Experiment on nonclassical fourth-order interference
Abstract
A new fourth-order interference experiment has been carried out and analyzed theoretically in classical and in quantum terms. Two photons produced in the process of parametric down-conversion provide the two inputs to a Mach-Zehnder type of interferometer, while two photodetectors coupled to a coincidence counter measure the output. The coincidence rate, after subtraction of accidentals, exhibits a cosine variation with the optical path difference, in agreement with quantum mechanics, but in disagreement with a classical analysis. By contrast, when two coherent light beams from a He:Ne laser are used as inputs to the interferometer, no fourth-order interference is observed.
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Because the N00N phase shift is double the value that would accumulate classically, it is highly sensitive to the environment.
“because the shift is double the value that would accumulate classically 33 it is highly sensitive to the environment.”
From Scalable on-chip quantum state tomography (2018) · cites this paper as [33]
Cites
Measurement of subpicosecond time intervals between two photons by interference
Hong, C. K., Ou, Z. Y., & Mandel, L. (1987) · Physical Review Letters · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.59.2044 · Cited by 4,369 · see citing works
Self-citationObservation of nonclassical effects in the interference of two photons
Ghosh, R., & Mandel, L. (1987) · Physical Review Letters · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.59.1903 · Cited by 371 · see citing works
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O'Brien, J. L., Furusawa, A., & Vučković, J. (2009) · Nature Photonics · doi:10.1038/nphoton.2009.229 · Cited by 2,388 · see citing works
De Broglie wavelength of a non-local four-photon state
Walther, P., Pan, J.-W., Aspelmeyer, M., Ursin, R., Gasparoni, S., & Zeilinger, A. (2004) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature02552 · Cited by 555 · see citing works
Manipulation of multiphoton entanglement in waveguide quantum circuits
Matthews, J. C. F., Politi, A., Stefanov, A., & O'Brien, J. L. (2009) · Nature Photonics · doi:10.1038/nphoton.2009.93 · Cited by 410 · see citing works
Scalable on-chip quantum state tomography
Titchener, J. G., Gräfe, M., Heilmann, R., Solntsev, A. S., Szameit, A., & Sukhorukov, A. A. (2018) · npj Quantum Information · doi:10.1038/s41534-018-0063-5 · Cited by 61 · see citing works
II Quantum Phenomena in Optical Interferometry
Hariharan, P., & Sanders, B. C. (1996) · Progress in Optics · doi:10.1016/s0079-6638(08)70313-5 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
- Authors
- Ou, Z. Y., Zou, X. Y., Wang, L. J., & Mandel, L.
- Affiliations
- University of Rochester (US)
- ORCID
- Ou, Z. Y.
- Venue
- Physical Review A
- Publisher
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Published
- 1990-09-01
- Volume
- 42
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 2957-2965
- ISSN
- 0556-2791 (ISSN-L)
- 1050-2947
- 1094-1622
- OpenAlex
- W1983840271
- Cited by
- 117
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 2.43
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Physical Review A (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Office of Naval Research
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Quantum Mechanics and Applications
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Quantum Information and Cryptography
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Quantum optics and atomic interactions
- Keywords
- fourth-order interference, parametric down-conversion, Mach-Zehnder interferometer, coincidence counting, accidental coincidences, quantum interference, coherent light beams, He-Ne laser
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