Generation of narrow-band photon pairs for quantum memory

We demonstrate a narrow-band photon pair source on a rubidium (Rb) D₂ line (780 nm) using a periodical poled KTiOPO₄ crystal via a degenerate optical parametric oscillator far below threshold. The single longitudinal mode is selected by a spectral filtering cavity. The measured cross correlation between two photons shows that the generated photon has a linewidth of 21 MHz, which is comparable to the typical linewidth of an atomic-based quantum memory. The detected photon pair rate is about 2.7/s/MHz/mW. This system could be utilized for many applications in quantum information field, such as the storage and retrieval of a photon in Rb atomic ensemble and so on.     

Generation of correlated photon pairs in a microstructure fiber

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a new method of generating correlated photons in a microstructure fiber by means of a reversed degenerate four-wave-mixing process. Here one photon is annihilated from each of the bichromatic pump pulses to generate a pair of photons at the mean frequency. For a microstructure fiber as short as 1.5 m the measured coincidence counting rate is approximately eight times that of the accidental coincidences with a peak pump power of 0.25 W.     

Generation of remote multi-photon entangled state from Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen photon pairs

We describe a protocol for generation of remote multi-photon entanglement using Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) photon pairs via entanglement swapping. According to the requests of users, Quantum Switch (QS) can prepare three-photon W entangled states or Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states based on independent, spatially separated EPR pairs among three distant users. Only Bell states measurement (BSM) is needed utilizing a CPHASE gate and PAs. This protocol can also generate remote N-photon GHZ entangled states.     

Generation of high-purity telecom-band entangled photon pairs in dispersion-shifted fiber

We study the purity of correlated photon pairs generated in a dispersion-shifted fiber at various temperatures. The ratio of coincidence to accidental-coincidence counts greater than 100 can be obtained as the fiber is cooled to liquid-nitrogen temperature (77 K). We then generate polarization-entangled photon pairs by using a compact counterpropagating scheme. Two-photon interference with visibility >98% and Bell's inequality violation by >8 standard deviations of measurement uncertainty are observed at 77 K, without subtracting the accidental-coincidence counts due to background Raman photons.     

Generation of narrow-band hyperentangled nondegenerate paired photons

We report the generation of nondegenerate narrow-bandwidth paired photons with time-frequency and polarization entanglements from laser cooled atoms. We observe the two-photon interference caused by Rabi splitting with a coherence time of about 30 ns and a visibility of 81.8% which verifies the time-frequency entanglement of the paired photons. The polarization entanglement is confirmed by polarization correlation measurements which exhibit a visibility of 89.5% and characterized by quantum-state tomography with a fidelity of 90.8%. Taking into account the transmission losses and duty cycle, we estimate that the system generates hyperentangled paired photons into opposing single-mode fibers at a rate of 320 pairs per second.     

Generation of hyperentangled four-photon cluster state via cross-Kerr nonlinearity

We propose a scheme for generating a hyperentangled four-photon cluster state that is simultaneously entangled in polarization modes and spatial modes. This scheme is based on linear optical elements, weak cross-Kerr nonlinearity, and homodyne detection. Therefore, it is feasible with current experimental technology.     

Generation of narrow-band correlated photon pairs by spontaneous down conversion in a cavity

The problem of generating a narrow-band biphoton field during spontaneous parametric down conversion of light in a quadratic nonlinear medium in a cavity is discussed. It is shown that, in the case of double resonance (for signal and idle fields), the form of the single-photon wave packet is biexponential and has a half-width determined by the photon life time in the cavity. An experiment is carried out on the generation of narrow-band biphotons in a crystal of lithium iodine with I-type matching in a frequency degenerate collinear regime. The second-order correlation function of the cavity-enhanced biphotons is measured using the electric nanosecond time delay line.     

Monolithic source of photon pairs

The creation of monolithically integratable sources of single and entangled photons is a top research priority with formidable challenges: The production, manipulation, and measurement of the photons should all occur in the same material platform, thereby fostering stability and scalability. Here we demonstrate efficient photon pair production in a semiconductor platform, gallium arsenide. Our results show type-I spontaneous parametric down-conversion of laser light from a 2.2 mm long Bragg-reflection waveguide, and we estimate its internal pair production efficiency to be 2.0×10(-8) (pairs/pump photon). This is the first time that significant pair production has been demonstrated in a structure that can be electrically self-pumped and which can form the basis for passive optical circuitry, bringing us markedly closer to complete integration of quantum optical technologies.     

Creating single time-bin-entangled photon pairs

When a single emitter is excited by two phase-coherent pulses with a time delay, each of the pulses can lead to the emission of a photon pair, thus creating a "time-bin-entangled" state. Double pair emission can be avoided by initially preparing the emitter in a metastable state. We show how photons from separate emissions can be made indistinguishable, permitting their use for multiphoton interference. Possible realizations are discussed. The method might also allow the direct creation of n-photon entangled states (n > 2).     

Generation of polarization-entangled photon pairs by a single crystal interferometric source pumped by femtosecond laser pulses

Photon pairs highly entangled in polarization have been generated under femtosecond laser pulse excitation by a type-I crystal source operating in a single-arm interferometric scheme. The relevant effects of temporal walkoff existing in these conditions between the ordinary and extraordinary photons were experimentally investigated. By introducing a suitable temporal compensation between the two orthogonal polarization components, highly entangled pulsed states were obtained.     

Beamlike high-brightness source of polarization-entangled photon pairs

We report on an ultrabright beamlike source of polarization-entangled photon pairs that is suitable for the task of multiphoton quantum information processing. The photon pairs are generated from a beamlike type-II parametric downconversion process in two adjacently located but 180 degrees rotated beta-barium borate crystals. Approximately 30,000 s(-1) entangled photon pairs are recorded experimentally with only 100 mW pump power. The fidelity of the generated entangled state as compared with a Bell state is measured to be 0.974 with the method of quantum state tomography. With this source, we also obtain a violation of Bell's inequality by 61 standard deviations in just a few seconds.     

Entangled photon pairs from semiconductor quantum dots

Tomographic analysis demonstrates that the polarization state of pairs of photons emitted from a biexciton decay cascade becomes entangled when spectral filtering is applied. The measured density matrix of the photon pair satisfies the Peres criterion for entanglement by more than 3 standard deviations of the experimental uncertainty and violates Bell's inequality. We show that the spectral filtering erases the "which path" information contained in the photons' color and that the remanent information in the quantum dot degrees of freedom is negligible.     

Silicon waveguides for creating quantum-correlated photon pairs

We propose to use four-wave mixing inside silicon waveguides for generating quantum-correlated photon pairs in a single spatial mode. Such silicon-based photon sources not only exhibit high pair correlation but also have high spectral brightness. As the proposed scheme is based on mature silicon technology, it has the potential of becoming a cost-effective platform for on-chip quantum information processing applications.     

Nonlocal pulse shaping with entangled photon pairs

Nonlocal shaping effects in the time or spectral profiles of an entangled photon pair emerging from a pulsed parametric down-converter are observed by spectrally or temporally filtering one of the twin beams. In particular, we demonstrate the appearance of fourth-order ("ghost") interference fringes in the spectrum of one beam conditioned by photodetection at the output of an unbalanced Michelson interferometer placed in the path of the other beam. The coherence time of the pump is the limiting factor for the sharpness of the details in the shaped biphoton spectrum.     

Observations of dispersion cancellation of entangled photon pairs

An experimental study of the dispersion cancellation occurring in frequency-entangled photon pairs is presented. The approach uses time-resolved up-conversion of the pairs, which has temporal resolution at the femtosecond level, and group-delay dispersion sensitivity of ≈ 20 fs2 under experimental conditions. The cancellation is demonstrated with dispersion stronger than ± 10(3) fs2 in the signal (-) and idler (+) modes.     

Generation of photon pairs in dispersion shift fibers through spontaneous four wave mixing: Influence of self-phase modulation

Correlated signal and idler photon pairs with small detuning in the telecom band can be generated through spontaneous four-wave mixing in dispersion shift fibers. However, photons originated from other nonlinear processes in optical fibers, such as Raman scattering and self-phase modulation, may contaminate the photon pairs. It has been proved that photons produced by Raman scattering are the background noise of photon pairs. Here we show that photons induced by self-phase modulation of pump pulses are another origin of background noise. After studying the dependence of self-phase modulation induced photons in signal and idler bands, we demonstrate that the quantum correlation of photon pairs can be degraded by the self-phase modulation effect. The investigations are useful for characterizing and optimizing an all fiber source of photon pairs.     

Fiber-based telecom-band degenerate-frequency source of entangled photon pairs

We demonstrate the generation of polarization-entangled photon pairs of degenerate frequency for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, in standard optical fiber using a novel dual-pump, counterpropagating configuration. Two-photon interference with >97% visibility is obtained. The purity of the photon source, as characterized by the ratio of coincidence to accidental-coincidence counts, is shown to be as high as 116 under suitable operating conditions.     

Diffraction of entangled photon pairs by ultrasonic waves

In this paper, we have presented and established a new theoretical formulation of photon optics based on photon path and Feynman path integral idea. We have used Feynman path integral approach to discuss Fraunhofer, Fresnel diffraction of single photon and entangled photon pairs by ultrasonic wave and obtained the following results: i) quantum state and probability distribution of single photon and entangled photon pairs by Fraunhofer and Fresnel ultrasonic diffraction, ii) oblique incidence Raman-Nath and Bragg diffraction conditions, iii) total correlation state and its probability distribution. Our calculation results are in agreement with the experiment results. Comparing one-photon and two-photon diffraction effects by ultrasonic waves, we have found that two-photon diffraction by ultrasonic waves is also a sub-wavelength diffraction.     

Lithium niobate microresonator-based spectrally multiplexed entangled photon pairs

<正>Integrated quantum photonics combining the micron-scale fabrication technique and quantum information carriers promises a new platform for quantum computation and communication systems [1,2]. Integrated chips remarkably reduce the footprint of the quantum processor and make complicated quantum networks into reality. Nevertheless, to fulfill the increasing need of massive qubits in quantum networks, quantum sources of multiple qubits are widely requested [3].