Coherence interpretation of the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect

Abstract: Two-photon intensity correlation of the Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) effect has been intensively studied over the last several decades for one of the most interesting quantum features. According to the particle nature of quantum mechanics, indistinguishable photon characteristics interacting on a beam splitter are the prerequisite of the photon bunching phenomenon. Here, a coherence approach based on the wave nature of a photon is used to interpret HOM effect based on entangled photon pairs. As a result, a complete solution of the HOM effect is derived from the coherence approach for the indistinguishable photon characteristics in a deterministic way without violation of quantum mechanics. Thus, HOM effect is now perfectly understood as a relative phase relation between paired photons in an interferometric system, where the HOM dip with no interference fringe is due to ensemble decoherence of all interacting photon pairs.