© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

Terms Privacy Legal Notice

arXiv:2108.01400 · APL Photonics

Programmable photon pair source

Liang Cui, Jinjin Wang, Jiamin Li, Mingyi Ma, Z. Y. Ou, Xiaoying Li

Published Jan 1, 2022• 9 citations

Abstract

Photon pairs produced by the pulse-pumped nonlinear parametric processes have been a workhorse of quantum information science (QIS). Engineering the spectral property of quantum states is crucial for practical QIS applications. However, photon pairs with desirable spectral properties are currently achieved with specially engineered optical hardware but with severely limited flexibility in tuning the spectral properties of the sources. Here, we demonstrate a spectrally programmable photon pair source by exploiting a two-stage nonlinear interferometer scheme with a computer-controlled phase device. The phase-control device can introduce phase shifts for spectral engineering by a programmable phase function that can be arbitrarily defined. When the phase function is properly designed, the output spectrum of the source can be freely customized and changed without replacing any hardware component in the system. Using this approach, we are able to program photon pairs with factorable positively correlated and negatively correlated spectra. In addition, we also realize a source of multi-dimensional three-channel spectrally factorable photon pairs. Our investigation provides a flexible and powerful new approach for engineering the mode profile of photon pairs and should find wide applications in QIS.

DOI: 10.1063/5.0069383

Related papers

Spectrally Tailorable Photon Pairs Generated by Using Nonlinear Interferometer with Programmed Phase Shifts

Mingyi Ma, Liang Cui, Jiamin Li +3 more

Photon pairs with flexibly tailorable spectral property are experimentally realized by using a fiber-based two-stage nonlinear interferometer scheme consisting of two pieces of dispersion-shifted fibers with a programmable optical filter in between.

Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics•Jan 1, 2020•0 citations

Versatile and precise quantum state engineering by using nonlinear interferometers

Jie Su, Liang Cui, Jiamin Li +3 more

The availability of photon states with well-defined temporal modes is crucial for photonic quantum technologies. Ever since the inception of generating photonic quantum states through pulse pumped spontaneous parametric processes, many exquisite efforts have been put on improving the modal purity of the photon states to achieve single-mode operation. However, because the nonlinear interaction and linear dispersion are often mixed in parametric processes, limited successes have been achieved so far only at some specific wavelengths with sophisticated design. In this paper, we resort to a different approach by exploiting an active filtering mechanism originated from interference fringe of nonlinear interferometer. The nonlinear interferometer is realized in a sequential array of nonlinear medium, with a gap in between made of a linear dispersive medium, in which the precise modal control is realized without influencing the phase matching of the parametric process. As a proof-of-principle demonstration of the capability, we present a photon pairs source using a two-stage nonlinear interferometer formed by two identical nonlinear fibers with a standard single mode fiber in between. The results show that spectrally correlated two-photon state via four wave mixing in a single piece nonlinear fiber is modified into factorable state and heralded single-photons with high modal purity and high heralding efficiency are achievable. This novel quantum interferometric method, which can improve the quality of the photon states in almost all the aspects such as modal purity, heralding efficiency, and flexibility in wavelength selection, is proved to be effective and easy to realize.

Optics Express•Jul 9, 2019•38 citations

Multi-channel Source of Spectrally Factorable Photon Pairs

Mingyi Ma, Liang Cui, Jiamin Li +3 more

Multi-channel source of spectrally factorable photon pairs are experimentally realized by using a fiber-based two-stage nonlinear interferometer scheme consisting of two pieces of dispersion-shifted fibers with a programmable optical filter.

Frontiers in Optics•Jan 1, 2020•0 citations

Two-dimensional control of a biphoton joint spectrum

Anatoly Shukhin, Inbar Hurvitz, Sivan Trajtenberg‐Mills +2 more

Control over the joint spectral amplitude of a photon pair has proved highly desirable for many quantum applications, since it contains the spectral quantum correlations, and has crucial effects on the indistinguishability of photons, as well as promising emerging applications involving complex quantum functions and frequency encoding of qudits. Until today, this has been achieved by engineering a single degree of freedom, either by custom poling nonlinear crystal or by shaping the pump pulse. We present a combined approach where two degrees of freedom, the phase-matching function, and the pump spectrum, are controlled. This approach enables the two-dimensional control of the joint spectral amplitude, generating a variety of spectrally encoded quantum states - including frequency uncorrelated states, frequency-bin Bell states, and biphoton qudit states. In addition, the joint spectral amplitude is controlled by photon bunching and anti-bunching, reflecting the symmetry of the phase-matching function.

arXiv:2311.09660•Optics Express•Jan 12, 2024•19 citations

Generation of spectrally factorable photon pairs via multi-order quasi-phase-matched spontaneous parametric downconversion

Fumihiro Kaneda, Jo Oikawa, Masahiro Yabuno +5 more

For advanced quantum information technology, sources of photon pairs in quantum mechanically factorable states are of great importance for realizing high-fidelity photon-photon quantum gate operations. Here we experimentally demonstrate a technique to produce spectrally factorable photon pairs utilizing multi-order quasi-phase-matching (QPM) conditions in spontaneous parametric downconversion (SPDC). In our scheme, a spatial nonlinearity profile of a nonlinear optical crystal is shaped with current standard poling techniques, and the associated phase-matching function can be approximated to a Gaussian form. By the measurement of a phase-matching function and the second-order autocorrelation function, we demonstrate that telecom-band photon pairs produced by our custom-poled crystal are highly factorable with > 95% single-photon purity.

arXiv:2111.10981•Nov 22, 2021•5 citations

Engineering the spectral profile of photon pairs by using multi-stage nonlinear interferometers

Mingyi Ma, Liang Cui, Xiaoying Li

Using the quantum interference of photon pairs in N-stage nonlinear interferometers (NLI), the contour of joint spectral function can be modified into islands pattern. We perform two series of experiments. One is that all the nonlinear fibers in pulse pumped NLI are identical; the other is that the lengths of N pieces nonlinear fibers are different. We not only demonstrate how the pattern of spectral function changes with the stage number N, but also characterize how the relative intensity of island peaks varies with N. The results, well agree with theoretical predictions in Ref. [1], reveal that the NLI with N pieces nonlinear fibers following binomial distribution can provide a better active filtering function. Our investigation shows that the active filtering effect of multi-stage NLI is a useful tool for efficiently engineering the factorable two-photon state - a desirable resource for quantum information processing.

arXiv:2008.03963•Chinese Optics Letters•Jan 1, 2021•7 citations

Photon pairs produced by the pulse-pumped nonlinear parametric processes have been a workhorse of quantum information science (QIS). Engineering the spectral property of quantum states is crucial for practical QIS applications. However, photon pairs with desirable spectral properties are currently achieved with specially engineered optical hardware but with severely limited flexibility in tuning the spectral properties of the sources. Here, we demonstrate a spectrally programmable photon pair source by exploiting a two-stage nonlinear interferometer scheme with a computer-controlled phase device. The phase-control device can introduce phase shifts for spectral engineering by a programmable phase function that can be arbitrarily defined. When the phase function is properly designed, the output spectrum of the source can be freely customized and changed without replacing any hardware component in the system. Using this approach, we are able to program photon pairs with factorable positively correlated and negatively correlated spectra. In addition, we also realize a source of multi-dimensional three-channel spectrally factorable photon pairs. Our investigation provides a flexible and powerful new approach for engineering the mode profile of photon pairs and should find wide applications in QIS.

The availability of photon states with well-defined temporal modes is crucial for photonic quantum technologies. Ever since the inception of generating photonic quantum states through pulse pumped spontaneous parametric processes, many exquisite efforts have been put on improving the modal purity of the photon states to achieve single-mode operation. However, because the nonlinear interaction and linear dispersion are often mixed in parametric processes, limited successes have been achieved so far only at some specific wavelengths with sophisticated design. In this paper, we resort to a different approach by exploiting an active filtering mechanism originated from interference fringe of nonlinear interferometer. The nonlinear interferometer is realized in a sequential array of nonlinear medium, with a gap in between made of a linear dispersive medium, in which the precise modal control is realized without influencing the phase matching of the parametric process. As a proof-of-principle demonstration of the capability, we present a photon pairs source using a two-stage nonlinear interferometer formed by two identical nonlinear fibers with a standard single mode fiber in between. The results show that spectrally correlated two-photon state via four wave mixing in a single piece nonlinear fiber is modified into factorable state and heralded single-photons with high modal purity and high heralding efficiency are achievable. This novel quantum interferometric method, which can improve the quality of the photon states in almost all the aspects such as modal purity, heralding efficiency, and flexibility in wavelength selection, is proved to be effective and easy to realize.

Control over the joint spectral amplitude of a photon pair has proved highly desirable for many quantum applications, since it contains the spectral quantum correlations, and has crucial effects on the indistinguishability of photons, as well as promising emerging applications involving complex quantum functions and frequency encoding of qudits. Until today, this has been achieved by engineering a single degree of freedom, either by custom poling nonlinear crystal or by shaping the pump pulse. We present a combined approach where two degrees of freedom, the phase-matching function, and the pump spectrum, are controlled. This approach enables the two-dimensional control of the joint spectral amplitude, generating a variety of spectrally encoded quantum states - including frequency uncorrelated states, frequency-bin Bell states, and biphoton qudit states. In addition, the joint spectral amplitude is controlled by photon bunching and anti-bunching, reflecting the symmetry of the phase-matching function.

For advanced quantum information technology, sources of photon pairs in quantum mechanically factorable states are of great importance for realizing high-fidelity photon-photon quantum gate operations. Here we experimentally demonstrate a technique to produce spectrally factorable photon pairs utilizing multi-order quasi-phase-matching (QPM) conditions in spontaneous parametric downconversion (SPDC). In our scheme, a spatial nonlinearity profile of a nonlinear optical crystal is shaped with current standard poling techniques, and the associated phase-matching function can be approximated to a Gaussian form. By the measurement of a phase-matching function and the second-order autocorrelation function, we demonstrate that telecom-band photon pairs produced by our custom-poled crystal are highly factorable with > 95% single-photon purity.

Using the quantum interference of photon pairs in N-stage nonlinear interferometers (NLI), the contour of joint spectral function can be modified into islands pattern. We perform two series of experiments. One is that all the nonlinear fibers in pulse pumped NLI are identical; the other is that the lengths of N pieces nonlinear fibers are different. We not only demonstrate how the pattern of spectral function changes with the stage number N, but also characterize how the relative intensity of island peaks varies with N. The results, well agree with theoretical predictions in Ref. [1], reveal that the NLI with N pieces nonlinear fibers following binomial distribution can provide a better active filtering function. Our investigation shows that the active filtering effect of multi-stage NLI is a useful tool for efficiently engineering the factorable two-photon state - a desirable resource for quantum information processing.