Turbulence and the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect

TL;DR

This paper studies how atmospheric turbulence affects the Hong-Ou-Mandel quantum interference effect through theoretical analysis and experiments, revealing that the HOM dip remains robust when only one photon is turbulent, but is slightly affected when both are.

Contribution

It provides the first combined theoretical and experimental analysis of turbulence effects on the HOM effect, including modeling turbulence with a single-phase screen and spatial light modulator.

Findings

HOM dip unaffected when only one photon passes through turbulence

HOM interference slightly affected when both photons pass through turbulence

Results have implications for HOM-based quantum teleportation

Abstract

The effect of a decoherence channel, such as a turbulent atmosphere, on the second order quantum interference in the Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) effect is investigated. The investigation includes both theoretical analyses and an experimental implementation of the process. In our experiment, entangled input states are prepared with spontaneous parametric down-conversion. The atmospheric turbulence is modelled as a single-phase screen and simulated with a spatial light modulator according to the theory of Kolmogorov. We find both theoretically and experimentally that the HOM dip is unaffected when only one of the photons passes through turbulence, but both photons pass through turbulence, the HOM interference is only slightly affected by the scintillation. The reasons behind these findings and their consequences for HOM-based teleportation are discussed.