In this work we experimentally demonstrate a photon-pair source with correlations in the frequency and polarization degrees of freedom. We base our source on the spontaneous four-wave mixing (SFWM) process in a photonic crystal fiber. We show theoretically that the two-photon state is the coherent superposition of up to six distinct SFWM processes, each corresponding to a distinct combination of polarizations for the four waves involved and giving rise to an energy-conserving pair of peaks. Our experimental measurements, both in terms of single and coincidence counts, confirm the presence of these pairs of peaks, while we also present related numerical simulations with excellent experiment-theory agreement. We explicitly show how the pump frequency and polarization may be used to effectively control the signal-idler photon-pair properties, defining which of the six processes can participate in the overall two-photon state and at which optical frequencies. We analyze the signal-idler correlations in frequency and polarization, and in terms of fiber characterization, we input the SFWM-peak experimental data into a genetic algorithm which successfully predicts the values of the parameters that characterize the fiber cross section, as well as predict the particular SFWM process associated with a given pair of peaks. We believe our work will help advance the exploitation of photon-pair correlations in the frequency and polarization degrees of freedom.
Photonic Crystal Fibers can be tailored to increase the effective Kerr nonlinearity, while producing smaller amounts of excess noise compared to standard silicon fibers. Using these features of Photonic Crystal Fibers we create polarization squeezed states with increased purity compared to standard fiber squeezing experiments. Explicit we produce squeezed states in counter propagating pulses along the same fiber axis to achieve near identical dispersion properties. This enables the production of polarization squeezing through interference in a polarization type Sagnac interferometer. We observ…
Fiber transport of multi-dimensional photonic qudits promises high information capacity per photon without space restriction. This work experimentally demonstrates transmission of spatial qudits through multi-core optical fibers and measurement of the entanglement between two fibers with quantum state analyzers, each composed of a spatial light modulator and a single-mode fiber. Quantum state tomography reconstructs the four-dimension entangled state that verifies the non-locality through concurrences in two-dimensional subspaces and a high-dimensional Bell-type CGLMP inequality.
A photonic crystal fiber based source of photon pairs in symmetric factorable state is experimentally demonstrated. The idler and signal photons, with almost the same bandwidth, are centering at 807.5 nm and 1364.1 nm, respectively. The property of the spectral de-correlation is confirmed by measuring the correlation dependence of photon pairs upon the spectra of pump, signal and idler photons.
Photonic spatial quantum states are a subject of great interest for applications in quantum communication. One important challenge has been how to dynamically generate these states using only fiber-optical components. Here we propose and experimentally demonstrate an all-fiber system that can dynamically switch between any general transverse spatial qubit state based on linearly polarized modes. Our platform is based on a fast optical switch based on a Sagnac interferometer combined with a photonic lantern and few-mode optical fibers. We show switching times between spatial modes on the order …
Both photonic quantum computation and the establishment of a quantum internet require fiber-based measurement and feed-forward in order to be compatible with existing infrastructure. Here we present a fiber-compatible scheme for measurement and feed-forward, whose performance is benchmarked by carrying out remote preparation of single-photon polarization states at telecom-wavelengths. The result of a projective measurement on one photon deterministically controls the path a second photon takes with ultrafast optical switches. By placing well-calibrated {bulk} passive polarization optics in the…
We investigate a method to produce photon pairs by four-wave mixing in photonic crystal fibers (PCFs). By controlling the wavelength of the pump light, which determines the phase matching condition for four-wave mixing, we can obtain a broader spectrum of photon pairs than undesired Raman-scattered photons. We observe two-photon interference of photon pairs from a PCF with the help of an unbalanced Mach-Zehnder interferometer. Two-photon interference fringes with 83% visibility, which exceeds the classical limit of 50%, are obtained.
Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) provides an efficient means to exchange information in an unconditionally secure way. Historically, QKD protocols have been based on binary signal formats, such as two polarisation states, and the transmitted information efficiency of the quantum key is intrinsically limited to 1 bit/photon. Here we propose and experimentally demonstrate, for the first time, a high-dimensional QKD protocol based on space division multiplexing in multicore fiber using silicon photonic integrated lightwave circuits. We successfully realized three mutually unbiased bases in a four-d…
We experimentally demonstrate frequency translation of a nonclassical optical field via the Bragg scattering four-wave mixing process in a photonic crystal fiber (PCF). The high nonlinearity and the ability to control dispersion in PCF enable efficient translation between photon channels within the visible to-near-infrared spectral range, useful in quantum networks. Heralded single photons at 683 nm were translated to 659 nm with an efficiency of $28.6 \pm 2.2$ percent. Second-order correlation measurements on the 683-nm and 659-nm fields yielded $g^{(2)}_{683}(0) = 0.21 \pm 0.02$ and $g^{(2)}…
A technique is demonstrated which efficiently transfers light between a tapered standard single-mode optical fiber and a resonant mode of a high-Q photonic crystal cavity with mode volume less than a cubic wavelength in size. Cavity mode quality factors of 4.7 x 10^4 are measured, and a total fiber-to-cavity coupling efficiency of 44% is demonstrated.
Guided Acoustic Wave Brillouin Scattering (GAWBS) generates phase and polarization noise of light propagating in glass fibers. This excess noise affects the performance of various experiments operating at the quantum noise limit. We experimentally demonstrate the reduction of GAWBS noise in a photonic crystal fiber in a broad frequency range using cavity sound dynamics. We compare the noise spectrum to the one of a standard fiber and observe a 10-fold noise reduction in the frequency range up to 200 MHz. Based on our measurement results as well as on numerical simulations we establish a model …
By performing quantum-noise-limited optical heterodyne detection, we observe polarization noise in light after propagation through a hollow-core photonic crystal fiber (PCF). We compare the noise spectrum to the one of a standard fiber and find an increase of noise even though the light is mainly transmitted in air in a hollow-core PCF. Combined with our simulation of the acoustic vibrational modes in the hollow-core PCF, we are offering an explanation for the polarization noise with a variation of guided acoustic wave Brillouin scattering (GAWBS). Here, instead of modulating the strain in the…
We report on the experimental characterization of a novel nonlinear liquid-filled hollow-core photonic-crystal fiber for the generation of photon pairs at telecommunication wavelength through spontaneous four-wave-mixing. We show that the optimization procedure in view of this application links the choice of the nonlinear liquid to the design parameters of the fiber, and we give an example of such an optimization at telecom wavelengths. Combining the modeling of the fiber and classical characterization techniques at these wavelengths, we identify, for the chosen fiber and liquid combination, s…
Confining particles in hollow-core photonic crystal fibers has opened up new prospects to scale up the distance and time over which particles can be made to interact with light. However, maintaining long-lived quantum spin coherence and/or transporting it over macroscopic distances in a waveguide remain challenging. Here, we demonstrate coherent guiding of ground-state superpositions of 85Rb atoms over a centimeter range and hundreds of milliseconds inside a hollow-core photonic crystal fiber. The decoherence is mainly due to dephasing from residual differential light shift (DLS) from the opti…
We demonstrate the first guiding of cold atoms through a 88 mm long piece of photonic band gap fiber. The guiding potential is created by a far-off resonance dipole trap propagating inside the fiber with a hollow core of 12 mu m. We load the fiber from a dark spot 85-Rb magneto optical trap and observe a peak flux of more than 10^5 atoms/s at a velocity of 1.5 m/s. With an additional reservoir optical dipole trap, a constant atomic flux of 1.5 10^4 atoms/s is sustained for more than 150\,ms. These results open up interesting possibilities to study nonlinear light-matter interaction in a nearly…
The demonstration of an optical fiber based probe for efficiently exciting the waveguide modes of high-index contrast planar photonic crystal (PC) slabs is presented. Utilizing the dispersion of the PC, fiber taper waveguides formed from standard silica single-mode optical fibers are used to evanescently couple light into the guided modes of a patterned silicon membrane. A coupling efficiency of approximately 95% is obtained between the fiber taper and a PC waveguide mode suitably designed for integration with a previously studied ultra-small mode volume high-Q PC resonant cavity [1]. The micr…
Integrated photonic circuits offer the possibility for complex quantum optical experiments in higher-dimensional photonic systems. However, the advantages of integration and scalability can only be fully utilized with the availability of a source for higher-dimensional entangled photons. Here, a novel fiber integrated source for path-entangled photons in the telecom band at 1.55\mum using only standard fiber technology is presented. Due to the special design the source shows good scalability towards higher-dimensional entangled photonic states (quNits), while path entanglement offers direct co…
We describe the loading of laser-cooled rubidium atoms into a single-mode hollow-core photonic-crystal fiber. Inside the fiber, the atoms are confined by a far-detuned optical trap and probed by a weak resonant beam. We describe different loading methods and compare their trade-offs in terms of implementation complexity and atom-loading efficiency. The most efficient procedure results in loading of ~30,000 rubidium atoms, which creates a medium with optical depth ~180 inside the fiber. Compared to our earlier study this represents a six-fold increase in maximum achieved optical depth in this s…
Coherent interactions between electromagnetic and matter waves lie at the heart of quantum science and technology. However, the diffraction nature of light has limited the scalability of many atom-light based quantum systems. Here, we use the optical fields in a hollow-core photonic crystal fiber to spatially split, reflect, and recombine a coherent superposition state of free-falling 85Rb atoms to realize an inertia-sensitive atom interferometer. The interferometer operates over a diffraction-free distance, and the contrasts and phase shifts at different distances agree within one standard er…
We report the radiation trapping effect inside a hollow-core photonic crystal fiber (PCF). An optical dipole trap was used to load and confine the atoms in the PCF without contacting the wall of the fiber. The transmission of a probe light propagating through the PCF was studied experimentally and theoretically. With the experimental results and theoretical predictions, we conclude that the radiation trapping can play a significant role and should be taken into account in the spectroscopic measurements inside the PCF.
Quantum memories at telecom wavelengths are crucial for the construction of large-scale quantum networks based on existing fiber networks. On-demand storage of telecom photonic qubits is a fundamental request for such networking applications but yet to be demonstrated. Here we demonstrate the storage and on-demand retrieval of telecom photonic qubits using a laser-written waveguide fabricated in an $^{167}$Er$^{3+}$:Y$_2$SiO$_5$ crystal. Both ends of the waveguide memory are directly connected with fiber arrays with a fiber-to-fiber efficiency of 51%. Storage fidelity of 98.3(1)% can be obtain…
Many photonic quantum information processing applications would benefit from a high brightness, fiber-coupled source of triggered single photons. Here, we present a fiber-coupled photonic-crystal waveguide single-photon source relying on evanescent coupling of the light field from a tapered out-coupler to an optical fiber. A two-step approach is taken where the performance of the tapered out-coupler is recorded first on an independent device containing an on-chip reflector. Reflection measurements establish that the chip-to-fiber coupling efficiency exceeds 80 %. The detailed characterization …
A two-dimensional photonic crystal semiconductor microcavity with a quality factor Q ~ 40,000 and a modal volume Veff ~ 0.9 cubic wavelengths is demonstrated. A micron-scale optical fiber taper is used as a means to probe both the spectral and spatial properties of the cavity modes, allowing not only measurement of modal loss, but also the ability to ascertain the in-plane localization of the cavity modes. This simultaneous demonstration of high-Q and ultra-small Veff in an optical microcavity is of potential interest in quantum optics, nonlinear optics, and optoelectronics. In particular, the…
In this article, we investigate the efficiency of photonic state tomography in the presence of fiber attenuation. The theoretical formalism of the photon loss is provided by implementing methods from the theory of open quantum systems. The quantum state is reconstructed from photon counts obtained for symmetric informationally complete POVMs. The number of photons that reach the detectors is numerically modeled by the binomial distribution, which describes the loss of light caused by the medium. This approach allows us to study the quality of state tomography versus the length of the fiber. In…
