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arXiv:0812.2445 · Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics

Characterizing heralded single-photon sources with imperfect measurement devices

Mohsen Razavi, Immo Söllner, Erwann Bocquillon, Christophe Couteau, R Laflamme, Gregor Weihs

Published May 15, 2009• 38 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Any characterization of a single-photon source is not complete without specifying its second-order degree of coherence, i.e., its g (2) function. An accurate measurement of such coherence functions commonly requires high-precision single-photon detectors, in whose absence only time-averaged measurements are possible. It is not clear, however, how the resulting time-averaged quantities can be used to properly characterize the source. In this paper, we investigate this issue for a heralded source of single photons that relies on continuous-wave parametric down-conversion. By accounting for major shortcomings of the source and the detectors—i.e., the multiple-photon emissions of the source, the time resolution of photodetectors and our chosen width of coincidence window—our theory enables us to infer the true source properties from imperfect measurements. Our theoretical results are corroborated by an experimental demonstration using a PPKTP crystal pumped by a blue laser that results in a single-photon generation rate about 1.2 millions per second per milliwatt of pump power. This work takes an important step towards the standardization of such heralded single-photon sources.

DOI
10.1088/0953-4075/42/11/114013

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Comment on “Coherence measures for heralded single-photon sources”

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Physical Review A•Nov 12, 2014•16 citations
Any characterization of a single-photon source is not complete without specifying its second-order degree of coherence, i.e., its g (2) function. An accurate measurement of such coherence functions commonly requires high-precision single-photon detectors, in whose absence only time-averaged measurements are possible. It is not clear, however, how the resulting time-averaged quantities can be used to properly characterize the source. In this paper, we investigate this issue for a heralded source of single photons that relies on continuous-wave parametric down-conversion. By accounting for major shortcomings of the source and the detectors—i.e., the multiple-photon emissions of the source, the time resolution of photodetectors and our chosen width of coincidence window—our theory enables us to infer the true source properties from imperfect measurements. Our theoretical results are corroborated by an experimental demonstration using a PPKTP crystal pumped by a blue laser that results in a single-photon generation rate about 1.2 millions per second per milliwatt of pump power. This work takes an important step towards the standardization of such heralded single-photon sources.
Single-photon sources (SPSs) are mainly characterized by the minimum value of their second-order coherence function, viz. their g(2){g}^{(2)}g(2) function. A precise measurement of g(2){g}^{(2)}g(2) may, however, require high time-resolution devices, in whose absence, only time-averaged measurements are accessible. These time-averaged measures, standing alone, do not carry sufficient information for proper characterization of SPSs. Here, we develop a theory, corroborated by an experiment, which allows us to scrutinize the coherence properties of heralded SPSs that rely on continuous-wave parametric down conversion. Our proposed measures and analysis enable proper standardization of such SPSs.
Low-photon-number sources can exhibit non-classical, counterintuitive behavior that can be exploited in the developing field of quantum technology. Single photons play a special role in this arena since they represent the ultimate lowphoton- number source. They are considered an important element in various applications such as quantum key distribution, optical quantum information processing, quantum computing, intensity measurement standards, and others yet to be discovered in this developing field. True deterministic sources of single photons on demand are currently an area of intensive research, but have not been demonstrated in a practical setting. As a result, researchers commonly default to the well-established workhorse: spontaneous parametric down-conversion generating entangled signal-idler pairs. Since this source is thermal-statistical in nature, it is common to use a detected idler photon to herald the production of a signal photon. The need exists to determine the quality of the single photons generated in the heralded signal beam. Quite often, the literature reports a "heralded second-order coherence function" of the signal photons conditioned on the idler photons using readily available single-photon detectors. In this work, we examine the applicability of this technique to single-photon characterization and the consequences of the fact that the most commonly used single-photon detectors are not photon-number resolving. Our results show that this method using non-photonresolving detectors can only be used to characterize the signal-idler correlations rather than the nature of the signalphoton state alone.
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 temporal correlation function, g(2)g^{(2)}g(2) for any fixed time window (bin) and report the experimental characterization of purity of unheralded and heralded single photons from the SPDC process. With an appropriate choice of time bin for a given pump power, without heralding we show that higher rate of single photons with g(2)(0)=0g^{(2)}(0) = 0g(2)(0)=0 can be generated with very high probability.
Heralded single-photon sources are the most commonly used sources for optical quantum technology applications. There is strong demand for accurate prediction of their spectral features and temporal correlations with ever-increasing precision. This is particularly important in connection with the intrinsically stochastic photon-pair generation process in heralded sources. Here we present a complete theoretical description of the temporal correlation of a signal-idler, signal-signal, and signal-signal-idler coincidences of photons generated by continuous-wave pumped cavity-enhanced spontaneous parametric down-conversion. The theory excellently predicts the measurements, which has been experimentally confirmed in our setup utilizing single-photon detectors with high temporal resolution. This enables us to resolve and analyze the multiphoton correlation functions in great detail.
Single photons exhibit nonclassical, counterintuitive behavior that can be exploited in the developing field of quantum technology. They are needed for various applications such as quantum key distribution, optical quantum information processing, quantum computing, intensity measurement standards, and others yet to be discovered in this developing field. This drives the current intensive research into the realization of true deterministic sources of single photons on demand. Lacking such a source, many researchers default to the well-established workhorse: spontaneous parametric down-conversion that generates entangled signal-idler pairs. Since this source is thermal statistical in nature, it is common to use a detected idler photon to herald the production of a signal photon. The need exists to determine the quality of the single photons generated in the heralded signal beam. Quite often, the literature reports a heralded second-order coherence function of the signal photons conditioned on the idler photons using readily available single-photon detectors. In this work we examine the applicability of this technique to single-photon characterization and the consequences of the fact that the most commonly used single-photon detectors are not photon-number resolving. Our results show that this method using non-photon-resolving detectors can only be used to characterize the signal-idler correlations rather than the nature of the signal-photon state alone.