Spatial interference between pairs of disjoint optical paths with a single chaotic source

TL;DR

This paper reports a new type of second-order spatial interference effect from a single chaotic source, enabling imaging and quantum gate simulation without first-order coherence.

Contribution

It introduces a novel interference phenomenon between disjoint optical paths from a chaotic source, with applications in imaging and quantum information processing.

Findings

Demonstrated second-order spatial interference between disjoint paths

Enabled retrieval of spatial and positional information of distant masks

Simulated quantum logic gates, including CNOT operation

Abstract

We demonstrate a novel second-order spatial interference effect between two indistinguishable pairs of disjoint optical paths from a single chaotic source. Beside providing a deeper understanding of the physics of multi-photon interference and coherence, the effect enables retrieving information on both the spatial structure and the relative position of two distant double-pinhole masks, in the absence of first order coherence. We also demonstrate the exploitation of the phenomenon for simulating quantum logic gates, including a controlled-NOT gate operation.