Coherence interpretation of the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect

TL;DR

This paper offers a coherence-based wave perspective to interpret the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect, explaining photon bunching through phase relations and decoherence, providing a deterministic understanding aligned with quantum mechanics.

Contribution

It introduces a coherence approach using wave nature to interpret the HOM effect, offering a complete, deterministic solution without violating quantum principles.

Findings

HOM effect explained via phase relations between photon pairs

HOM dip results from ensemble decoherence of photon pairs

Complete solution derived from coherence approach

Abstract

Two-photon intensity correlation of the Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) effect has been intensively studied over the last several decades for one of the most interesting quantum features. According to the particle nature of quantum mechanics, indistinguishable photon characteristics interacting on a beam splitter are the prerequisite of the photon bunching phenomenon. Here, a coherence approach based on the wave nature of a photon is used to interpret HOM effect based on entangled photon pairs. As a result, a complete solution of the HOM effect is derived from the coherence approach for the indistinguishable photon characteristics in a deterministic way without violation of quantum mechanics. Thus, HOM effect is now perfectly understood as a relative phase relation between paired photons in an interferometric system, where the HOM dip with no interference fringe is due to ensemble decoherence of all interacting photon pairs.