Interference effects in spontaneous two-photon parametric scattering from two macroscopic regions

Abstract

Two types of interference were observed using two-photon spontaneous parametric radiation from two nonlinear interaction regions. Two experimental setups analogous to the Young and Mach-Zehnder interferometers were used. An interesting feature of the two-photon Young interference is the opposite conditions for its observation by two different methods: by measuring intensity of light at a single frequency and by measuring correlation of intensities at two conjugated frequencies (method of coincidences). Two-photon Mach-Zehnder interference resembles the Ramsey method of separated fields, which is used in beam spectroscopy. A simple macroscopic quantum model agrees well with the experimental results and enables their interpretation in terms of ``biphotons'' carrying information about the pump phase.