Hong-Ou-Mandel Interference with Imperfect Single Photon Sources.

H Ollivier,I Sagnes,P Senellart,A Lemaitre,A Harouri,S C Wein,I Maillette De Buy Wenniger,C Simon,C Anton,N Coste,O Krebs,L Lanco,N Somaschi,J C Loredo,S E Thomas

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.126.063602

Abstract

Hong-Ou-Mandel interference is a cornerstone of optical quantum technologies. We explore both theoretically and experimentally how unwanted multiphoton components of single-photon sources affect the interference visibility, and find that the overlap between the single photons and the noise photons significantly impacts the interference. We apply our approach to quantum dot single-photon sources to access the mean wave packet overlap of the single-photon component. This study provides a consistent platform with which to diagnose the limitations of current single-photon sources on the route towards the ideal device.

Highlights

Hong-Ou-Mandel interference is a cornerstone of optical quantum technologies
Partial indistinguishability of the input states leads to coincidental detection events at the outputs and reduces the HOM interference visibility
It has been shown that the visibility of HOM interference in this case is given by VHOM 1⁄4 Mtot − gð2Þð0Þ [19,23,24], where Mtot is the mean wave packet overlap of the total input state, i.e., including

Summary

Introduction

Hong-Ou-Mandel interference is a cornerstone of optical quantum technologies. We explore both theoretically and experimentally how unwanted multiphoton components of single-photon sources affect the interference visibility, and find that the overlap between the single photons and the noise photons significantly impacts the interference. The visibility of HOM interference is reduced due to multiphoton contributions, even if Ms 1⁄4 1, i.e., for an ideal single-photon indistinguishability.

Results

Conclusion