Overcoming correlation fluctuations in two-photon interference experiments with differently bright and independently blinking remote quantum emitters

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how blinking and brightness fluctuations in remote quantum emitters affect two-photon interference measurements and introduces an improved interferometer setup to accurately determine TPI visibility.

Contribution

The study reveals the impact of blinking dynamics on TPI measurements and proposes an alternative interferometer configuration to eliminate temporal fluctuations for accurate TPI visibility assessment.

Findings

Blinking dynamics critically affect TPI correlation histograms.

An alternative interferometer configuration overcomes temporal fluctuations.

Monte-Carlo simulations confirm the accuracy of the new setup.

Abstract

As a fundamental building block for quantum computation and communication protocols, the correct verification of the two-photon interference (TPI) contrast between two independent quantum light sources is of utmost importance. Here, we experimentally demonstrate how frequently present blinking dynamics and changes in emitter brightness critically affect the Hong-Ou-Mandel-type (HOM) correlation histograms of remote TPI experiments measured via the commonly utilized setup configuration. We further exploit this qualitative and quantitative explanation of the observed correlation dynamics to establish an alternative interferometer configuration, which is overcoming the discussed temporal fluctuations, giving rise to an error-free determination of the remote TPI visibility. We prove full knowledge of the obtained correlation by reproducing the measured correlation statistics via Monte-Carlo simulations. As exemplary system, we make use of two pairs of remote semiconductor quantum dots, however, the same conclusions apply for TPI experiments with flying qubits from any kind of remote solid state quantum emitters.