The nonclassical photon pair is naturally endowed with a specific form of frequency-time quantum correlations. Here, we report complete control of time quantum correlations of narrowband biphotons generated in a cold atomic ensemble.
The nonclassical photon pair, generated via a parametric process, is naturally endowed with a specific form of frequency-time quantum correlations. Here, we report complete control of frequency-time quantum correlations of narrow-band biphotons generated via spontaneous four-wave mixing in a cold atomic ensemble. We have experimentally confirmed the generation of frequency-anticorrelated, frequency-correlated, and frequency-uncorrelated narrow-band biphoton states, as well as verifying the strong nonclassicality of the correlations. Our work opens up new possibilities for engineering narrow-band entangled photons for various quantum optical and quantum information applications.
Generation of frequency-correlated narrowband biphotons from the four-wave mixing process is theoretically analyzed through manipulating optical properties of light propagation inside a cold atomic ensemble. In contrast with the spontaneous parametric down-conversion case, we find a much looser condition, which allows producing such frequency-correlated paired photons. We propose a two-photon temporal conditional correlation measurement to detect these photons. In addition, our results provide other evidence for observing backward pulse propagation from the viewpoint of two-photon correlation measurement.
Driven by the desire of narrow-band photon pairs source, in this Mphil thesis work, we demonstrate the generation of photon pairs with controllable coherence time up to 1.72 microseconds, using spontaneous four-wave mixing with electromagnetically induced transparency in a laser-cooled atomic ensemble with an optical depth (OD) as high as 130. At such a high OD, we find that the pump laser intensity profile has a significant effect on the time-frequency entangled two-photon waveform. We also confirm the quantum particle nature of heralded narrow-band single photons generated from this source.