We present experimental results demonstrating the quantum interference of two photons distinguishable in their transverse momenta, each entering the input ports of a balanced beam splitter. This counterintuitive interference effect is made possible through spatially resolved measurements in the near field, i.e., by resolving the conjugate variable in which the photons are distinguishable. Our experimental findings agree with theoretical predictions. We contrast our results with a nonspatially resolved measurement where averaging over the photons' positions washes out the quantum interference observed in spatially resolved measurements.

Close

PrevNext

View figure in article

• Interference & diffraction of light
• Nonclassical interferometry
• Optical interferometry
• Photon pairs & parametric down-conversion
• Laser systems
• Nonlinear optical materials
• Optical sources & detectors
• Correlation function measurements
• Photon counting
• Single-photon detectors