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Laser Physics

Efficient generation of mid-infrared photons at 3.16 μm by coincidence frequency downconversion

Kun Huang, Xiaorong Gu, Qian Zhou, Haifeng Pan, E Wu, Heping Zeng

Published Mar 5, 2013• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate a pulsed mid-infrared photon source at 3.16 μm with a bandwidth of 3.7 nm by coincidence frequency downconversion with a conversion efficiency of 65%. The mid-infrared photons were generated by frequency downconversion in the saturation regime where the signal photons at 1.04 μm were synchronously pumped by intense laser pulses at 1.55 μm. In principle, the mid-infrared photon source could not only inherit the complete quantum characteristics of the input photon state, but could also be coherently manipulated in the spectral and temporal domains by engineering the classical pump field.

DOI
10.1088/1054-660x/23/4/045401

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We experimentally demonstrate a pulsed mid-infrared photon source at 3.16 μm with a bandwidth of 3.7 nm by coincidence frequency downconversion with a conversion efficiency of 65%. The mid-infrared photons were generated by frequency downconversion in the saturation regime where the signal photons at 1.04 μm were synchronously pumped by intense laser pulses at 1.55 μm. In principle, the mid-infrared photon source could not only inherit the complete quantum characteristics of the input photon state, but could also be coherently manipulated in the spectral and temporal domains by engineering the classical pump field.
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We demonstrate nondegenerate photon pair generation by spontaneous parametric downconversion in a silver gallium sulfide AgGaS2 crystal. By tuning the pump wavelength, we achieve phase matching over a large spectral range. This allows to generate idler photons in the mid-infrared spectral range above a 6 μm wavelength with corresponding signal photons in the visible. Also, we show photon pair generation with broad spectral bandwidth. These results are a valuable step toward the development of quantum imaging and sensing techniques in the mid-infrared.
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