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Attosecond-resolution Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometry

When two indistinguishable photons are each incident on separate input ports of a beamsplitter, they “bunch” deterministically, exiting via the same port as a direct consequence of their bosonic nature. This two-photon interference effect has long-held the potential for application in precision meas...

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Autores principales: Lyons, Ashley, Knee, George C., Bolduc, Eliot, Roger, Thomas, Leach, Jonathan, Gauger, Erik M., Faccio, Daniele
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Association for the Advancement of Science 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5935478/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29736414
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aap9416
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author Lyons, Ashley
Knee, George C.
Bolduc, Eliot
Roger, Thomas
Leach, Jonathan
Gauger, Erik M.
Faccio, Daniele
author_facet Lyons, Ashley
Knee, George C.
Bolduc, Eliot
Roger, Thomas
Leach, Jonathan
Gauger, Erik M.
Faccio, Daniele
author_sort Lyons, Ashley
collection PubMed
description When two indistinguishable photons are each incident on separate input ports of a beamsplitter, they “bunch” deterministically, exiting via the same port as a direct consequence of their bosonic nature. This two-photon interference effect has long-held the potential for application in precision measurement of time delays, such as those induced by transparent specimens with unknown thickness profiles. However, the technique has never achieved resolutions significantly better than the few-femtosecond (micrometer) scale other than in a common-path geometry that severely limits applications. We develop the precision of Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometry toward the ultimate limits dictated by statistical estimation theory, achieving few-attosecond (or nanometer path length) scale resolutions in a dual-arm geometry, thus providing access to length scales pertinent to cell biology and monoatomic layer two-dimensional materials.
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spelling pubmed-59354782018-05-07 Attosecond-resolution Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometry Lyons, Ashley Knee, George C. Bolduc, Eliot Roger, Thomas Leach, Jonathan Gauger, Erik M. Faccio, Daniele Sci Adv Research Articles When two indistinguishable photons are each incident on separate input ports of a beamsplitter, they “bunch” deterministically, exiting via the same port as a direct consequence of their bosonic nature. This two-photon interference effect has long-held the potential for application in precision measurement of time delays, such as those induced by transparent specimens with unknown thickness profiles. However, the technique has never achieved resolutions significantly better than the few-femtosecond (micrometer) scale other than in a common-path geometry that severely limits applications. We develop the precision of Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometry toward the ultimate limits dictated by statistical estimation theory, achieving few-attosecond (or nanometer path length) scale resolutions in a dual-arm geometry, thus providing access to length scales pertinent to cell biology and monoatomic layer two-dimensional materials. American Association for the Advancement of Science 2018-05-04 /pmc/articles/PMC5935478/ /pubmed/29736414 http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aap9416 Text en Copyright © 2018 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Lyons, Ashley
Knee, George C.
Bolduc, Eliot
Roger, Thomas
Leach, Jonathan
Gauger, Erik M.
Faccio, Daniele
Attosecond-resolution Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometry
title Attosecond-resolution Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometry
title_full Attosecond-resolution Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometry
title_fullStr Attosecond-resolution Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometry
title_full_unstemmed Attosecond-resolution Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometry
title_short Attosecond-resolution Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometry
title_sort attosecond-resolution hong-ou-mandel interferometry
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5935478/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29736414
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aap9416
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