Ou-Mandel type two-photon interference peak and dip fringes are observed, resulting from the two-photon interference effect between two indistinguishable two-photon probability amplitudes leading to a coincidence detection. A spatial quantum beating fringe is also measured for nondegenerate photon pairs in the same interferometer, although the two-photon states have no frequency entanglement. When unentangled polarization-correlated photons are used as an input state, the polarization entanglement is successfully recovered through the interferometer via delayed compensation.