Modified two-photon interference achieved by the manipulation of entanglement

P. R. Sharapova, K. H. Luo, H. Herrmann, M. Reichelt, C. Silberhorn, and T. Meier

Phys. Rev. A 96, 043857 – Published 25 October 2017

Abstract

In this theoretical study, we demonstrate that entangled states are able to significantly extend the functionality of Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) interferometers. By generating a coherent superposition of parametric-down-conversion photons and spatial entanglement in the input channel, the coincidence probability measured at the output changes from a typical HOM-type dip (photon bunching) into much richer patterns, including an antibunching peak and rapid oscillation fringes with twice the optical frequency. The considered system should be realizable on a single chip using current waveguide technology in the ${LiNbO}_{3}$ platform.

Received 23 June 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.96.043857

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Entanglement production Photon pairs & parametric down-conversion Photon statistics Quantum state engineering Quantum states of light

Optical interferometry

Atomic, Molecular & Optical

Authors & Affiliations

P. R. Sharapova, K. H. Luo, H. Herrmann, M. Reichelt, C. Silberhorn, and T. Meier

Department of Physics and CeOPP, University of Paderborn, Warburger Straße 100, D-33098 Paderborn, Germany

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Issue

Vol. 96, Iss. 4 — October 2017

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Images

Figure 1
Two photons generated in a PDC process have frequency correlations. The creation of spatial entanglement between the photons leads to a hyperentangled structure, which results in novel features in the coincidence probability.
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Figure 2
Schematical illustration of the considered setup. The propagation of the signal (idler) photon is depicted by the upper green (lower red) line. Two photons with orthogonal polarizations H and V are created in the PDC section in the upper spatial channel 1. The lower channel 2 is initially empty. The first polarization converter ${PC}_{1}$ is placed in channel 1 and changes the polarizations by $ϕ_{1}$ . The polarization-sensitive beam splitter (PBS) spatially separates photons with orthogonal polarizations. The delay section compensates the time delay between photons; $l$ is the length of the upper channel and $L = l + Δ l$ is the length of the lower channel. ${PC}_{2}$ changes the polarization in the upper channel 1 by $ϕ_{2}$ . The coincidence probability is measured by the detectors $b$ and $c$ . (a) ${PC}_{1}$ converts the polarization perfectly, i.e., $ϕ_{1} = π / 2$ . (b) ${PC}_{1}$ partially converts the polarization, e.g., $ϕ_{1} = π / 4$ , which can be realized by adding a beam splitter inside ${PC}_{1}$ .
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Figure 3
The coincidence probability for two vertically polarized photons for (a) different angles of ${PC}_{1}$ : $ϕ_{1} = 0$ (cyan solid line) and $ϕ_{1} = π / 2$ (red dotted line), and (b) considering $ϕ_{1} = 3 π / 8$ (green solid line) in comparison with the case of $ϕ_{1} = π / 2$ (red dotted line).
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Figure 4
(a) The coincidence probability for two vertically polarized photons for $ϕ_{1} = π / 4$ . The inset shows a zoom-in of the rapid oscillations. (b) The individual contributions of the two parts of the two-photon wave function to the coincidence probability: Eq. (6) (black solid line) and Eq. (7) (red dotted line).
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Figure 5
The coincidence probability for $ϕ_{1} = π / 4$ for two vertically polarized photons considering different PDC section lengths: $L_{PDC} = 1.035$ cm (red dashed line), $L_{PDC} = 1.5$ cm (blue solid line), and $L_{PDC} = 3.07$ cm (green dotted line). (a) The total coincidence probability, where the inset zooms in on the oscillations and (b) the contribution of Eq. (6) alone.
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Figure 6
The coincidence probability for two vertically polarized photons for $ϕ_{1} = π / 4$ and (a) $L_{PDC} = 2.07$ cm and an additional length between the PDC section and ${PC}_{1}$ of 4.14 cm, $x = 4.14$ cm $+ L_{{PC}_{1}} / 2 = 45 210 μ m$ (black solid line) and $L_{PDC} = 6.21$ cm, $x = L_{{PC}_{1}} / 2 = 3810 μ m$ (red dotted line) using $y = 5810 μ m$ for both cases. (b) $y = 5810 μ m$ (black solid line) and $y = 9810 μ m$ (red dotted line) using $L_{PDC} = 2.07$ cm and $x = L_{{PC}_{1}} / 2 = 3810 μ m$ for both curves.
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