Interferometry and higher-dimensional phase measurements using directionally unbiased linear optics

Abstract

Grover multiports are higher-dimensional generalizations of beam splitters, in which input to any one of the four ports has equal probability of exiting at any of the same four ports, including the input port. In this paper, we demonstrate that interferometers built from such multiports have novel features. For example, when combined with two-photon input and coincidence measurements, it is shown that such interferometers have capabilities beyond those of standard beam-splitter-based interferometers, such as easily controlled interpolation between Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) and anti-HOM behavior. Further, it is shown that the Grover-based analog of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer can make three separate phase measurements simultaneously. By arranging the transmission lines between the two multiports to lie in different planes, the same interferometer acts as a higher-dimensional Sagnac interferometer, allowing rotation rates about three different axes to be measured with a single device.

References in corpus (6)

• Entangled Fock states for Robust Quantum Optical Metrology, Imaging, and Sensing
• An atomic Hong-Ou-Mandel experiment
• Quantum Vacuum Sagnac Effect
• Implementation of a 3 x 3 directionally-unbiased linear optical multiport
• Higher-dimensional Hong-Ou-Mandel effect and state redistribution with linear-optical multiports
• Controllable entangled state distribution in a dual-rail reconfigurable optical network