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Applied Physics Letters

Heralding of telecommunication photon pairs with a superconducting single photon detector

Martin A. Jaspan, Jonathan L. Habif, Robert H. Hadfield, Sae Woo Nam

Published Jul 17, 2006• 22 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Experiments involving entangled photon pairs created via spontaneous parametric down conversion typically use wavelengths in the visible regime. The extension of a photonic quantum information link to a fiber optical network requires that entangled pairs be created at telecommunication wavelengths (1550nm), for which photon counting detector technology is inferior to visible detection, in particular, low coincidence detection rates of correlated-photon pairs. We demonstrate a correlated-photon pair measurement using the superconducting single photon detector in a heralding scheme that can be used to substantially improve the correlated-photon detection rate.

DOI
10.1063/1.2219411

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AIP conference proceedings•Jan 1, 2014•1 citation
Experiments involving entangled photon pairs created via spontaneous parametric down conversion typically use wavelengths in the visible regime. The extension of a photonic quantum information link to a fiber optical network requires that entangled pairs be created at telecommunication wavelengths (1550nm), for which photon counting detector technology is inferior to visible detection, in particular, low coincidence detection rates of correlated-photon pairs. We demonstrate a correlated-photon pair measurement using the superconducting single photon detector in a heralding scheme that can be used to substantially improve the correlated-photon detection rate.
We demonstrate the suitability of fiber-generated entangled photon pairs for practical quantum communications in the telecom band by measuring their properties with superconducting single-photon detectors that produce negligible dark counts. The photon pairs are created in approximately 5-ps duration windows at 50 MHz rate while the detectors are operated in ungated free running mode. We obtain a coincidence to accidental-coincidence ratio >80 with raw photon-counting data, i.e., without making any post-measurement corrections. Using a previously demonstrated counter-propagating scheme we also produce polarization-entangled photon pairs at 50-MHz rate, which in coincidence detection directly yield two-photon interference with a fringe visibility >98%.
We experimentally demonstrate a high-fidelity visible-to-telecommunication wavelength conversion of a photon by using a solid-state-based difference frequency generation. In the experiment, one half of a picosecond visible entangled photon pair at 780 nm is converted to a 1522-nm photon, resulting in the entangled photon pair between 780 and 1522 nm. Using superconducting single-photon detectors with low dark count rates and small timing jitters, we selectively observed well-defined temporal modes containing the two photons. We achieved a fidelity of $0.93\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.04$ after the wavelength conversion, indicating that our solid-state-based scheme can be used for faithful frequency down conversion of visible photons emitted from quantum memories composed of various media.
Deterministic generation of single photons is essential for many quantum information technologies. A bulk optical nonlinearity emitting a photon pair, where the measurement of one of the photons heralds the presence of the other, is commonly used with the caveat that the single-photon emission rate is constrained due to a trade-off between multiphoton events and pair emission rate. Using an efficient and low noise photon-number-resolving superconducting nanowire detector we herald, in real time, a single photon at telecommunication wavelength. We perform a second-order photon correlation g2(0){g}^{2}(0)g2(0) measurement of the signal mode conditioned on the measured photon number of the idler mode for various pump powers and demonstrate an improvement of a heralded single-photon source. We develop an analytical model using a phase-space formalism that encompasses all multiphoton effects and relevant imperfections, such as loss and multiple Schmidt modes. We perform a maximum-likelihood fit to test the agreement of the model to the data and extract the best-fit mean photon number $\ensuremath{\mu}$ of the pair source for each pump power. A maximum reduction of $0.118\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.012$ in the photon g2(0){g}^{2}(0)g2(0) correlation function at $\ensuremath{\mu}=0.327\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.007$ is obtained, indicating a strong suppression of multiphoton emissions. For a fixed ${g}^{2}(0)=7\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$, we increase the single pair generation probability by 25%. Our experiment, built using fiber-coupled and off-the-shelf components, delineates a path to engineering ideal sources of single photons.
The quantum efficiency of photon counters can be measured with standard uncertainty below 1% level using correlated photon pairs generated through spontaneous parametric down-conversion process. Normally a laser in UV, blue or green wavelength range with sufficient photon energy is applied to produce energy and momentum conserved photon pairs in two channels with desired wavelengths for calibration. One channel is used as the heralding trigger, and the other is used for the calibration of the detector under test. A superconducting nanowire single photon detector with advantages such as high photon counting speed (<20 MHz), low dark count rate (<50 counts per second), and wideband responsivity (UV to near infrared) is used as the trigger detector, enabling correlated photons calibration capabilities into shortwave visible range. For a 355nm single longitudinal mode pump laser, when a superconducting nanowire single photon detector is used as the trigger detector at 1064nm and 1560nm in the near infrared range, the photon counting efficiency calibration capabilities can be realized at 532nm and 460nm. The quantum efficiency measurement on photon counters such as photomultiplier tubes and avalanche photodiodes can be then further extended in a wide wavelength range (e.g. 400-1000nm) using a flat spectral photon flux source to meet the calibration demands in cutting edge low light applications such as time resolved fluorescence and nonlinear optical spectroscopy, super resolution microscopy, deep space observation, and so on.
We present two types of photon sources designed for secure quantum communication, e.g. for quantum cryptography. Both types are based on the creation of photon pairs by spontaneous parametric downconversion in nonlinear crystals. The first is a heralded single photon source and the second is a source of polarization-entangled photon pairs. For the heralded single photon source the detection of one of the photons of a downconversion pair is used as a trigger to announce the presence of the other: the single photon. The source is characterized by a highly sub-Poisson photon number statistics making it very suitable for use in quantum cryptography protocols using single photonic qubits to create correlated information between a sender and a receiver. The entanglement source instead uses the inherent non-classical correlations between entangled qubits. We also present a hybrid-encoding where the sender uses polarization to encode information while the receiver uses time-bins. Both sources create photons with highly non-degenerate wavelengths of 810 nm and 1550 nm, taking advantage of the efficient detectors at near-infrared and the low transmission loss of optical fibers at telecommunication wavelengths.