Spectral considerations of Entangled two-photon absorption effects in Hong-Ou-Mandel interference experiments

Abstract

Recently, different experimental methods intended to detect the entangled two-photon absorption (ETPA) phenomenon in a variety of materials have been reported. The present work explores a different approach on which the ETPA process is studied based on the changes induced in the visibility of a Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) interferogram. By using an organic solution of Rhodamine B as a model of nonlinear material interacting with entangled photons at 800 nm region produced by spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC) Type-II, the conditions that make possible to detect changes in the visibility of a HOM interferogram upon ETPA are investigated. We support the discussion of our results by presenting a model in which the sample is considered as a spectral filtering function which fulfills the energy conservation conditions required by ETPA, allowing to explain the experimental observations with good agreement. We believe that this work represents a new perspective to studying the ETPA interaction, by using an ultra-sensitive quantum interference technique and a detailed mathematical model of the process.