Two-Photon Interference and Entanglement in Coupled Cavities

TL;DR

This paper investigates how coupled cavity arrays influence two-photon interference and entanglement, crucial for quantum computing and cryptography, by analyzing spectral, temporal, and entanglement effects on photon indistinguishability.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the impact of photon storage and delay in coupled cavities on two-photon interference and natural entanglement.

Findings

Photon storage affects HOM interference visibility

Coupled cavities induce spectral and temporal changes in photons

Entanglement properties are naturally generated in cavity arrays

Abstract

Two-photon interference effects, such as the Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) effect, can be used to characterize to what extent two photons are identical. Identical photons are necessary for both linear optics quantum computing and single-photon quantum cryptography. We study here how storage and delay of photons in coupled cavity arrays, which inevitably will lead to changes in the photons' spectral and temporal profiles, affects their HOM interference. In addition we consider various types of entanglement that occur naturally in such a context.