Hong-Ou-Mandel effect harnessed for quantum microscopy

A team from Glasgow University and Heriot-Watt University said they have found a new way to create detailed microscopic images under conditions that cause conventional optical microscopes to fail.

In a new paper published in Nature Photonics, the team describe how they have generated images by finding a new way to harness a quantum phenomenon called the Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) interference.

According to Glasgow University, HOM interference occurs when quantum-entangled photons are passed through a beam splitter – a glass prism that can turn a single beam of light into two separate beams as it passes through. Inside the prism, the photons can be reflected internally or transmitted outwards.

CLICK FOR MORE ENGINEERING NEWS

When the photons are identical, they will always exit the splitter in the same direction, a process known as ‘bunching’. When the entangled photons are measured using photodetectors at the end of the path of the split beam of light, a characteristic ‘dip’ in the output probability graph of the light shows that the bunched photons are reaching only one detector and not the other.