Two-parameter Hong-Ou-Mandel dip

Abstract

A modification of the standard Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer is proposed which allows one to replicate the celebrated coincidence dip in the case of two-independent delay parameters. In the ideal case where such delays are sufficiently stable with respect to the mean wavelength of the pump source, properly symmetrized input bi-photon states allow one to pinpoint their values through the identification of a zero in the coincidence counts, a feature that cannot be simulated by semiclassical inputs having the same spectral properties. Besides, in the presence of fluctuating parameters the zero in the coincidences is washed away: still the bi-photon state permits to recover the values of parameters with a visibility which is higher than the one allowed by semiclassical sources. The detrimental role of loss and dispersion is also analyzed and an application in the context of quantum positioning is presented.