Observing two-photon subwavelength interference of broadband chaotic light in a polarization-selective Michelson interferometer

Abstract

We demonstrated a method to achieve the two-photon subwavelength effect of true broadband chaotic light in polarization-selective Michelson interferometer based on two-photon absorption detection. To our knowledge, it is the first time that this effect has been observed with broadband chaotic light. In theory, the two-photon polarization coherence matrix and probability amplitudes matrix are combined to develop polarized two-photon interference terms, which explains the experimental results well. To make better use of this interferometer to produce the subwavelength effect, we also make a series of error analyses to find out the relationship between the visibility and the degree of polarization error. Our experimental and theoretical results contribute to the understanding of the two-photon subwavelength interference, which shed light on the development of the two-photon interference theory of vector light field based on quantum mechanics. The characteristic of the two-photon subwavelength effect have significant applications in temporal ghost imaging, such as it helps to improve the resolution of temporal objects.

Theoretical analysis of a Polarized Two-Photon Michelson Interferometer with Broadband Chaotic Light

“…The sub-wavelength effect can be used to increase the resolution of imaging or quantum lithography [23]. The sub-wavelength effect predicted by the vector model has been observed in our following experiments and reported in another paper [20].…”

“…This is a sub-wavelength effect. The corresponding experimental phenomenon has been observed and the details are reported in another paper [20]. With another polarizer P 3 is put before the detector, it could acts a which path information eraser.…”

A polarization sensitive interferometer: Delta interferometer

“…[22] While in a Delta interferometer, the two interfering electric fields are combined directly to observe the first-order interference pattern, which is more like an M-Z interferometer than a polarization interferometer. The Delta interferometer provides a perfect tool to study the reflection of an electric field in different polarizations and may find possible applications in polarization-sensitive scenarios, such as the observation of phase objects, [23] polarization-modulated twophoton interference [24] and so on.…”