Lyons Ashley, Knee George C, Bolduc Eliot, Roger Thomas, Leach Jonathan, Gauger Erik M, Faccio Daniele
School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, UK.
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK.
Sci Adv. 2018 May 4;4(5):eaap9416. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aap9416. eCollection 2018 May.
When two indistinguishable photons are each incident on separate input ports of a beamsplitter, they "bunch" deterministically, exiting via the same port as a direct consequence of their bosonic nature. This two-photon interference effect has long-held the potential for application in precision measurement of time delays, such as those induced by transparent specimens with unknown thickness profiles. However, the technique has never achieved resolutions significantly better than the few-femtosecond (micrometer) scale other than in a common-path geometry that severely limits applications. We develop the precision of Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometry toward the ultimate limits dictated by statistical estimation theory, achieving few-attosecond (or nanometer path length) scale resolutions in a dual-arm geometry, thus providing access to length scales pertinent to cell biology and monoatomic layer two-dimensional materials.
当两个无法区分的光子分别入射到分束器的不同输入端口时，由于它们的玻色子性质，它们会确定性地“聚束”，并从同一个端口出射。这种双光子干涉效应长期以来一直具有应用于时间延迟精密测量的潜力，比如由具有未知厚度分布的透明样本所引起的时间延迟。然而，除了在严重限制应用的共光路几何结构中，该技术从未实现过显著优于几飞秒（微米）尺度的分辨率。我们将Hong-Ou-Mandel干涉测量法的精度提升至统计估计理论所规定的极限，在双臂几何结构中实现了几阿秒（或纳米路径长度）尺度的分辨率，从而能够进入与细胞生物学和单原子层二维材料相关的长度尺度范围。
