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arXiv:0704.1864 · Optics Express

High purity bright single photon source

Jonas Schou Neergaard-Nielsen, Bo M. Nielsen, Hiroyuki Takahashi, A. I. Vistnes, Eugene Simon Polzik

Published Jan 1, 2007• 162 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Using cavity-enhanced non-degenerate parametric down-conversion, we have built a frequency tunable source of heralded single photons with a narrow bandwidth of 8 MHz, making it compatible with atomic quantum memories. The photon state is 70% pure single photon as characterized by a tomographic measurement and reconstruction of the quantum state, revealing a clearly negative Wigner function. Furthermore, it has a spectral brightness of ~1,500 photons/s per MHz bandwidth, making it one of the brightest single photon sources available. We also investigate the correlation function of the down-converted fields using a combination of two very distinct detection methods; photon counting and homodyne measurement.

DOI
10.1364/oe.15.007940

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Using cavity-enhanced non-degenerate parametric down-conversion, we have built a frequency tunable source of heralded single photons with a narrow bandwidth of 8 MHz, making it compatible with atomic quantum memories. The photon state is 70% pure single photon as characterized by a tomographic measurement and reconstruction of the quantum state, revealing a clearly negative Wigner function. Furthermore, it has a spectral brightness of ~1,500 photons/s per MHz bandwidth, making it one of the brightest single photon sources available. We also investigate the correlation function of the down-converted fields using a combination of two very distinct detection methods; photon counting and homodyne measurement.
We demonstrate efficient heralded generation of high purity narrow-bandwidth single photons from a transient collective spin excitation in a hot atomic vapor cell. Employing optical homodyne tomography, we fully reconstruct the density matrix of the generated photon and observe a Wigner function reaching the zero value without correcting for any inefficiencies. The narrow bandwidth of the photon produced is accompanied by a high generation rate yielding a high spectral brightness. The source is, therefore, compatible with atomic-based quantum memories as well as other applications in light-atom interfacing. This Letter paves the way to preparing and measuring arbitrary superposition states of collective atomic excitations.
A single-photon source with narrow bandwidth, high purity, and large brightness can efficiently interact with material qubits strongly coupled to an optical microcavity for quantum information processing. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a degenerate doubly resonant single-photon source at 852 nm by the cavity-enhanced spontaneous parametric down-conversion process with a 100% duty cycle of generation. The single photon source possesses both high purity with a second-order correlation g (2) (0) = 0.021 and narrow linewidth with Δνsp = (800 ± 13) kHz. The single-photon source is compatible with the cesium atom D2 line and can be used for cesium-based quantum information processing.
Summary form only given. Hybrid quantum technologies seek to combine the advantages of two individual quantum architectures by transferring the information between the two systems. We want to benefit from the high mobility and ease of transmission of photons for quantum communication and exploit the excellent readout and storage capabilities of atomic qubits as a quantum memory, which is essential to build up quantum repeater networks for quantum data processing. Efficient interaction of photons with atoms requires a match of the photons spectral properties to those of the resonances of the atomic species. The atomic transition usually has a much narrower bandwidth than single photons generated by spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC), the current gold standard of producing high-purity heralded single photons at flexible wavelengths. To develop hybrid quantum technologies therefore requires significantly reducing the single photon emission spectra to fulfill these requirements. The way we try to achieve this is by using an optical cavity to enhance the probability of creating the photons in the spectral and spatial resonator mode.We report 100% duty cycle generation of sub-MHz single photon pairs at the Rubidium D1 line using cavityenhanced spontaneous parametric down-conversion [3]. The double exponential decay of the temporal intensity cross-correlation function exhibits a bandwidth of 666 ± 16 kHz for the single photons, an order of magnitude below the natural linewidth of the target transition. This is, to our knowledge, the narrowest bandwidth of single photons from SPDC to date. A new method of placing a half-wave plate inside the cavity helps to achieve triple resonance between pump, signal and idler photon, reducing the bandwidth and simplifying the locking scheme. Additionally, stabilisation of the cavity to the pump frequency enables the 100% duty cycle. The quantum nature of the source is confirmed by the idler-triggered second-order autocorrelation function at τ = 0 to be g(2) s,s (0) = 0.016 ± 0.002 for a heralding rate of 5 kHz and antibunching below 0.5 is observed up to heralding rates of 250 kHz [3]. The high purity of the source is matched by high indistinguishability of the photons demonstrated in a Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) interference experiment with a visibility V = 96.5 ± 0.5 %. Additionally, the modelocked two-photon state of the generated pairs leads to revivals of the HOM dip. We observe these revivals up to 100 m path difference between signal and idler photon, independently proofing the long coherence length of our photons.
Narrow-band single photons represent an important resource for quantum memories due to their efficient interaction with atomic resonances. In this Letter, we report on the generation of photons with 3 MHz linewidth by cavity-enhanced parametric down-conversion and demonstrate direct proof of their single-photon character by detection of heralding idler photons. Compared to a Poissonian source, a suppression of higher-order photon numbers by nearly 2 orders of magnitude could be achieved. Moreover, the brightness of our source exceeds previous realizations by more than a factor of 100.