The Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer: A new procedure for alignment

P. J. Thomas; J. Y. Cheung; C. J. Chunnilall; Malcolm Harry Dunn

doi:10.1063/1.3080559

The Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer: A new procedure for alignment

P. J. Thomas, J. Y. Cheung, C. J. Chunnilall, Malcolm Harry Dunn

School of Physics and Astronomy

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Two major requirements in the construction of the Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer are the alignment and length balancing of two optical paths. A new method is presented for meeting these requirements that requires no custom optics or expensive equipment. Using this method, a two photon interferometer sourced by degenerate noncollinear parametric photon pairs was aligned and the optical paths were balanced to within an average of 11.6 mu m, yielding two-photon interference features with visibilities of similar to 0.9. The method is applicable to arbitrary noncollinear emission angles, including nondegenerate downconversion situations where the signal and idler emission angles differ.

Original language	English
Number of pages	3
Journal	Review of Scientific Instruments
Volume	80
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3080559
Publication status	Published - Mar 2009

Keywords

light interferometers
nonlinear optics
2-PHOTON INTERFERENCE
2 PHOTONS

Access to Document

10.1063/1.3080559

Cite this

@article{c2cd1051dd774967b72f9da9fa192d9f,

title = "The Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer: A new procedure for alignment",

abstract = "Two major requirements in the construction of the Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer are the alignment and length balancing of two optical paths. A new method is presented for meeting these requirements that requires no custom optics or expensive equipment. Using this method, a two photon interferometer sourced by degenerate noncollinear parametric photon pairs was aligned and the optical paths were balanced to within an average of 11.6 mu m, yielding two-photon interference features with visibilities of similar to 0.9. The method is applicable to arbitrary noncollinear emission angles, including nondegenerate downconversion situations where the signal and idler emission angles differ.",

keywords = "light interferometers, nonlinear optics, 2-PHOTON INTERFERENCE, 2 PHOTONS",

author = "Thomas, {P. J.} and Cheung, {J. Y.} and Chunnilall, {C. J.} and Dunn, {Malcolm Harry}",

year = "2009",

month = mar,

doi = "10.1063/1.3080559",

language = "English",

volume = "80",

journal = "Review of Scientific Instruments",

issn = "0034-6748",

publisher = "American Institute of Physics",

number = "3",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - The Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer: A new procedure for alignment

AU - Thomas, P. J.

AU - Cheung, J. Y.

AU - Chunnilall, C. J.

AU - Dunn, Malcolm Harry

PY - 2009/3

Y1 - 2009/3

N2 - Two major requirements in the construction of the Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer are the alignment and length balancing of two optical paths. A new method is presented for meeting these requirements that requires no custom optics or expensive equipment. Using this method, a two photon interferometer sourced by degenerate noncollinear parametric photon pairs was aligned and the optical paths were balanced to within an average of 11.6 mu m, yielding two-photon interference features with visibilities of similar to 0.9. The method is applicable to arbitrary noncollinear emission angles, including nondegenerate downconversion situations where the signal and idler emission angles differ.

AB - Two major requirements in the construction of the Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer are the alignment and length balancing of two optical paths. A new method is presented for meeting these requirements that requires no custom optics or expensive equipment. Using this method, a two photon interferometer sourced by degenerate noncollinear parametric photon pairs was aligned and the optical paths were balanced to within an average of 11.6 mu m, yielding two-photon interference features with visibilities of similar to 0.9. The method is applicable to arbitrary noncollinear emission angles, including nondegenerate downconversion situations where the signal and idler emission angles differ.

KW - light interferometers

KW - nonlinear optics

KW - 2-PHOTON INTERFERENCE

KW - 2 PHOTONS

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=63649121957&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1063/1.3080559

DO - 10.1063/1.3080559

M3 - Article

SN - 0034-6748

VL - 80

JO - Review of Scientific Instruments

JF - Review of Scientific Instruments

IS - 3

ER -

The Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer: A new procedure for alignment

Abstract

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this