Abstract
We consider photons as wave packets in time domain and analyze the Hong-Ou-Mandel–type interferences in different conditions. The general analytic formula of the 2N-photon interference is deduced. It is shown that the widths of the time interval distributions of the 2N-fold coincidence are proportional to the widths of the photon wave packets and inversely proportional to . Good agreement between previous experimental results and our theory for 2- and 4-photon interferences confirms the validity of this method. The method is also generalized to multi-beam interference and some new phenomena compared with two-beam interference are obtained.
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