超短脉冲抽运下频率一致纠缠光源量子特性实验研究

利用自发参量下转换过程产生的频率纠缠光源在量子信息处理及相关领域中 具有十分重要的应用. 本文利用中心波长为792 nm, 脉冲宽度小于20 fs的脉冲激光源抽运满足II类准相位 匹配条件的周期极化磷酸氧钛钾晶体, 实验产生了偏振相互正交的频率一致纠缠光子对. 基于Hong-Ou-Mandel干涉仪的二阶量子符合干涉装置, 测量到该纠缠双光子对的干涉可见度约为42%, 表明其频率不可分特性较理想频率一致纠缠光源大大降低. 通过理论分析给出, 由于超短脉冲光源对应的宽频谱带宽影响, 相位匹配函数中的高阶色散项不再忽略, 从而导致纠缠光子对的频率不可分性减弱. 进一步利用实验参数给出的数值模拟结果与实验结果符合, 证实了脉冲抽运源带宽对频率一致纠缠光源的量子不可分特性的影响. 关键词： 频率一致纠缠 Hong-Ou-Mandel干涉测量 符合计数     

基于Ⅱ类周期极化铌酸锂波导的通信波段小型化频率纠缠源产生及其量子特性测量

自发参量下转换过程制备的纠缠光源在量子光学及其相关领域有着广泛的应用.本文利用780 nm的分布式布拉格反射镜激光二极管抽运一块长10 mm的Ⅱ类准相位匹配的周期极化铌酸锂波导,产生了偏振正交的频率反关联纠缠光子对.通过实验结果与理论的完美结合得到,当进入波导的抽运光功率为44.9 mW时,下转换双光子对的产生速率为1.87×10~7s~(-1).利用单色仪对下转换光子的频谱进行分析,得到信号和闲置光子的中心波长分别为1561.43 nm和1561.45 nm,频谱宽度为3.62 nm和3.60 nm,双光子符合包络宽度约为3.18 nm,可以得到双光子的频率纠缠度为1.131.00,表征了双光子的频率纠缠特性.利用Hong-Ou-Mandel干涉仪测量双光子的二阶量子干涉特性,测得的干涉可见度为96.1%,干涉图谱的凹陷宽度为1.47 ps.     

脉冲光场作用下啁啾双光子量子特性研究

基于量子理论和非线性光学,研究了脉冲光场作用啁啾准相位匹配非线性晶体的第Ⅱ类自发参变下转换过程中,脉冲宽度和啁啾系数对产生的纠缠双光子特性及Hong-Ou-Mandel(HOM)量子干涉结果的影响。结果表明,啁啾系数一定时,随着脉冲宽度的增加,双光子谱的不可区分性降低,HOM量子干涉可见度下降。当脉冲宽度一定时,随着啁啾系数的增加使双光子谱带宽增加,HOM量子干涉陷落变窄,双光子谱的不可区分性增强,从而提高了相干精度和干涉可见度。理论上得到了超宽带的双光子谱和对应超窄的HOM量子干涉图。     

The factors of spontaneous parametric down conversion process in BiB3O6 crystal with a broadband pump

We investigate the spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) process in biaxial nonlinear crystal BiB₃O₆ (BIBO) with a broadband pump. Under the type I and type II phase-matching conditions, we numerically calculate the influencing factors on SPDC process in BIBO crystal, such as temporal and spatial walk-off, the acceptance angles, and spectral acceptance bandwidth. Comparing the two types of phase-matching, we could conclude that the type II phase-matching in BIBO crystal is better for the SPDC because of zero dispersion and bigger acceptance parameters. These results can be used to construct a system to generate ultra-fast entangled photon pairs.     

The influence of the icosahedral percolation transition in supercooled liquid iron on the diffusion mobility of atoms

An experiment on preparation of entangled photon pairs (biphotons) in an arbitrary polarization state is described. The biphotons are qutrits (three-state quantum systems). They can be used in ternary quantum cryptography protocols. A theoretically derived orthogonality criterion for the prepared biphotons is validated experimentally. The criterion can be used to identify orthogonal biphoton states.     

Realization of extremely broadband quantum-dot superluminescent light-emitting diodes by rapid thermal-annealing process

The first demonstration, to our knowledge, of the creation of ultrabroadband superluminescent light-emitting diodes using multiple quantum-dot layer structure by rapid thermal-annealing process is reported. The device exhibits a 3 dB emission bandwidth of 146 nm centered at 984 nm with cw output power as high as 15 mW at room temperature corresponding to an extremely small coherence length of 6.6 microm.     

泵浦光的入射角对参量下转换的影响

利用参量下转换制备相关光子实现对各类探测器的量子效率的定标,是近年来兴起的新型定标技术。由于参量下转换的光子转换效率低,探测器输出信号信噪比小。采用短波激光器泵浦PPLN周期极化性晶体,可获得较大功率的参量光。分析了泵浦光在PPLN晶体端面的入射角对参量光的转换效率、空间分布、参量带宽及晶体周期的影响,并进行了数值模拟。分析发现当泵浦光正入射晶体端面时,参量光功率转换大,带宽小,发散角大;随着泵浦光入射角度逐渐增大,参量下转换的转换效率降低,相关光子的带宽变小,发散角变小且参量光的中心波长的空间位置会发生相对偏移。该研究结果可为相关光子探测、模拟探测器量子效率的高精度定标提供理论依据。     

Design Method for Ultrabroadband Optical Parametric Chirped Pulse Amplification

Multiple amplification stages with different phase-matching angles were designed to yield stable and ultrabroadband amplification in optical parametric chirped pulse amplification by optimally controlling the idler laser pulses. Numerical results showed that the overall temporal duration of the amplified seed laser pulse and subsequently the spectral bandwidth can be amplified by using multiple amplification stages in comparison with those of the initial seed pulse laser, which is suitable to generate a high-energy pulse with ultrashort pulse duration in a simple manner.     

Ultrabroadband strong light absorption based on thin multilayered metamaterials

Light absorbers have drawn intensive attention as crucial components for solar‐energy harvesting, thermal emission tailoring, modulators, etc. However, achievement of light absorbers with wide bandwidth remains a challenge thus far. Here, a thin, unprecedentedly ultrabroadband strong light absorber is proposed and experimentally demonstrated, which consists of periodic taper arrays constructed by an alumina–chrome multilayered metamaterial (MM) on a gold substrate. This MM can change from a hyperbolic material to an anisotropic dielectric material at different frequency ranges and the special material features are the fundamental origins of the ultrabroadband absorption. The absorber is quite insensitive to the incident angle, and can be insensitive to the polarization. One two‐dimensional periodic array of 400‐nm height MM tapers is fabricated. The measured absorption is over 90% over almost the entire solar spectrum, reaching an average level of 96%, and remains high (above 85%) even in the longer‐wavelength range till 4 μm. The proposed absorbers open up a new avenue to realize broadband thin light‐harvesting structures.     

Characterization of sub-6-fs optical pulses with spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction

We demonstrate spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction (SPIDER) as a novel method to characterize sub-6-fs pulses with nanojoule pulse energy. SPIDER reconstructs pulse phase and amplitude from a measurement of only two optical spectra by use of a fast noniterative algorithm. SPIDER is well suited to the measurement of ultrabroadband pulses because it is quite insensitive to crystal phase-matching bandwidth and to unknown detector spectral responsivity. Moreover, it combines highly accurate pulse-shape measurement with the potential for online laser system diagnostics at video refresh rates.     

Fluoride semiconductor saturable-absorber mirror for ultrashort pulse generation

We demonstrate what is to our knowledge the first ultrabroadband monolithically grown AlGaAs/CaF(2) semiconductor saturable-absorber mirror (SESAM) that covers nearly the entire gain spectrum of a Ti:sapphire laser. A large high-reflectivity bandwidth of more than 300 nm is provided by a device consisting of only six material layers. This fluoride SESAM had a modulation depth of 2.2%, a fast recovery time constant of less than 150 fs, and a slow recovery time constant of 1.2 ps. Using this SESAM inside a Ti:sapphire laser produced self-starting sub-10-femtosecond pulses.     

Spontaneous parametric down-conversion

Spontaneous Parametric Down-Conversion (SPDC), also known as parametric fluorescence, parametric noise, parametric scattering and all various combinations of the abbreviation SPDC, is a non-linear optical process where a photon spontaneously splits into two other photons of lower energies. One would think that this article is about particle physics and yet it is not, as this process can occur fairly easily on a day to day basis in an optics laboratory. Nowadays, SPDC is at the heart of many quantum optics experiments for applications in quantum cryptography, quantum simulation, quantum metrology but also for testing fundamentals laws of physics in quantum mechanics. In this article, we will focus on the physics of this process and highlight a few important properties of SPDC. There will be two parts: a first theoretical one showing the particular quantum nature of SPDC, and the second part, more experimental and in particular focusing on applications of parametric down-conversion. This is clearly a non-exhaustive article about parametric down-conversion as there is a tremendous literature on the subject, but it gives the necessary first elements needed for a novice student or researcher to work on SPDC sources of light.     

Steering the optical response with asymmetric bowtie 2-color controllers in the visible and near infrared range

We have proposed an asymmetric bowtie 2-color controller and analyzed its resonance frequency spectra and temporal responses. The results show improved optical properties of the asymmetric bowtie 2-color controller as compared to symmetric bowties. The improved optical properties are a broad bandwidth of the plasmonic spectrum consisting of two resonant peaks, a high field enhancement in the gap of the bowtie structure, and a large effective enhancement volume. The system might have applications in the generation of XUV light via high-harmonic generation as well as in ultrabroadband sensors and multicolor optoelectronic filters.     

Generation of Competitive and Coexisting Two Pairs of Biphotons in Single Hot Atomic Vapor Cell

The non-classical states of light serve as a potential candidate for emerging quantum information process. A processing trend to enhance its scalability is to integrate multiple nonlinear processes with the dressed-state picture into a single device, and therefore, are useful for quantum computations. Here, a novel method is proposed to experimentally achieve the generation of coexisting two pairs of narrow-band biphotons by two four-wave mixing processes in a single hot rubidium vapor cell. Based on the photon-atom nonlinear interfaces, the generated biphotons exhibits genuine entanglement in time–energy. Meanwhile, the nonlinear susceptibility with the dressed-state picture decides the temporal correlation of the biphotons wave packet as a damped periodic Rabi oscillation, suggesting the property of the high-dimensional time–energy entangled state. Such a high-dimensional entangled state also is an efficient way to enhance information carrying capacity. By alternating two nonlinear susceptibilities in a single device, respectively, there exists a competition of the generation rate between such two pairs of biphotons. Moreover, both generated two pairs of biphotons that violate the Cauchy–Schwarz inequality and show their non-classical behavior.     

Plasmonic Brewster angle: broadband extraordinary transmission through optical gratings

Extraordinary optical transmission through metallic gratings is a well established effect based on the collective resonance of corrugated screens. Being based on plasmonic resonances, its bandwidth is inherently narrow, in particular, for thick screens and narrow apertures. We introduce here a different mechanism to achieve total transmission through an otherwise opaque screen, based on an ultrabroadband tunneling that can span from dc to the visible range at a given incidence angle. This phenomenon effectively represents the equivalent of Brewster transmission for plasmonic and opaque screens.     

220-fs erbium-ytterbium:glass laser mode locked by a broadband low-loss silicon/germanium saturable absorber

We demonstrate femtosecond performance of an ultrabroadband high-index-contrast saturable Bragg reflector consisting of a silicon/silicon dioxide/germanium structure that is fully compatible with CMOS processing. This device offers a reflectivity bandwidth of over 700 nm and subpicosecond recovery time of the saturable loss. It is used to achieve mode locking of an Er-Yb:glass laser centered at 1540 nm, generating 220-fs pulses, with what is to our knowledge the broadest output spectrum to date.     

Study of the effect of pump focusing on the performance of ghost imaging and ghost diffraction,based on spontaneous parametric downconversion

We study the effects of ghost imaging (GI) and ghost diffraction (GD), based on spontaneous parametric downconversion (SPDC) photon-pair sources. In particular, we focus on the effect of pump focusing in the SPDC process, on GI and GD. Our theory presented in this paper includes the cases of frequency-degenerate and frequency non-degenerate SPDC. We show analytically, and confirm through numerical simulations, that pump focusing degrades the performance of GI and GD, and for a sufficient focusing strength can altogether suppress these effects.     

Sub-20-fs terawatt-class laser system with a mirrorless regenerative amplifier and an adaptive phase controller

We have developed an ultrabroadband regenerative amplifier with a mirrorless cavity to eliminate the limitation of bandwidth of dielectric coats on cavity mirrors. The large amount of material dispersion in the Pellin-Broca prisms that are used instead of cavity mirrors is compensated for with a hybrid technique that uses Brewster prism pairs in the regenerative amplifier and an adaptive phase controller of a liquid-crystal spatial light modulator. We obtained a 16-fs pulse width with an energy of 13 mJ, which is to our knowledge the highest energy obtained in the sub-20-fs regime by use of an adaptive phase controller.     

Spontaneous parametric down-conversion

Spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) in media with no inversion center and the use of this phenomenon in the spectroscopy of natural oscillation states of a crystal lattice (i.e., optical phonons) are retrospectively described. We think that the SPDC spectroscopy method is estimated inappropriately and hope to again attract the attention of readers to one of the most interesting quantum phenomena of nonlinear optics that has no classical analog. The capabilities of SPDC spectroscopy will certainly be used in both fundamental science and technology of new materials.