Cited by 232Quantum Information and CryptographyQuantum Mechanics and ApplicationsQuantum optics and atomic interactions

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 257 of the 257 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 70 of the 187 sources its claims cite were checked for support.

Two-photon interference: the Hong–Ou–Mandel effect

Open access

Abstract

Nearly 30 years ago, two-photon interference was observed, marking the beginning of a new quantum era. Indeed, two-photon interference has no classical analogue, giving it a distinct advantage for a range of applications. The peculiarities of quantum physics may now be used to our advantage to outperform classical computations, securely communicate information, simulate highly complex physical systems and increase the sensitivity of precise measurements. This separation from classical to quantum physics has motivated physicists to study two-particle interference for both fermionic and bosonic quantum objects. So far, two-particle interference has been observed with massive particles, among others, such as electrons and atoms, in addition to plasmons, demonstrating the extent of this effect to larger and more complex quantum systems. A wide array of novel applications to this quantum effect is to be expected in the future. This review will thus cover the progress and applications of two-photon (two-particle) interference over the last three decades.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

This review covers the Hong–Ou–Mandel (HOM) effect, or two-photon/two-particle interference, over roughly three decades since its observation. It surveys the underlying beam-splitter theory and applications in precision measurement, quantum state analysis and engineering, communication, computation, multipartite interference, and non-photonic systems.

Key findings

  • The HOM effect produces destructive interference of two-photon states exiting opposite output ports of a 50:50 beam splitter, giving the hallmark coincidence dip; for indistinguishable photons the output is \((|2_c\rangle - |2_d\rangle)/\sqrt{2}\).
  • Precision applications include HOM timing measurements with reported average accuracy of 6 attoseconds and average precision of 16 attoseconds, and quantum optical coherence tomography with an improvement in resolution by a factor of 5 compared to OCT and detection of 1 µm features.
  • Linear-optics Bell-state discrimination is limited to 50% success with one beam splitter and two detectors, but can be raised to 75% with ancillary entanglement and generally to \(1 - 2^{-N}\) with \(N\) interferences; KLM-type CZ and CNOT gates have success probabilities of 2/27 and 1/16, respectively.
  • Non-photonic HOM interference has been observed with plasmons (initial visibility \(0.43 \pm 0.02\), later up to 0.95), phonons (\(0.52 \pm 0.03\)), collective atomic excitations (\(0.89 \pm 0.06\)), atoms (Rb bunching exceeding distinguishable-atom probability by 6 standard deviations; He visibility \(0.65 \pm 0.07\)), and electrons via anti-bunching/Pauli dips.

Methods

  • Design: narrative review article, not a primary experimental study; it aggregates “the most prevalent uses of two-photon interference over the past three decades” into a coherent text.
  • Data/sample: cited theoretical and experimental literature on HOM interference, including photonic, plasmonic, phononic, atomic, and electronic systems.
  • Main analysis: thematic synthesis beginning with beam-splitter and two-photon interference theory, then covering precision measurements, quantum state analysis, quantum communication, quantum state engineering, quantum computation, multipartite/multimode generalizations, and non-photonic implementations.

Limitations

  • The paper does not state a formal limitations section.
  • Text-evident limitation: as a broad review, it does not provide a systematic search or selection protocol for the literature covered.
  • Text-evident limitations in cited experiments include the initial plasmonic HOM dip visibility being below the classical limit, phonon results having statistical significance too small to exclude classical explanations with certainty, and QOCT facing challenges such as low signal and signal artifacts.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1088/1361-6633/abcd7a

Cites

257 of 257 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

70 of 187 cited sources checked · 3 supported · 7 flagged · accuracy not yet measured

Show all 106 claims

  • It may state two separate claims as one. 59
  • Probably not a substantial claim. 54
97 of 97
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Fermions obey Fermi statistics, which leads to anti-bunching at a beam splitter.

    “The major difference between indistinguishable bosons and fermions is that the latter obey Fermi statistics, which leads to anti-bunching at a beam splitter.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    SPPs, being bosonic quasiparticles, are expected to bunch in a HOM-type experiment.

    “Because SPPs are described as quasiparticles with a bosonic nature, they were also expected to bunch in a HOM-type experiment.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Phonons follow Bose-Einstein statistics and are expected to bunch in a HOM-like arrangement.

    “Phonons also follow Bose-Einstein statistics, and as such they are expected to bunch in a HOM-like arrangement.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Even massive particles should be able to exhibit two-particle interferences following quantum mechanics.

    “following quantum mechanics, even massive particles should be able to exhibit two-particle interferences.”
4 of 4

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

  • The state-joining expansion swaps its two cross terms

    Minor

    Expanding the tensor product gives αδ for a horizontally polarized photon in mode I and a vertically polarized photon in mode II, and βγ for the reverse. The displayed expansion assigns those coefficients the other way around.

  • The two-photon N00N state is attributed to the wrong equation

    Minor

    The paper says the N = 2 N00N state is the state in Eq. (5), but Eq. (5) defines polarization Bell states with one photon in each input path. The two-photon path N00N state produced by the beam splitter is instead displayed in Eq. (4).

2 of 2

Citations

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Metadata

Authors
Bouchard, F., Sit, A., Zhang, Y., Fickler, R., Miatto, F. M., Yao, Y., Sciarrino, F., & Karimi, E.
Affiliations
  • University of Ottawa (CA)
  • National Research Council Canada (CA)
  • Télécom Paris (FR)
  • Sapienza University of Rome (IT)
Corresponding author
Karimi, Ebrahim
Venue
Reports on Progress in Physics
Published
2020-12-24
Volume
84
Issue
1
Pages
012402
ISSN
  • 0034-4885 (ISSN-L)
  • 1361-6633
OpenAlex
W3034980548
Cited by
232
References
257
Citations by year
2026: 48 · 2025: 50 · 2024: 40 · 2023: 51 · 2022: 31 · 2021: 12
FWCI
9.61
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Reports on Progress in Physics (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
  • NPARC (submittedVersion)
  • Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • arXiv (Cornell University)
Funders
  • Ontario Early Researcher Award
  • Canada Research Chairs
  • Canada First Research Excellence Fund
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Quantum Information and Cryptography
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Quantum Mechanics and Applications
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Quantum optics and atomic interactions
Keywords
two-photon interference, Hong-Ou-Mandel interference, two-particle interference, quantum optics, massive particles, electrons, atoms, plasmons, quantum computing, quantum communication, quantum simulation, precision measurement

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