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arXiv:2103.11801 · Photonics Research

Subnatural-linewidth fluorescent single photons

Hebin Zhang, Gao‐xiang Li, Yong‐Chun Liu

Published Jan 18, 2024• 2 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Subnatural-linewidth single photons are of vital importance in quantum optics and quantum information science. According to previous research, it appears difficult to utilize resonance fluorescence to generate single photons with subnatural linewidth. Here we propose a universally applicable approach to generate fluorescent single photons with subnatural linewidth, which can be implemented based on Λ-shape and similar energy structures. Further, the general condition to obtain fluorescent single photons with subnatural linewidth is revealed. The single-photon linewidth can be easily manipulated over a broad range by external fields, which can be several orders of magnitude smaller than the natural linewidth. Our study can be easily implemented in various physical platforms with current experimental techniques and will significantly facilitate the research on the quantum nature of resonance fluorescence and the technologies in quantum information science.

DOI
10.1364/prj.514756

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Subnatural-linewidth single photons are of vital importance in quantum optics and quantum information science. According to previous research, it appears difficult to utilize resonance fluorescence to generate single photons with subnatural linewidth. Here we propose a universally applicable approach to generate fluorescent single photons with subnatural linewidth, which can be implemented based on Λ-shape and similar energy structures. Further, the general condition to obtain fluorescent single photons with subnatural linewidth is revealed. The single-photon linewidth can be easily manipulated over a broad range by external fields, which can be several orders of magnitude smaller than the natural linewidth. Our study can be easily implemented in various physical platforms with current experimental techniques and will significantly facilitate the research on the quantum nature of resonance fluorescence and the technologies in quantum information science.
Recent works [PhysRevLett.125.170402 (2020) and PhysRevLett.125.043603 (2020)] verify that the perfect single-photon character is a global property of resonance fluorescence including all the spectral components, and then the absence of some components can spoil the single-photon character, which considerably limits the application of filtering scheme to obtain single-photon source (SPS) with subnatural linewidth. Here, we note that the linewidth of fluorescent photon is not always limited by the intrinsic linewidth of the emitter, and provide a scheme where the linewidth of the fluorescent single photon can be much smaller than the natural linewidth of emitter by manipulating external coherent fields. By simulating the response of the filter or detection setup with a bandwidth approaching and even much smaller than the natural linewidth of emitter, the realization of ultranarrow SPS can be confirmed. Besides, we demonstrate that this scheme of ultranarrow SPS can be implemented based on various real physical platforms.
The observation of quantum-dot resonance fluorescence enabled a new solid-state approach to generating single photons with a bandwidth approaching the natural linewidth of a quantum-dot transition. Here, we operate in the small Rabi frequency limit of resonance fluorescence--the Heitler regime--to generate subnatural linewidth and high-coherence quantum light from a single quantum dot. The measured single-photon coherence is 30 times longer than the lifetime of the quantum-dot transition, and the single photons exhibit a linewidth which is inherited from the excitation laser. In contrast, intensity-correlation measurements reveal that this photon source maintains a high degree of antibunching behavior on the order of the transition lifetime with vanishing two-photon scattering probability. Generating decoherence-free phase-locked single photons from multiple quantum systems will be feasible with our approach.
Abstract Resonance fluorescence—the light emitted when exciting resonantly a two-level system—is a popular quantum source as it seems to inherit its spectral properties from the driving laser and its statistical properties from the two-level system, thus providing a subnatural-linewidth single-photon source (SPS). However, these two qualities do not actually coexist in resonance fluorescence, since an optical target detecting these antibunched photons will either be spectrally broad itself and not benefit from the spectrally narrow source, or match spectrally with the source but in this case the antibunching will be spoiled. We first explain this failure through a decomposition of the field-emission and how this gets affected by frequency resolution. We then show how to restore the sought joint subnatural linewidth and antibunched properties, by interfering the resonance fluorescence output with a coherent beam. We finally discuss how the signal that is eventually generated in this way features a new type of quantum correlations, with a plateau of antibunching which suppresses much more strongly close photon pairs. This introduces a new concept of perfect SPS.
Single photons of subnatural linewidth and high spectral brightness are necessary for efficient light-matter interaction at the single-photon level, which lies at the heart of many quantum photonic technologies. Here we demonstrate a bright source of single photons with subnatural linewidth, controllable waveforms, and a high spectral brightness of $3.67\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{5}\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\mathrm{s}{}^{\ensuremath{-}1}\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\mathrm{mW}{}^{\ensuremath{-}1}\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\mathrm{MHz}{}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$. The interaction between the single photons and atoms is demonstrated by the controlled absorption of the single photons in an atomic vapor. Our work has potential applications in quantum information technologies.
Biphotons of narrow bandwidth and long temporal length play a crucial role in long-distance quantum communication (LDQC) and linear optical quantum computing (LOQC). However, generation of these photons usually requires atomic ensembles with high optical depth or spontaneous parametric down-conversion with sophisticated optical cavity. By manipulating the two-component biphoton wave function generated from a low-optical-depth (low-OD) atomic ensemble, we demonstrate biphotons with subnatural linewidth in the sub-MHz regime. The potential to shape and manipulate the quantum wave packets of these temporally long photons is also demonstrated and discussed. Our work has potential applications in realizing quantum repeaters and large cluster states for LDQC and LOQC, respectively. The possibility to generate and manipulate subnatural-linewidth biphotons with low OD also opens up the opportunity to miniaturize the biphoton source for implementing quantum technologies on chip-scale quantum devices.