Bounding the outcome of a two-photon interference measurement using weak coherent states

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates near-perfect two-photon interference using weak coherent states, providing a tight upper bound on expected coincidences and achieving a visibility of at least 0.995, advancing quantum photonic technology.

Contribution

It introduces a method to bound two-photon interference outcomes with weak coherent states, enabling high-visibility interference measurements without perfect single-photon sources.

Findings

Interference visibility of at least 0.995 achieved

Tight upper bound on expected coincidences established

Demonstrates Hong-Ou-Mandel effect with weak coherent states

Abstract

Interference of two photons at a beamsplitter is at the core of many quantum photonic technologies, such as quantum key distribution or linear-optics quantum computing. Observing high-visibility interference is challenging because of the difficulty of realizing indistinguishable single-photon sources. Here, we perform a two-photon interference experiment using phase-randomized weak coherent states with different mean photon numbers. We place a tight upper bound on the expected coincidences for the case when the incident wavepackets contain single photons, allowing us to observe the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect. We find that the interference visibility is at least as large as 0.995$^{+0.005}_{-0.013}$.