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Updated: May 26, 2026

Measurement of Quantum Interference in a Silicon Ring Resonator Photon Source
Published on: April 4, 2017
Photon propagation in a discrete fiber network: an interplay of coherence and losses
Alois Regensburger1, Christoph Bersch, Benjamin Hinrichs
1Institute of Optics, Information and Photonics, University Erlangen-Nuremberg, 91058 Erlangen, Germany.
Abstract:
We study light propagation in a photonic system that shows stepwise evolution in a discretized environment. It resembles a discrete-time version of photonic waveguide arrays or quantum walks. By introducing controlled photon losses to our experimental setup, we observe unexpected effects like subexponential energy decay and formation of complex fractal patterns. This demonstrates that the interplay of linear losses, discreteness and energy gradients leads to genuinely new coherent phenomena in classical and quantum optical experiments. Moreover, the influence of decoherence is investigated.
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