Chinese Optics Letters, Volume. 24, Issue 2, (2026)

Continuous Control of Hong-Ou-Mandel Interference for Bosonic and Fermionic States via Unitary Metasurfaces [Early Posting]

He JuanZi, Liu XingYu, liu jun, Feng XiaoJing, Wang Shuming, Wang Zhenlin
Author Affiliations
  • China
  • 652024220029@smail.nju.edu.cn
  • nanjing university
  • 502023220100@smail.nju.edu.cn
  • Physics
  • 南京大学固体微结构物理国家重点实验室
  • show less

    The Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) interference, which arises from the interaction of indistinguishable photons at a beam splitter, plays a pivotal role in quantum information processing. Its outcomes have been constrained by the bosonic nature of photons and the unitarity of conventional beam splitters, leading to photon bunching. Recent studies have explored HOM interference modulation using non-unitary systems, yet no work has achieved control via unitary systems.In this work, we propose a method to achieve continuous control of HOM interference for both bosonic and fermionic polarization-entangled states using polarization-decoupled unitary metasurfaces. This approach enables arbitrary modulation—even complete reversal—of HOM interference without introducing losses, thereby significantly enhancing photon utilization efficiency. Furthermore, by incorporating the rotational degree of freedom of the metasurface, a single structure suffices for continuous tuning of the interference. Our work offers a novel paradigm for manipulating HOM interference, promising to enrich the design of quantum computing systems and quantum logic circuits, while unlocking new applications for metasurfaces in quantum optics.

    Paper Information

    Manuscript Accepted: Sep. 1, 2025

    Posted: Sep. 16, 2025

    DOI: 10.3788/COL202624.023601