Multiphoton Interference in the Spectral Domain by Direct Heralding of Frequency Superposition States

Multiphoton interference is central to photonic quantum information processing and quantum simulation, usually requiring multiple sources of nonclassical light followed by a unitary transformation on their modes. We observe interference in the four-photon events generated by a single silicon waveguide, where the different modes are six frequency channels. Rather than requiring a unitary transformation, the frequency correlations of the source are configured such that photons are generated in superposition states across multiple channels, and interference effects can be seen without further manipulation. The frequency correlations of the source also mean that it is effectively acting as multiple pair photon sources, generating photons in different spectral modes, which interfere with each other in a nontrivial manner. This suggests joint spectral engineering is a tool for controlling complex quantum photonic states without the difficulty of implementing spatially separate sources or a large unitary interferometer, which could have practical benefits in various applications of multiphoton interference.