Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometry with cavity QED-based single-photon sources: A Quantum Jump Analysis

TL;DR

This paper analyzes two-photon interference in Hong-Ou-Mandel experiments using quantum jump methods on cavity QED single-photon sources, revealing how different regimes affect photon indistinguishability and interference signatures.

Contribution

It provides analytic and simulation results on HOM interference with cavity QED sources, exploring effects of coupling regimes and source configurations.

Findings

Quantum jump analysis reveals interference signatures under various regimes.

Strong and weak coupling regimes affect photon indistinguishability.

Results inform applications in linear optics quantum computing.

Abstract

We present a quantum jump/trajectory analysis of the two-photon interference phenomenon in the context of the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect (HOME). In particular, we consider the standard setup of HOME, which consists of two-photon sources firing single photons from the opposite sides of a 50/50 beam splitter and two perfect detectors placed at the output ports to record photodetection events. For single-photon sources, we consider two special cases: (1) two excited two-level atoms and (2) two atom-cavity setups with initially present single photons in both cavities. For both cases, we report analytic results as well as quantum jump-based Monte Carlo simulations to demonstrate the signatures of these single-photon sources on the HOME under different working conditions (for example, strong- and weak-coupling regimes of cavity quantum electrodynamics). Our results may have interesting applications in linear optics quantum computing as well as in protocols that test the indistinguishability of single-photon sources.