2011/08/31 by Falk Töppel, Andrea Aiello, Gerd Leuchs · 1 citation
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Quantum and Classical Electrodynamics #physics.optics #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1367-2630/14/9/093051
published as Falk Töppel , Andrea Aiello and Gerd Leuchs, New J. Phys. 14, 093051 (2012) · 13 pages, 2 figure, extended version, to be published in New Journal of Physics
arxiv created 2012/08/31 · openalex publication_date 2012/09/26 · arxiv updated 2012/10/19 · openalex created_date 2017/10/20 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Two photons are said to be identical if they are prepared in the same quantum state. Given the latter, there is a unique way to achieve this. Conversely, there are many different ways of preparing two non-identical photons: they may differ in frequency, polarization, amplitude, etc. Therefore, photon distinguishability depends upon the specific degree of freedom being varied. By means of a careful analysis of the coincidence probability distribution in a Hong–Ou–Mandel experiment, we can show that photon distinguishability can be actually quantified by the rate of distinguishability of photons, an experimentally measurable parameter that crucially depends on both the photon quantum state and the degree of freedom under control.