From Event: SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, 2018
We report the observation of a counterintuitive phenomenon in multipath correlation interferometry with thermal light. The intensity correlation between the outputs of two unbalanced Mach-Zehnder interfer- ometers (UMZIs) with two classically correlated beams of thermal light at the input exhibits genuine second-order interference with the visibility of 1=3. Surprisingly, the second-order interference does not degrade at all no matter how much the path length difference in each UMZI is increased beyond the coherence length of the thermal light. Moreover, the second-order interference is dependent on the difference of the UMZI phases. These results differ substantially from those of the entangled-photon Franson interferometer, which exhibits two-photon interference dependent on the sum of the UMZI phases and the interference vanishes as the path length difference in each UMZI exceeds the coherence length of the pump laser. Our work offers deeper insight into the interplay between interference and coherence in multiphoton interferometry.
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Yong Sup Ihn, Yosep Kim, Vincenzo Tamma, and Yoon-Ho Kim, "Second-order temporal interference with thermal light: Comparison to the Franson interferometer (Conference Presentation)," Proc. SPIE 10771, Quantum Communications and Quantum Imaging XVI, 1077113 (Presented at SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications: August 20, 2018; Published: 6 November 2018); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2318418.5836461441001.