Quantum Interference between Nonidentical Single Particles

Keyu Su, Yi Zhong, Shanchao Zhang, Jianfeng Li, Chang-Ling Zou, Yunfei Wang, Hui Yan, and Shi-Liang Zhu

Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 093604 – Published 25 August 2022

Abstract

Quantum interference between identical single particles reveals the intrinsic quantum statistic nature of particles, which could not be interpreted through classical physics. Here, we demonstrate quantum interference between nonidentical bosons using a generalized beam splitter based on a quantum memory. The Hong-Ou-Mandel type interference between single photons and single magnons with high visibility is demonstrated, and the crossover from the bosonic to fermionic quantum statistics is observed by tuning the beam splitter to be non-Hermitian. Moreover, multiparticle interference that simulates the behavior of three fermions by three input photons is realized. Our work extends the understanding of the quantum interference effects and demonstrates a versatile experimental platform for studying and engineering quantum statistics of particles.

Received 7 April 2022
Accepted 9 August 2022

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.093604

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Light-matter interaction Quantum memories Quantum optics

Atomic ensemble

Optical interferometry

Atomic, Molecular & OpticalQuantum Information, Science & TechnologyGeneral Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Keyu Su¹, Yi Zhong ¹, Shanchao Zhang^1,2, Jianfeng Li^1,2, Chang-Ling Zou ³, Yunfei Wang ^1,2,*, Hui Yan ^1,2,4,†, and Shi-Liang Zhu ^1,2,‡

¹Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Quantum Engineering and Quantum Materials, School of Physics and Telecommunication Engineering, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China
²Guangdong-Hong Kong Joint Laboratory of Quantum Matter, Frontier Research Institute for Physics, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China
³CAS Key Laboratory of Quantum Information, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
⁴Guangdong Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center for Quantum Precision Measurement, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China

^*yunfeiwang2014@126.com
^†yanhui@scnu.edu.cn
^‡slzhu@scnu.edu.cn

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Vol. 129, Iss. 9 — 26 August 2022

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Images

Figure 1
Theoretical and experimental schemes. (a) The theoretical scheme of the magnon-photon HOM interferometer. The magnon ( $\hat{σ}$ ) and photon ( $\hat{E}$ ) are both in the form of a dark-state polariton (DSP) in an electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) medium. The red line above the control laser shows the experimental timing sequences: storage of a magnon ( $Ω_{S}$ ), interference between two DSPs ( $Ω_{B S}$ ) and reading out of the magnon ( $Ω_{R}$ ). The insert is a $Λ$ -type EIT energy diagram: $| 1 ⟩ = | 5 S_{1 / 2}, F = 2, m_{F} = 2 ⟩$ , $| 2 ⟩ = | 5 S_{1 / 2}, F = 3, m_{F} = 2 ⟩$ , $| 3 ⟩ = | 5 P_{1 / 2}, F = 3, m_{F} = 3 ⟩$ , $Γ_{3}$ is the spontaneous decay rate of $| 3 ⟩$ , and $Δ$ is single photon detuning. (b) The input and output states of the magnon-photon HOM interferometer. (c) Experimental setup. ${MOT}_{1}$ is a single photon source. The detection of a Stokes photon ( $ω_{S i}$ ) heralded the generation of an anti-Stokes photon ( $ω_{A S i}$ ). ${MOT}_{2}$ is the non-Hermitian beam splitter. PBS, polarization beam splitter; QWP, quarter wave plate; SPCM, single photon counting module; SMF, single mode fiber.
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Figure 2
The interference contrast of the magnon-photon HOM interferometer. (a),(d) Theoretically calculated magnon spatial distribution for different $Ω_{S}$ . $x %$ is the storage efficiency, and OD is the optical depth of the atomic ensemble. (b),(e) Theoretically calculated DSP spatial distribution for different $Ω_{S}$ . $I$ is the temporal envelope overlap ratio. Here, $Ω_{S}$ is the same as in (a),(d) with corresponding colors. Solid line: magnon input. Dashed line: photon input. (c),(f) Experimentally measured $g^{(2)} (Δ τ = 0, ϕ_{r t} = 0)$ with different $Ω_{s}$ . $z / L_{0}$ is the normalized length of the atomic ensemble and $γ_{31} = 2 π \times 3 MHz$ is the dephasing rate between $| 3 ⟩$ and $| 1 ⟩$ . The error bars in (c) and (f) indicate $1 σ$ standard error from five measurements. (b) and (c) are data for $OD = 30$ , and (e) and (f) are data for $OD = 150$ .
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Figure 3
Hermiticity of the magnon-photon interference. (a) The measured $g^{(2)}$ with different $Δ τ$ . Red square: $ϕ_{r t} = 0$ with $O D = 30$ and $Δ = 0 MHz$ . Blue circle: $ϕ_{r t} = π / 2$ with $O D = 66$ and $Δ = 30 MHz$ . Black triangle: $ϕ_{r t} = π$ with $O D = 100$ and $Δ = 60 MHz$ . The solid lines are the theoretically fitted results. (b) The measured $g^{(2)}$ with different $ϕ_{r t}$ . The solid line is the theoretically fitted result. The dashed lines are the classical limit values. The error bars represent the $1 σ$ standard error from five measurements.
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Figure 4
Three-photon interference. (a) Experimental scheme. $S$ is the paired photon source ( $ω_{S i}$ and $ω_{A S i}$ ) and NHBS is the quantum memory based non-Hermitian beam splitter. (b) The theoretically calculated $g^{(3)} (Δ τ_{1}, Δ τ_{2})$ with different time delays $Δ τ_{1}$ and $Δ τ_{2}$ . (c) The experimental results of $g^{(3)} (Δ τ_{1}, Δ τ_{2})$ , corresponding to the points signed in (b). The dashed line is the classical limit value. The error bars in (c) indicate $1 σ$ standard error from five measurements.
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