  The effect of a decoherence channel, such as a turbulent atmosphere, on the
second order quantum interference in the Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) effect is
investigated. The investigation includes both theoretical analyses and an
experimental implementation of the process. In our experiment, entangled input
states are prepared with spontaneous parametric down-conversion. The
atmospheric turbulence is modelled as a single-phase screen and simulated with
a spatial light modulator according to the theory of Kolmogorov. We find both
theoretically and experimentally that the HOM dip is unaffected when only one
of the photons passes through turbulence, but both photons pass through
turbulence, the HOM interference is only slightly affected by the
scintillation. The reasons behind these findings and their consequences for
HOM-based teleportation are discussed.
