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arXiv:1911.03995 · Optica

Temporal imaging for ultra-narrowband few-photon states of light

Mateusz Mazelanik, Adam Leszczyński, Michał Lipka, Michal P. Parniak, Wojciech Wasilewski

Published Feb 7, 2020• 27 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Plenty of quantum information protocols are enabled by manipulation and detection of photonic spectro-temporal degrees of freedom via light–matter interfaces. While present implementations are well suited for high-bandwidth photon sources such as quantum dots, they lack the high resolution required for intrinsically narrowband light–atom interactions. Here, we demonstrate far-field temporal imaging based on ac-Stark spatial spin-wave phase manipulation in a multimode gradient echo memory. We achieve a spectral resolution of 20 kHz with MHz-level bandwidth and an ultralow noise equivalent to 0.023 photons, enabling operation in the single-quantum regime.

DOI
10.1364/optica.382891

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Plenty of quantum information protocols are enabled by manipulation and detection of photonic spectro-temporal degrees of freedom via light–matter interfaces. While present implementations are well suited for high-bandwidth photon sources such as quantum dots, they lack the high resolution required for intrinsically narrowband light–atom interactions. Here, we demonstrate far-field temporal imaging based on ac-Stark spatial spin-wave phase manipulation in a multimode gradient echo memory. We achieve a spectral resolution of 20 kHz with MHz-level bandwidth and an ultralow noise equivalent to 0.023 photons, enabling operation in the single-quantum regime.
The concept of temporal imaging draws from the analogy between paraxial propagation of light in space and in dispersive media. So far, temporal imaging has been demonstrated with ultrafast light, corresponding to spectral precision in the THz range. In our quantum memory, we have implemented full spectral and temporal processing capabilities for ultra narrowband photons, which allow us to perform temporal imaging with MHz bandwidth and kHz precision. Implementation of this concept leads to many implications, which give rise to two distinct super-resolved spectroscopy schemes, inspired by recent developments in spatial super-resolved imaging. One scheme takes advantage of elaborate interference in the quantum memory, while the other uses optimized analysis of a homodyne detector traces. Overall, our approach not only brings temporal imaging to the previously untackled regime but also points to a variety of new schemes useful in quantum sensing.
High performance quantum networks require extensive utilization of multiplexing techniques, relaying on photonic spatial and temporal structure. Multimode quantum memories for light, where photons are stored in the form of collective atomic excitations, may constitute building blocks of such networks; however, a requirement arises to implement complex linear operations on the stored excitations. In our photonic processor we experimentally demonstrate how the off-resonant ac-Stark shift (ACS) may be employed to manipulate the spatial and temporal structure of photons stored in a highly multimode quantum memory as the collective atomic excitations – spin waves.
Time-reversibility, which is inherent in many physical systems, is crucial in tailoring temporal waveforms for optimum light–matter interactions. Among the time-reversible atomic systems, narrowband biphoton sources are essential for efficient quantum storage. In this work, we demonstrate time-reversed and fully time-resolved ultra-narrowband single-sided biphoton frequency combs with an average free-spectral range (FSR) of 42.66 MHz and an average linewidth of 4.60 MHz in the telecommunication band. We experimentally observe the fully time-resolved and reversible temporal oscillations by second-order cross correlation and joint temporal intensity measurements. The potential benefits of the time-reversed and fully time-resolved temporal oscillations from our source include enhancing the efficiency of quantum storage in atomic memories and maximizing the utilization of temporal information in multimode biphoton frequency combs. We further verify the heralded single-photon state generation from the multimode biphoton frequency combs by using Hanbury Brown and Twiss interference measurements. To the best of our knowledge, this 42.66 MHz FSR of our photon-pair source represents the narrowest among all of the different configurated biphoton sources reported to date. This ultra-narrow FSR and its 4.60 MHz linewidth provide the highest frequency mode number of 5786 and the longest coherence time among all the singly configurated biphoton sources so far. Our time-reversed and fully time-resolved massive-mode biphoton source could be useful for high-dimensional quantum information processing and efficient time–frequency multiplexed quantum storage toward long-distance and large-scale quantum networks.
Spectral-temporal manipulation of optical pulses has enabled numerous developments within a broad range of research topics, ranging from fundamental science to practical applications. Within quantum optics spectral-temporal degree of freedom of light offers a promising platform for integrated photonic quantum information processing. An important challenge in experimentally realizing spectral-temporal manipulation of quantum states of light is the need for highly efficient manipulation tools. In this context the intrinsically deterministic electro-optic methods show great promise for quantum applications. We experimentally demonstrate application of electro-optic platform for spectral-temporal manipulation of ultrashort pulsed quantum light. Using techniques analogous to serrodyne frequency shifting we show active spectral translation of few-picosecond single photon pulses by up to 0.5 THz. By employing an approach based on an electro-optic time lens we demonstrate up to 6-fold spectral compression of heralded single photon pulses with efficiency that enables us to significantly increase single photon flux through a narrow bandpass filter. We realize the required temporal phase manipulation by driving a lithium niobate waveguided electrooptic modulator with 33 dBm sinusoidal RF field at the frequency of either 10 GHz or 40 GHz. We use a phase lock loop to temporally lock the RF field to the 80 MHz repetition rate of approximately 1 ps long optical pulses. Heralded single photon wavepackets are generated by means of spontaneous parametric down-conversion in potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) crystal, which enables preparation of spectrally pure single photon wavepackets without the need for spectral filtering. Spectral shifting is achieved by locking single-photon pulses to the linear slope of sinusoidal 40 GHz RF phase modulation. We verify the spectral shift by performing spectrally resolved heralded single photon counting, using frequency-to-time conversion by means of a highly dispersive chirped fiber Bragg grating. We verify the non-classicality of spectrally shifted single photons by measuring high-visibility Hong-Ou-Mandel interference using a reference single photon pulse. Spectral compression is based on the time lens principle, which requires locking optical pulses to approximately quadratic region of sinusoidal phase modulation. We utilize both 10 GHz and 40 GHz RF driving frequencies. Bandwidth compression is achieved by chirping the single photon pulse using an appropriate length of single-mode fibre and subsequently subjecting it to the action of the time lens. We verify spectral compression directly using the aforementioned spectrally-resolved heralded single photon counting method. We achieve 3-fold spectral compression of 2 nm bandwidth single photon pulses using 40 GHZ modulation frequency, and 6-fold spectral compression of 0.9 nm bandwidth single photon pulses using 10 GHz modulation frequency. Overall transmission of our set-up exceeding 30% enables practical usability of our spectral compression method which we demonstrate experimentally by showing an increased photon flux through a narrowband filter. Our results present an important contribution towards implementing quantum information processing in the spectral-temporal degree of freedom of a photon. In the context of quantum networks they present an enabling tool towards efficient photonic interfacing of different quantum information processing platforms.