Attosecond-resolution Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometry

Lyons, Ashley; Knee, George C.; Bolduc, Eliot; Roger, Thomas; Leach, Jonathan; Gauger, Erik M.; Faccio, Daniele

doi:10.1126/sciadv.aap9416

Cited by 151 publications

(179 citation statements)

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“…This approach provides photon path delay measurements with a precision of the order of a micrometre. However, recent work [35] has shown that this precision can be greatly increased by fixing the interferometer delay close to the point of maximum steepness of the HOM interference dip, indicated by a vertical dashed line in Fig. 3(b).…”

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confidence: 99%

Photon Bunching in a Rotating Reference Frame

et al. 2019

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Although quantum physics is well understood in inertial reference frames (flat spacetime), a current challenge is the search for experimental evidence of non-trivial or unexpected behaviour of quantum systems in non-inertial frames. Here, we present a novel test of quantum mechanics in a non-inertial reference frame: we consider Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) interference on a rotating platform and study the effect of uniform rotation on the distinguishability of the photons. Both theory and experiments show that the rotational motion induces a relative delay in the photon arrival times at the exit beamsplitter and that this delay is observed as a shift in the position of the HOM dip. This experiment can be extended to a full general relativistic test of quantum physics using satellites in Earth orbit and indicates a new route towards the use of photonic technologies for investigating quantum mechanics at the interface with relativity. * miles.padgett@glasgow.ac.uk, daniele.faccio@glasgow.ac.uk † These authors contributed equally.

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confidence: 99%

Photon Bunching in a Rotating Reference Frame

et al. 2019

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“…While this value has been chosen to guarantee that the mean square error is a valid approximation, the analysis of prior information carried out in[5] demonstrates that, in fact, this choice allows us to approach the Cramér-Rao bound using the type of probes considered here. Note that the fact that some states and measurements require a certain amount of prior knowledge to be useful due to the multi-peak structure of their likelihood is ubiquitous in phase-estimation problems[5,25,49], although it can be overcome using adaptive techniques[25].…”

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confidence: 99%

Quantum metrology in the presence of limited data

Rubio

Dunningham

2019

New J. Phys.

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Quantum metrology protocols are typically designed around the assumption that we have an abundance of measurement data, but recent practical applications are increasingly driving interest in cases with very limited data. In this regime the best approach involves an interesting interplay between the amount of data and the prior information. Here we propose a new way of optimising these schemes based on the practically-motivated assumption that we have a sequence of identical and independent measurements. For a given probe state we take our measurement to be the best one for a single shot and we use this sequentially to study the performance of different practical states in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer when we have moderate prior knowledge of the underlying parameter. We find that we recover the quantum Cramér-Rao bound asymptotically, but for low data counts we find a completely different structure. Despite the fact that intra-mode correlations are known to be the key to increasing the asymptotic precision, we find evidence that these could be detrimental in the low data regime and that entanglement between the paths of the interferometer may play a more important role. Finally, we analyse how close realistic measurements can get to the bound and find that measuring quadratures can improve upon counting photons, though both strategies converge asymptotically. These results may prove to be important in the development of quantum enhanced metrology applications where practical considerations mean that we are limited to a small number of trials.the experiment enough times and that we have certain prior knowledge about the unknown parameter 2 [4,5,18,19] (see footnote 2), and this simplifies the optimisation of the error considerably. Furthermore, the Fisher information has a certain fundamental character. In particular, it can be seen as a distinguishability metric [20] that arises in the expansion of the Bures distance between two infinitesimally close states [3,18]. Moreover, its reciprocal gives us the asymptotic limit for the Bayesian mean square error as a function of the number of repetitions under some fairly general assumptions 3 [5] (see footnote 3), and this is also the case for other approaches that are more conservative than the Cramér-Rao bound too [21,22].Nevertheless, the fact that this technique normally requires many repetitions to be useful is an important drawback to study realistic physical systems such as those previously mentioned. This problem has already been acknowledged in the literature (e.g. in [4, 5, 18, 27]), and several solutions have been proposed. A conceptually simple and straightforward approach consists in using a general measure of uncertainty and estimating how many measurements are needed such that the results predicted by the asymptotic theory are valid, which can always be done numerically [5,28]. In addition, we can rely on numerical techniques such as Monte Carlo simulations [29] or machine learning [30] to perform the optimisation directly, or can simply examine the behavi...

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“…The HOM effect can be used to measure optical delays between different paths, as was already noted in the seminal 1987 paper by Hong, Ou, and Mandel. This feature lies at the heart of what has now become known as HOM interferometry and was recently used in a series of HOM‐based time delay sensors with a wide dynamic range and novel protocols such as quantum optical coherence tomography (QOCT) …”

Section: Entanglement‐based Quantum Imagingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perspectives for Applications of Quantum Imaging

Basset

Setzpfandt

Steinlechner

et al. 2019

Laser & Photonics Reviews

126

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Quantum imaging is a multifaceted field of research that promises highly efficient imaging in extreme spectral ranges as well as ultralow‐light microscopy. Since the first proof‐of‐concept experiments over 30 years ago, the field has evolved from highly fascinating academic research to the verge of demonstrating practical technological enhancements in imaging and microscopy. Here, the aim is to give researchers from outside the quantum optical community, in particular those applying imaging technology, an overview of several promising quantum imaging approaches and evaluate both the quantum benefit and the prospects for practical usage in the near future. Several use case scenarios are discussed and a careful analysis of related technology requirements and necessary developments toward practical and commercial application is provided.

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Attosecond-resolution Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometry

Abstract: A new Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer protocol achieves few-attosecond (nanometer) photon path delay resolution.

Cited by 151 publications

References 29 publications

Photon Bunching in a Rotating Reference Frame

Photon Bunching in a Rotating Reference Frame

Quantum metrology in the presence of limited data

Perspectives for Applications of Quantum Imaging

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