Hong-Ou-Mandel interference with a coexisting clock using transceivers for synchronization over deployed fiber

Journal Article · Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 2025 · Optics Communications

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.optcom.2024.131305· OSTI ID:2574271

Ramesh, Anirudh ^[1]; Reilly, Daniel R. ^[2]; Lee, Kim Fook ^[3]; Moraw, Paul M. ^[2]; Chung, Joaquin ^[4]; Islam, Md Shariful ^[4]; Peña, Cristián ^[5]; Han, Xu ^[6]; Kettimuthu, Rajkumar ^[4]; Kumar, Prem ^[7]; Kanter, Gregory S. ^[8]

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1. Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)
2. NuCrypt LLC, Park Ridge, IL (United States)
3. Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States); NuCrypt LLC, Park Ridge, IL (United States)
4. Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
5. Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
6. Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM)
7. Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)
8. NuCrypt LLC, Park Ridge, IL (United States); Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)

Interference between independently generated photons is a key step towards distributing entanglement over long distances, but it requires synchronization between the distantly-located photon sources. Synchronizing the clocks of such photon sources using coexisting two-way classical optical communications over the same fiber that transports the quantum photonic signals is a promising approach for achieving photon-photon interference over long distances, enabling entanglement distribution for quantum networking using the deployed fiber infrastructure. Here, we demonstrate photon-photon interference by observing the Hong-Ou-Mandel dip between two distantly-located sources: a weak coherent-state source obtained by attenuating the output of a laser and a heralded single-photon source. We achieve a maximum dip visibility of 0.58 +/- 0.04 when the two sources are connected via 4.3 km of deployed fiber. Dip visibilities > 0.5 are nonclassical and a first step towards achieving teleportation over the deployed fiber infrastructure. In our experiment, the classical optical communication is achieved with - 21 dBm of optical signal launch power, which is used to synchronize the clocks in the two independent, distantly-located photon sources. The impact of spontaneous Raman scattering from the classical optical signals is mitigated by appropriate choice of the quantum- and classical-channel wavelengths. All equipment used in our experiment (the photon sources and the synchronization setup) is commercially available. Finally, our experiment represents a scalable approach to enabling practical quantum networking with commercial equipment and coexistence with classical communications in optical fiber.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities (SUF)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-06CH11357
• OSTI ID: 2574271
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 2467486
• Journal Information: Optics Communications, Journal Name: Optics Communications Vol. 576; ISSN 0030-4018
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

Classical communications
Clock distribution
Quantum interference
Quantum network
Quantum optics
Single photons