Abstract
We present experimental demonstrations of two-photon interference involving temporally separated photons within two types of interferometers: a Mach-Zehnder interferometer and a polarization-based Michelson interferometer. The two-photon states are probabilistically prepared in a symmetrically superposed state within the two interferometer arms by introducing a large time delay between two input photons; this state is composed of two temporally separated photons, which are in two different or the same spatial modes. We then observe two-photon interference fringes involving both the Hong-Ou-Mandel interference effect and the interference of path-entangled two-photon states simultaneously in a single interferometric setup. The observed two-photon interference fringes provide simultaneous observation of the interferometric properties of the single-photon and two-photon wavepackets. The observations can also facilitate a more comprehensive understanding of the origins of the interference phenomena arising from spatially bunched/anti-bunched two-photon states comprised of two temporally separated photons within the interferometer arms.
Highlights
We present experimental demonstrations of two-photon interference involving temporally separated photons within two types of interferometers: a Mach-Zehnder interferometer and a polarization-based Michelson interferometer
We report on an experimental demonstration of quantum interference effects using two kinds of two-photon state in a conventional Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) and a polarization-based Michelson interferometer (MI) (PMI)
The conventional two-photon N00N state can be generated via the HOM interference effect, when two identical single photons enter a balanced beamsplitter (BS) simultaneously, as shown in Fig. 1 2,17
Summary
We present experimental demonstrations of two-photon interference involving temporally separated photons within two types of interferometers: a Mach-Zehnder interferometer and a polarization-based Michelson interferometer. The two-photon states are probabilistically prepared in a symmetrically superposed state within the two interferometer arms by introducing a large time delay between two input photons; this state is composed of two temporally separated photons, which are in two different or the same spatial modes. A number of studies have examined two-photon quantum interference experiments in a MZI or MI, further studies are required to fully elucidate the two-photon states within the interferometer arms These studies should aim to reveal the origin of the rather complex interference fringe patterns, which contain the shapes of both the single- and two-photon wavepackets. The two-photon quantum interference of the TSSB state was successfully demonstrated revealing that the temporal separation between two sequential photons in the same spatial mode does not degrade the phase super-resolution, as in the case of the conventional N00N state[21]
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