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arXiv:0912.5312 · Physical Review A

High-visibility two-photon interference at a telecom wavelength using picosecond-regime separated sources

Pierre Aboussouan, Olivier Alibart, Daniel B. Ostrowsky, Pascal A. Baldi, Sébastien Tanzilli

Published Feb 9, 2010• 65 citations
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Abstract

We report on a two-photon interference experiment in a quantum relay configuration using two picosecond regime periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) waveguide based sources emitting paired photons at 1550 nm. The results show that the picosecond regime associated with a guided-wave scheme should have important repercussions for quantum relay implementations in real conditions, essential for improving both the working distance and the efficiency of quantum cryptography and networking systems. In contrast to already reported regimes, namely, femtosecond and CW, it allows achieving a $99%$ net visibility two-photon interference while maintaining a high effective photon pair rate using only standard telecom components and detectors.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.81.021801

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We report on a two-photon interference experiment in a quantum relay configuration using two picosecond regime periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) waveguide based sources emitting paired photons at 1550 nm. The results show that the picosecond regime associated with a guided-wave scheme should have important repercussions for quantum relay implementations in real conditions, essential for improving both the working distance and the efficiency of quantum cryptography and networking systems. In contrast to already reported regimes, namely, femtosecond and CW, it allows achieving a 9999%99 net visibility two-photon interference while maintaining a high effective photon pair rate using only standard telecom components and detectors.
Periodically poled lithium niobate waveguides (PPLN/W) are nowadays considered to be one of the most useful toolboxes for quantum communication experiments. Thanks to the high optical confinement over longer lengths than in bulk configurations (a few cm in our case), such structures provide highly efficient non-linear interactions, both in down- and up-conversion regimes. Within the framework of long-distance quantum communication at telecom wavelength, PPLN/Ws have therefore been proved to be a key ingredient for building ultra-bright sources of energy-time, time-bin, as well as polarization entangled pairs of photons, up-conversion based detectors for telecom photon detection and photonic quantum interfaces for coherent wavelength conversion, as well as quantum relays in the entanglement swapping configuration. During the presentation, we will discuss some recent experimental advances regarding two quantum relay scenarios employed to extend the maximum achievable distance of quantum communication. Based on picosecond regime operation, the first relies on the entanglement swapping configuration, and the other on single qubit teleportation using a telecom oriented chip dedicated to one-way quantum communication. In the first realization, we demonstrate that the utilization of PPLN/Ws and standard components available from the telecommunications industry, associated with the picosecond operation regime enables reaching near-perfect two-photon interference (or coalescence) while maintaining high effective photon pair rates. Using pairs of photons emitted around 1550 nm and appropriate filtering stages, we obtain the highest coalescence net visibility, i.e., of 99%, ever reported. As coalescence is seen a major step towards entanglement swapping, we believe that our picosecond guided-wave scheme provides an efficient trade-off between CW and femtosecond regimes, and emphasize why it should lead to realistic quantum relay and repeater schemes, namely by offering an reduced-constraint solution to the synchronization issue when two completely independent lasers are employed. We shall focus on our experimental demonstration and detail a comparative study of performance with similar reported experiments. As a second realization, we will give further directions towards the integration of several functions on a single optical chip, such as a photon pair generator and electro-optically controllable couplers. The idea is to realize a telecom-like quantum relay chip on lithium niobate through which teleportation of single qubits can be done so as to provide the necessary relay function in a compact, stable, efficient, and user-friendly fashion. We will discuss preliminary results obtained with this device for fully fiber-based one-way quantum communication systems. We will conclude by emphasizing the large potential of what we call "guided-wave quantum communication" developed in our laboratory.
We report the realization of a fiber-coupled polarization entangled photon-pair source at 1310 nm based on a birefringent titanium in-diffused waveguide integrated into periodically poled lithium niobate. By making use of a dedicated and high-performance setup, we characterized the quantum properties of the pairs by measuring two-photon interference in both Hong–Ou–Mandel and standard Bell inequality configurations. For the two sets of measurements we obtained interference net visibilities reaching nearly 100%, which represent important and competitive results compared to those for the similar waveguide-based configurations already reported. These results prove the relevance of our approach as an enabling technology for long-distance quantum communication.
We report the realization of a fiber coupled polarization entangled photon-pair source at 1310 nm based on a birefringent titanium in-diffused waveguide integrated on periodically poled lithium niobate. By taking advantage of an original setup, we characterized the quantum properties of the pairs by measuring two-photon interference in both Hong-Ou-Mandel and standard Bell inequality configurations. We obtained, for the two sets of measurements, interference net visibilities reaching nearly 100%, which represent the best results ever reported for similar waveguide-based configurations. These results prove the relevance of our approach as an enabling technology for long-distance quantum communication.
We report the realization of a fiber coupled polarization entangled photon-pair source at 1310 nm based on a birefringent titanium in-diffused waveguide integrated on periodically poled lithium niobate. By taking advantage of an original setup, we characterized the quantum properties of the pairs by measuring two-photon interference in both Hong-Ou-Mandel and standard Bell inequality configurations. We obtained, for the two sets of measurements, interference net visibilities reaching nearly 100%, which represent the best results ever reported for similar waveguide-based configurations. These results prove the relevance of our approach as an enabling technology for long-distance quantum communication.
Quantum information protocols tend to involve more and more entangled photon pairs, for enabling advanced quantum tasks. To compensate for the low success efficiency of these protocols, one can increase the repetition rate of the emitted pairs, up to current telecom standard (40 GHz). In this context, we propose a realization of ultra-fast photon pair sources, intended for either heralded quantum state engineering or entanglement swapping at telecom wave- length. In this paper, we present preliminary results consisting of a two-photon interference experiment using four photons where the achieved raw visibility of the Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) dip exceeds 98.6 %. The interfering photons are generated through spontaneous parametric down conversion process (SPDC) in two independent, separate, periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) waveguides.
Periodically poled lithium niobate waveguides (PPLN/W) are considered to be one of the most useful toolboxes for quantum communication experiments. Thanks to the high optical confinement over longer lengths than in bulk configurations (a few cm in our case), such structures provide highly efficient non-linear interactions, both in down- and up-conversion regimes. Within the framework of long-distance quantum communication at telecom wavelengths, PPLN/Ws have therefore been proved to be a key ingredient for building ultra-bright sources of energy-time, time-bin, as well as polarization entangled pairs of photons, up-conversion based detectors for telecom photon detection, photonic quantum interfaces for coherent wavelength conversion, and also for quantum relays in the entanglement swapping configuration.