Time-Correlated Photons

Dongyang Gao, Jianjun Li, Mao-peng Xiao +1 more

The correlated photon technique makes it possible to achieve a radiation calibration processing without chain transferring. The study of the spectral radiation character and time correlation of the photon is of great significance for broad-band radiometric calibration. To absolutely calibrate quantum efficiency of photoelectric detector, it is necessary to extend calibration band from single band to more bands. According to the phase-matching condition of the spontaneous parametric down-conversion, non-collinear angle formula of correlated photon in the crystal is derived. The distribution of the photon spectrum is simulated. Meanwhile, the phase-matching angle of the crystal is optimized. The photon generated by the spontaneous parameters down-conversion has a broad spectral distribution and the correlated photon wavelength is corresponding to its emission angle. Based on the result of the simulation, the experimental measurement system of the spectral distribution and time-correlation of the correlated photon is established. The spectral distribution, the time-correlation and the polarization properties of the four pair photon were measured by using this system. The experimental results show that, (1) the spectral distribution of the measurements is 633~808 nm, where the maximum spectral distribution measurement bias is 1.51 mm. The experiment result is highly consistent with theoretical ones; (2) the correlation time of four pairs correlated photon is measured, during which “three coincidence-peaks” is observed and the minimum correlation time was 0.32 ns; (3) single photon count rate along with coincidence count rate of correlated photon vary with the polarization direction of the pump as sine function. The experimental result is shown that the correlated photon pairs are ranging from the visible to near infrared band distribution, and that the spectrum has time-correlation and polarization characteristic. The research result is firstly reported at home and abroad, and the results are promising for the application of the photoelectric detector in the multi-band radiometric calibration.

John Rarity, P. R. Tapster

Ted A. Laurence, Samantha Fore, Thomas R. Huser

A new algorithm is introduced for computing correlations of photon arrival time data acquired in single-molecule fluorescence spectroscopy and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS). The correlation is first rewritten as a counting operation on photon pairs. For each photon, the contribution to the correlation function for each subsequent photon is calculated for arbitrary bin spacings of the correlation time lag. By retaining the bin positions in the photon sequence after each photon, the correlation can be performed efficiently. Example correlations for simulations of FCS experiments are shown, with comparable execution speed to the commonly used multiple-tau correlation technique. Also, wide bin spacings are possible that allow for real-time software calculation of correlations even for high count rates ({approx}350 kHz). The flexibility and broad applicability of the algorithm is demonstrated using results from single molecule photon antibunching experiments.

Augusto Garuccio

Sunil Mittal, Venkata Vikram Orre, Alessandro Restelli +3 more

A common challenge in quantum information processing with photons is the limited ability to manipulate and measure correlated states. An example is the inability to measure picosecond-scale temporal correlations of a multiphoton state, given state-of-the-art detectors have a temporal resolution of about 100 ps. Here, we demonstrate temporal magnification of time-bin-entangled two-photon states using a time lens and measure their temporal correlation function, which is otherwise not accessible because of the limited temporal resolution of single-photon detectors. Furthermore, we show that the time lens maps temporal correlations of photons to frequency correlations and could be used to manipulate frequency-bin-entangled photons. This demonstration opens a new avenue to manipulate and analyze spectral and temporal wave functions of many-photon states.

Ling-an, Wu