A high visibility Hong-Ou-Mandel interference via a time-resolved coincidence measurement

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates high-visibility Hong-Ou-Mandel interference of heralded photons from cw-pumped SPDC using time-resolved coincidence detection with superconducting nanowire detectors, achieving precise temporal resolution.

Contribution

It introduces a method for observing high-visibility interference with cw-pumped SPDC photons using time-resolved detection, enhancing quantum photonics experiments.

Findings

Achieved high visibility in Hong-Ou-Mandel interference.

Used superconducting nanowire detectors with 85 ps temporal resolution.

Successfully separated photons in different time bins for interference.

Abstract

We report on the observation of a high visibility Hong-Ou-Mandel interference of two heralded photons emitted from a spontaneous parametric down conversion~(SPDC) pumped by continuous-wave~(cw) light. A non-degenerate photon pair at 1541~nm and 1580~nm is generated by cw-pumped SPDC through a periodically poled lithium niobate waveguide. The heralded single photon at 1541~nm is prepared by the detection of the photon at 1580~nm. We performed the experiment of the Hong-Ou-Mandel interference between heralded single photons in separated time bins and observed a high visibility interference. All detectors we used are superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors and an overall temporal resolution of the photon detection is estimated as 85 ps, which is sufficiently shorter than the coherence time of the heralded photons.