Indistinguishability of independent single photons
Fang‐Wen Sun, Chee Wei Wong · Physical Review A · 2009
The indistinguishability of independent single photons is presented by decomposing the single photon pulse into the mixed state of different transform-limited pulses. The entanglement between single photons and outer environment or other photons induces the distribution of the center frequencies of those transform-limited pulses and makes photons distinguishable. Only the single photons with the same transform-limited form are indistinguishable. In details, the indistinguishability of single photons from the solid-state quantum emitter and spontaneous parametric down-conversion is examined with two-photon Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer. Moreover, experimental methods to enhance the indistinguishability are discussed, where the usage of spectral filter is highlighted.