We generalize the theory of resolving a mixture of two closely spaced spontaneous emission lifetimes to include pure dephasing contributions to decoherence, leading to the resurgence of Rayleigh's Curse at small lifetime separations. Considerable resolution enhancement remains possible when lifetime broadening is more significant than that due to pure dephasing. In the limit that lifetime broadening dominates, one can achieve super-resolution either by a tailored one-photon measurement or Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometry. We describe conditions for which either choice is superior.
Various quantum technology applications require high-purity single photons with high generation rate. Although different methods are employed to generate such photons, heralded single photons from spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) is the most commonly used approach. Photon generation rate from the heralded single-photon sources are limited by the efficiency of the detectors to record coincidence detection of the photon pairs which are lower than the single-photon counts recorded separately on each detector. In this paper we present a revised expression to calculate second-order tem…
We analyze the process of photon-pair generation via spontaneous parametric down-conversion in a quadratic nonlinear asymmetric waveguide coupler. The two waveguides have different geometry, such that light coupling only occurs within a narrow bandwidth of one of the generated (signal) photon modes, while the other (idler) photon together with the pump stay localized in one (driven) arm of the coupler. We demonstrate that such a setup represents a powerful and flexible tool for engineering spectral properties of generated photon pairs. Mode hybridization and dispersion of coupling can be utili…
High-efficient and high-purity photon sources are highly desired for quantum information processing. We report the design of a chip-scale hybrid SixNy and thin film periodically-poled lithium niobate waveguide for generating high-purity type-II spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC) photons in telecommunication band. The modeled second harmonic generation efficiency of 225% W^(-1)*cm^(-2) is obtained at 1560nm. Joint spectral analysis is performed to estimate the frequency correlation of SPDC photons, yielding intrinsic purity with up to 95.17%. The generation rate of these high-purity …
Single photon sources based on spontaneous photon-pair generation have enabled pioneering experiments in quantum optics. However, their non-determinism presents a bottleneck to scaling up photonic and hybrid quantum-enhanced technologies. Furthermore, photon pairs are typically emitted into many correlated frequency modes, producing an undesirable mixed state on heralding. Here we present a complete fibre-integrated heralded single photon source that addresses both these difficulties simultaneously. We use active switching to provide a path to deterministic operation by multiplexing separate s…
We model the spectral quantum-mechanical purity of heralded single photons from a photon-pair source based on nondegenerate spontaneous four-wave mixing taking the impact of distributed dispersion fluctuations into account. The considered photon-pair-generation scheme utilizes pump-pulse walk-off to produce pure heralded photons and phase matching is achieved through the dispersion properties of distinct spatial modes in a few-mode silica step-index fiber. We show that fiber-core-radius fluctuations in general severely impact the single-photon purity. Furthermore, by optimizing the fiber desig…
We theoretically and experimentally investigate the spectral tunability and purity of photon pairs generated from spontaneous parametric down conversion in periodically poled $\mathrm{KTiOPO_4}$ crystal with group-velocity matching condition. The numerical simulation predicts that the purity of joint spectral intensity ($P_{JSI}$) and the purity of joint spectral amplitude ($P_{JSA}$) can be kept higher than 0.98 and 0.81, respectively, when the wavelength is tuned from 1460 nm to 1675 nm, which covers the S-, C-, L-, and U-band in telecommunication wavelengths. We also directly measured the j…
Linear discrete diffraction of light within a waveguide array allows control over the longitudinal spatial profile of light. We propose a method of using this control to effectively modulate the nonlinearity in a spontaneous four wave mixing system. This allows the removal spurious frequency correlations between the generated signal and idler photon pairs. Weaving our method into a recipe for waveguide design, we demonstrate a spectral purity improvement from P = 0.78 to near saturation at P = 0.97, for a simple silicon-on-insulator geometry.
We consider the effect of self-phase modulation and cross-phase modulation on the joint spectral amplitude of photon pairs generated by spontaneous four-wave mixing. In particular, the purity of a heralded photon from a pair is considered, in the context of schemes that aim to maximise the purity and minimise correlation in the joint spectral amplitude using birefringent phase-matching and short pump pulses. We find that non-linear phase modulation effects will be detrimental, and will limit the quantum interference visibility that can be achieved at a given generation rate. An approximate exp…
We present a general model, based on a Hamiltonian approach, for the joint quantum state of photon pairs generated through pulsed spontaneous four-wave mixing, including nonlinear phase-modulation and a finite material response time. For the case of a silica fiber, it is found that the pair-production rate depends weakly on the waveguide temperature, due to higher-order Raman scattering events, and more strongly on pump-pair frequency detuning. From the analytical model, a numerical scheme is derived, based on the well-known split-step method. This scheme allows computation of joint states whe…
I investigate the properties of spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) involving co-linear Gaussian spatial modes for the pump and the photon collection optics. Approximate analytical and numerical results are obtained for the peak spectral density, photon bandwidth, pair collection probability, heralding ratio, and spectral purity, as a function of crystal length and beam focusing parameters. I address the optimization of these properties individually as well as jointly, and find focusing conditions that simultaneously bring the pair collection probability, heralding ratio, and spectra…
Mode-selective nonlinear interference for high-brightness and high-purity fiber-coupled SPDC sources
Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering（弗劳恩霍夫应用光学和精密工程研究所）；Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Institute of Applied Physics, Abbe Center of Photonics（耶拿弗里德里希·席勒大学应用物理学院阿贝光子学中心）
We study the chronocyclic character, i.e. the joint temporal and spectral properties, of the single-photon constituents of photon pairs generated by spontaneous parametric down conversion. In particular we study how single photon properties, including purity and single-photon chirp, depend on photon pair properties, including the type of signal-idler spectral and correlations and the level of pump chirp.
Photons generated by spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC) are one of the most useful resources in quantum information science. Two of their most important characteristics are the purity and the indistinguishability, which determine just how useful they are as a resource. We show how these characteristics can both be accessed through Hong, Ou and Mandel (HOM) type interferences using a single pair source. We also provide simple and intuitive analytical formulas to extract their values from the depth of the resulting interference patterns. The validity of these expressions is demonstrat…
Different degrees of freedom of single photons have been entangled and are used as a resource for various quantum technology applications. We present a simple scheme to perform Bell's test and show the violation of CHSH inequality in a path-entangled single photon state using interferometric and its equivalent non-interferometric approach in beam splitter setting. We demonstrate this experimentally by generating and controlling path-entangled state using both, heralded and un-heralded single photons from spontaneous parametric down-conversion. The experimental results we present show the trans…
We present experimental and simulated results to quantify the impact of nonlinear noise in integrated photonic devices relying on spontaneous four-wave mixing. Our results highlight the need for design rule adaptations to mitigate the otherwise intrinsic reduction in quantum state purity. The best strategy in devices with multiple parallel photon sources is to strictly limit photon generation outside of the sources. Otherwise, our results suggest that purity can decrease below 40%.
While integrated photonics is a robust platform for quantum information processing, architectures for photonic quantum computing place stringent demands on high quality information carriers. Sources of single photons that are highly indistinguishable and pure, that are either near-deterministic or heralded with high efficiency, and that are suitable for mass-manufacture, have been elusive. Here, we demonstrate on-chip photon sources that simultaneously meet each of these requirements. Our photon sources are fabricated in silicon using mature processes, and exploit a novel dual-mode pump-delaye…
We present the optimal design for an on-chip single-photon source based on spontaneous four-wave mixing in a system of coupled ring microresonators, which provides frequency uncorrelated joint spectral amplitude of the biphoton field and thereby generation of pure single-photon heralded states. A simple method is proposed for suppressing negative dispersion effects by optimizing the controlled spectroscopic parameters of the system. It shown that the optimal coupling parameters, in combination with the optimal spectral width of the pump pulse, give rise to the highest purity of the heralded ph…
Spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) in a laser pumped optical nonlinear medium can produce heralded single photons with a high purity but a very low yield. Improving the yield by increasing the pump power in SPDC inevitably reduces the purity due to excitation of multi-photon events. We propose a scheme to overcome this purity-yield trade-off by suppressing multi-photon events in a cavity-enhanced SPDC via the photon blockade effect. By introducing a strong photon-photon interaction into the intracavity medium and increasing the pump power, we can improve the available single-photon …
For advanced quantum information technology, sources of photon pairs in quantum mechanically factorable states are of great importance for realizing high-fidelity photon-photon quantum gate operations. Here we experimentally demonstrate a technique to produce spectrally factorable photon pairs utilizing multi-order quasi-phase-matching (QPM) conditions in spontaneous parametric downconversion (SPDC). In our scheme, a spatial nonlinearity profile of a nonlinear optical crystal is shaped with current standard poling techniques, and the associated phase-matching function can be approximated to a …
We investigate different strategies suitable to generate pure heralded single photons through spontaneous parametric down-conversion, comparing the counter-propagating geometry studied in [1] with more conventional co-propagating configurations which enhance the purity of the heralded photon state through the technique of group-velocity matching. Our analysis is based on the correlation of twin photons in the temporal domain,a non-standard approach that provides a physical view of the mechanisms that permit to eliminate the temporal entanglement of the state and to generate high-purity heralde…
We experimentally control the spectral structure of photon pairs created via spontaneous four-wave mixing in microstructured fibers. By fabricating fibers with designed dispersion, one can manipulate the photons' wavelengths, joint spectrum, and, thus, entanglement. As an example, we produce photon-pairs with no spectral correlations, allowing direct heralding of single photons in pure-state wave packets without filtering. We achieve an experimental purity of $85.9\pm1.6%$, while theoretical analysis and preliminary tests suggest 94.5% purity is possible with a much longer fiber.
The ability to prepare desired states without allowing time for the atomic system to spontaneously decay to the ground state is limited by the fact that Hamiltonian controls cannot affect the purity of the state in question. In this paper, we discuss how a continuous off-resonant electromagnetic wave can be used to prepare a desired final quantum state. With the aid of plasmonic surface-enhancement, by placing a two-level atomic system near a gold nanoparticle, preparation is accomplished in a reduced period of time and with lower electric field intensity while the system purity is improved wh…
In most configurations aimed at generating entangled photons based on spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC), the generated pairs of photons are required to be entangled in only one degree of freedom. Any distinguishing information coming from the other degrees of freedom that characterize the photon should be suppressed to avoid correlations with the degree of freedom of interest. However, this suppression is not always possible. Here, we show how the frequency information available affects the purity of the two-photon state in space, revealing a correlation between the frequency and t…
Gaussian mode coupling of spectrally broadband photons from bulk spontaneous parametric down-conversion: A spatial-spectral mode analysis of fiber coupling
Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering（弗劳恩霍夫应用光学和精密工程研究所）；Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Institute of Applied Physics, Abbe Center of Photonics（耶拿弗里德里希·席勒大学应用物理学院阿贝光子学中心）
We report on the generation of an indistinguishable heralded single-photon state, using highly nondegenerate spontaneous parametric downconversion (SPDC). Spectrally factorable photon pairs can be generated by incorporating a broadband pump pulse and a group-velocity matching (GVM) condition in a periodically-poled potassium titanyl phosphate (PPKTP) crystal. The heralding photon is in the near IR, close to the peak detection efficiency of off-the-shelf Si single-photon detectors; meanwhile, the heralded photon is in the telecom L-band where fiber losses are at a minimum. We observe spectral f…
The ability to determine the joint spectral properties of photon pairs produced by the processes of spontaneous parametric downconversion (SPDC) and spontaneous four wave mixing (SFWM) is crucial for guaranteeing the usability of heralded single photons and polarization-entangled pairs for multi-photon protocols. In this paper, we compare six different techniques that yield either a characterization of the joint spectral intensity or of the closely-related purity of heralded single photons. These six techniques include: i) scanning monochromator measurements, ii) a variant of Fourier transform…
We address the problem of efficient modelling of photon pairs generated in spontaneous parametric down-conversion and coupled into single-mode fibers. It is shown that when the range of relevant transverse wave vectors is restricted by the pump and fiber modes, the computational complexity can be reduced substantially with the help of the paraxial approximation, while retaining the full spectral characteristics of the source. This approach can serve as a basis for efficient numerical calculations, or can be combined with analytically tractable approximations of the phase matching function. We …
A key obstacle to the experimental realization of many photonic quantum-enhanced technologies is the lack of low-loss sources of single photons in pure quantum states. We demonstrate a promising solution: generation of heralded single photons in a silica photonic chip by spontaneous four-wave mixing. A heralding efficiency of 40%, corresponding to a preparation efficiency of 80% accounting for detector performance, is achieved due to efficient coupling of the low-loss source to optical fibers. A single photon purity of 0.86 is measured from the source number statistics without filtering, and c…
We experimentally study the generation of photon pairs via spontaneous four-wave mixing with two distinct laser pulses. We find that the dual-pump technique enables new capabilities: 1) a new characterization methodology to measure noise contributions, source brightness and photon collection efficiencies directly from raw photon-count measurements; 2) an enhanced ability to generate heralded single photons in a pure quantum state; and 3) the ability to derive upper and lower bounds on heralded-photon quantum state purity from measurements of photon-number statistics even in the presence of noi…
We present a source of polarization entangled photon pairs based on spontaneous parametric downconversion engineered for frequency uncorrelated telecom photon generation. Our source provides photon pairs that display, simultaneously, the key properties for high-performance quantum information and fundamental quantum science tasks. Specifically, the source provides for high heralding efficiency, high quantum state purity and high entangled state fidelity at the same time. Among different tests we apply to our source we observe almost perfect non-classical interference between photons from indep…
Quantum repeaters - fundamental building blocks for long-distance quantum communication - are based on the interaction between photons and quantum memories. The photons must fulfil stringent requirements on central frequency, spectral bandwidth and purity in order for this interaction to be efficient. We present a design scheme for monolithically integrated resonant photon-pair sources based on parametric down-conversion in nonlinear waveguides, which facilitate the generation of such photons. We investigate the impact of different design parameters on the performance of our source. The genera…
We investigate the spontaneous emission spectrum of a qubit in a lossy resonant cavity. We use neither the rotating-wave approximation nor the Markov approximation. The qubit-cavity coupling strength is varied from weak, to strong, even to lower bound of the ultra-strong. For the weak-coupling case, the spontaneous emission spectrum of the qubit is a single peak, with its location depending on the spectral density of the qubit environment. Increasing the qubit-cavity coupling increases the asymmetry (the positions about the qubit energy spacing and heights of the two peaks) of the two spontane…
Spectrally unentangled biphotons with high single-spatiotemporal-mode purity are highly desirable for many quantum information processing tasks. We generate biphotons with an inferred heralded-state spectral purity of 99%, the highest to date without any spectral filtering, by pulsed spontaneous parametric downconversion in a custom-fabricated periodically-poled KTiOPO$_4$ crystal under extended Gaussian phase-matching conditions. To efficiently characterize the joint spectral intensity of the generated biphotons at high spectral resolution, we employ a commercially available dispersion compen…
A BosonSampling device is a quantum machine expected to perform tasks intractable for a classical computer, yet requiring minimal non-classical resources as compared to full-scale quantum computers. Photonic implementations to date employed sources based on inefficient processes that only simulate heralded single-photon statistics when strongly reducing emission probabilities. BosonSampling with only single-photon input has thus never been realised. Here, we report on a BosonSampling device operated with a bright solid-state source of single-photon Fock states with high photon-number purity: t…
The ability to manipulate and measure the time-frequency structure of quantum light is useful for information processing and metrology. Measuring this structure is also important when developing quantum light sources with high modal purity that can interfere with other independent sources. Here, we present and experimentally demonstrate a scheme based on intensity interferometry to measure the joint spectral mode of photon pairs produced by spontaneous parametric down-conversion. We observe correlations in the spectral phase of the photons due to chirp in the pump. We show that our scheme can …
We present an experimental and numerical study of the effects of decoherence on a quantum system whose classical analogue has Kolmogorov-Arnol'd-Moser (KAM) tori in its phase space. Atoms are prepared in a caesium magneto-optical trap at temperatures and densities which necessitate a quantum description. This real quantum system is coupled to the environment via spontaneous emission. The degree of coupling is varied and the effects of this coupling on the quantum coherence of the system are studied. When the classical diffusion through a partially broken torus is < hbar, diffusion of quantum p…
Quantum state tomography (QST) is a universal tool for the design and optimization of entangled-photon sources. It typically requires single-photon detectors and coincidence measurements. Recently, it was suggested that the information provided by the QST of photon pairs generated by spontaneous parametric down-conversion could be obtained by exploiting the stimulated version of this process, namely difference frequency generation. In this protocol, so-called "stimulated-emission tomography" (SET), a seed field is injected along with the pump pulse, and the resulting stimulated emission is mea…
We report a tunable single-photon source based on a single trapped ion. Employing spontaneous Raman scattering and in-vacuum optics with large numerical aperture, single photons are efficiently created with controlled temporal shape and coherence time. These can be varied between 70 ns and 1.6 $μ$s, as characterized by operating two sources simultaneously in two remote ion traps which reveals mutual and individual coherence through two-photon interference.
Indistinguishable single photons are key ingredient for a plethora of quantum information processing applications ranging from quantum communications to photonic quantum computing. A mainstream platform to produce indistinguishable single photons over a wide spectral range is based on biphoton generation through spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) in nonlinear crystals. The purity of the SPDC biphotons, however, is limited by their spectral correlations. Here, we present a design recipe, based on a machine-learning framework, for the engineering of biphoton joint spectrum amplitudes …
Quantum feedback can stabilize a two-level atom against decoherence (spontaneous emission), putting it into an arbitrary (specified) pure state. This requires perfect homodyne detection of the atomic emission, and instantaneous feedback. Inefficient detection was considered previously by two of us. Here we allow for a non-zero delay time $τ$ in the feedback circuit. Because a two-level atom is a nonlinear optical system, an analytical solution is not possible. However, quantum trajectories allow a simple numerical simulation of the resulting non-Markovian process. We find the effect of the tim…
Long-distance quantum communication relies on the ability to efficiently generate and prepare single photons at telecom wavelengths. In many applications these photons must also be indistinguishable such that they exhibit interference on a beamsplitter, which implements effective photon-photon interactions. However, deterministic generation of indistinguishable single photons with high brightness remains a challenging problem. We demonstrate two-photon interference at telecom wavelengths using an InAs/InP quantum dot in a nanophotonic cavity. The cavity enhances the quantum dot emission, resul…
On-chip bright quantum sources with multiplexing ability are extremely high in demand for the integrated quantum networks with unprecedented scalability and complexity. Here, we demonstrate an ultrabright and broadband biphoton quantum source generated in a lithium niobate microresonator system.Without introducing the conventional domain poling, the on-chip microdisk produces entangled photon pairs covering a broad bandwidth promised by natural phase matching in spontaneous parametric down conversion.Experimentally, the multiplexed photon pairs are characterized by $30\ \rm nm$ bandwidth limit…
The coherent interaction of electromagnetic fields with solid-state two-level systems can yield deterministic quantum light sources for photonic quantum technologies. To date, the performance of semiconductor single-photon sources based on three-level systems is limited mainly due to a lack of high photon indistinguishability. Here, we tailor the cavity-enhanced spontaneous emission from a ladder-type three-level system in a single epitaxial quantum dot (QD) through stimulated emission. After populating the biexciton (XX) of the QD through two-photon resonant excitation (TPE), we use another l…
Scalable quantum photonic architectures demand highly efficient, high-purity single-photon sources, which can be frequency matched via external tuning. We demonstrate a single-photon source based on an InAs quantum dot embedded in a micropillar resonator, which is frequency tunable via externally-applied stress. Our platform combines the advantages of a Bragg micropillar cavity and the piezo-strain-tuning technique enabling single photon spontaneous emission enhancement via the Purcell effect and quantum dot (QD) with tunable wavelength. Our optomechanical platform has been implemented by inte…
Sources of spectrally engineered photonic states are a key resource in several quantum technologies. Of particular importance are the so-called factorizable biphoton states which possess no spectral entanglement and hence, are ideal for heralded generation of high-purity single photons. An essential prerequisite for generating these states through nonlinear frequency conversion is the control over the group indices of the photonic modes of the source. Here, we show that thin-film lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI) is an excellent platform for this purpose. We design and fabricate periodically…
