Dispersion in nonlinear interferometry: implications for optical coherence tomography with undetected photons

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2602.05653v1
• Date: Thu, 05 Feb 2026 13:35:59 GMT
• Title: Dispersion in nonlinear interferometry: implications for optical coherence tomography with undetected photons
• Authors: Ivan Zorin, Paul Gattinger,
• Abstract summary: Quantum interferometers based on non-degenerate optical parametric down-conversion exhibit strong unbalanced group velocity dispersion (GVD)<n>This feature is intrinsic to this type of interferometer as correlated photons of vastly different frequencies propagate through a dispersive nonlinear crystal.<n>Physical compensation is less straightforward, in particular for non-degenerate broadband due to the limited number of suitable materials.
• Score: 0.0
• License: http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/
• Abstract: Nonlinear SU(1,1) quantum interferometers based on non-degenerate optical parametric down-conversion exhibit strong unbalanced group velocity dispersion (GVD). This feature is intrinsic to this type of interferometer as correlated photons of vastly different frequencies propagate through a dispersive nonlinear crystal; consequently, the dispersion arises from the source itself. The resulting GVD degrades the axial point-spread function (PSF) in optical coherence tomography (OCT) with undetected photons; and physical compensation is less straightforward, in particular for non-degenerate broadband regimes due to the limited number of suitable materials. In this contribution, we analyze dispersion in bulk nonlinear interferometry and describe its implications for OCT imaging. Aspects of hardware compensation are addressed, and a novel empirical numerical method of compensation is proposed. The approach is based on the extraction of the phase component directly from the time-domain modality (high precision linearized quantum Fourier transform infrared spectrometer) and its injection into the mid-IR spectral-domain OCT signals (central wavelength of around 3770 nm) before the Fourier transform. The proposed method is compared with an alternative numerical technique. The results demonstrate a 2.2-fold improvement in axial resolution and outperform the alternative correction method in overall imaging performance.

Related papers

• Optically tunable linear and nonlinear enhancement of index of refraction [2.3592914313389253]
  Control of optical properties of materials by tuning their refractive index can revolutionize the current state-of-the-art technology to manipulate light propagation in the high loss media.<n>We demonstrate active optical tuning of the plasmonic analog of textitenhancement of index of refraction (EIR) in both linear and nonlinear regimes using a quantum mechanical approach.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-06-21T12:39:40Z)
• Demonstration of Fourier-domain Quantum Optical Coherence Tomography for a fast tomographic quantum imaging [0.9558392439655014]
  Quantum Optical Coherence Tomography (Q- OCT) outperforms classical OCT in several experimental terms.<n>We propose two joint spectrum pre-processing algorithms, aimed at compensating resolution-degrading effects within the setup.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-02-12T13:04:46Z)
• Super-resolution of ultrafast pulses via spectral inversion [0.0]
  We experimentally demonstrate a spectroscopic super-resolution method aimed at broadband light (10s to 100s of GHz) We study the paradigmatic problem of estimating a small separation between two incoherent spectral features of equal brightness, with a small number of photons per coherence time. The setup is based on an actively stabilized Mach-Zehnder-type interferometer with electro-optic time lenses and passive spectral dispersers implementing the inversion.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-03-18T12:21:37Z)
• Broadband biphoton source for quantum optical coherence tomography based on a Michelson interferometer [39.58317527488534]
  We describe and experimentally demonstrate a novel technique for generation of a bright collinear biphoton field with a broad spectrum.<n>As the most straightforward application of the source, we employ Michelson interferometer-based quantum optical coherence tomography (Q OCT)
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-01-31T13:52:37Z)
• Shaping Single Photons through Multimode Optical Fibers using Mechanical Perturbations [55.41644538483948]
  We show an all-fiber approach for controlling the shape of single photons and the spatial correlations between entangled photon pairs. We optimize these perturbations to localize the spatial distribution of a single photon or the spatial correlations of photon pairs in a single spot.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2023-06-04T07:33:39Z)
• Single photon optical bistability [55.2480439325792]
  We investigate the bistability in a small Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) with the optical wavelength size cavity, the nonlinear Kerr medium and only a few photons, on average, excited by the external quantum field. Multiple stationary states of the FPI cavity field with different spectra are possible at realistic conditions, for example, in the FPI with the photonic crystal cavity and the semiconductor-doped glass nonlinear medium.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2023-04-15T10:44:51Z)
• Tunable directional photon scattering from a pair of superconducting qubits [105.54048699217668]
  In the optical and microwave frequency ranges tunable directionality can be achieved by applying external magnetic fields. We demonstrate tunable directional scattering with just two transmon qubits coupled to a transmission line.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2022-05-06T15:21:44Z)
• Complete conversion between one and two photons in nonlinear waveguides with tailored dispersion [62.997667081978825]
  We show theoretically how to control coherent conversion between a narrow-band pump photon and broadband photon pairs in nonlinear optical waveguides. We reveal that complete deterministic conversion as well as pump-photon revival can be achieved at a finite propagation distance.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2021-10-06T23:49:44Z)
• Spectrally multimode integrated SU(1,1) interferometer [50.591267188664666]
  The presented interferometer includes a polarization converter between two photon sources and utilizes a continuous-wave (CW) pump. We show that this configuration results in almost perfect destructive interference at the output and supersensitivity regions below the classical limit.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2020-12-07T14:42:54Z)
• Azimuthal eigenmodes at strongly non-degenerate parametric down-conversion [0.0]
  Quantum-optical technologies based on parametric light down-conversion are not yet applied in the terahertz frequency range. This study investigates the angular structure of scattered radiation generated by strongly non-degenerate parametric down-conversion.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2020-09-23T21:53:12Z)

This list is automatically generated from the titles and abstracts of the papers in this site.

This site does not guarantee the quality of this site (including all information) and is not responsible for any consequences.