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Updated: Mar 1, 2026

Transmission of Multiple Signals through an Optical Fiber Using Wavefront Shaping
Published on: March 20, 2017
Anti-coalescence of bosons on a lossy beam splitter
Benjamin Vest1, Marie-Christine Dheur1, Éloïse Devaux2
1Laboratoire Charles Fabry, Institut d'Optique, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, 91127 Palaiseau cedex, France.
Abstract:
Two-boson interference, a fundamentally quantum effect, has been extensively studied with photons through the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect and observed with guided plasmons. Using two freely propagating surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) interfering on a lossy beam splitter, we show that the presence of loss enables us to modify the reflection and transmission factors of the beam splitter, thus revealing quantum interference paths that do not exist in a lossless configuration. We investigate the two-plasmon interference on beam splitters with different sets of reflection and transmission factors. Through coincidence-detection measurements, we observe either coalescence or anti-coalescence of SPPs. The results show that losses can be viewed as a degree of freedom to control quantum processes.
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