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Physical Review A

Single-photon frequency up-conversion with multimode pumping

Haifeng Pan, E Wu, Huafang Dong, Heping Zeng

Published Mar 6, 2008• 17 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Efficient single-photon frequency up-conversion was demonstrated under strong multi-longitudinal-mode pump, where the incident single-photon state was converted to a superposition state after the nonlinear interaction with the multimode pump field. Through frequency summing with a sufficiently strong multimode pump at $1.06\text{ }\ensuremath{\mu}\text{m}$, a single-photon signal at $1.55\text{ }\ensuremath{\mu}\text{m}$ was up-converted to the visible replicas near $0.63\text{ }\ensuremath{\mu}\text{m}$ with a nearly unity efficiency. This may support tunable multimode photonic quantum-information interface and precise wavelength control on single-photon manipulation.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.77.033815

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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE•Apr 26, 2011•1 citation
Efficient single-photon frequency up-conversion was demonstrated under strong multi-longitudinal-mode pump, where the incident single-photon state was converted to a superposition state after the nonlinear interaction with the multimode pump field. Through frequency summing with a sufficiently strong multimode pump at 1.06 \ensuremathμm1.06\text{ }\ensuremath{\mu}\text{m}1.06 \ensuremathμm, a single-photon signal at 1.55 \ensuremathμm1.55\text{ }\ensuremath{\mu}\text{m}1.55 \ensuremathμm was up-converted to the visible replicas near 0.63 \ensuremathμm0.63\text{ }\ensuremath{\mu}\text{m}0.63 \ensuremathμm with a nearly unity efficiency. This may support tunable multimode photonic quantum-information interface and precise wavelength control on single-photon manipulation.
We experimentally investigated the intensity cross-correlation between the upconverted photons and the unconverted photons in the single-photon frequency upconversion process with multi-longitudinal mode pump and signal sources. In theoretical analysis, with this multi-longitudinal mode of both signal and pump sources system, the properties of the signal photons could also be maintained as in the single-mode frequency upconversion system. Experimentally, based on the conversion efficiency of 80.5%, the joint probability of simultaneously detecting at upconverted and unconverted photons showed an anti-correlation as a function of conversion efficiency which indicated the upconverted photons were one-to-one from the signal photons. While due to the coherent state of the signal photons, the intensity cross-correlation function g(2)(0) was shown to be equal to unity at any conversion efficiency, agreeing with the theoretical prediction. This study will benefit the high-speed wavelength-tunable quantum state translation or photonic quantum interface together with the mature frequency tuning or longitudinal mode selection techniques.
Multi-longitudinal-mode lasers have been believed to be good candidates as pump sources for optical frequency conversion. However, we present a semiclassical model for the frequency conversion of optical signals with a multimode pump laser, which shows that fluctuations of the instantaneous pump power limit the conversion efficiency. In an experiment, we up-converted a 1.55-$\ensuremath{\mu}$m optical signal in a periodically poled lithium niobate waveguide using a multi-longitudinal-mode laser and observed a maximum conversion efficiency of 68%, in good agreement with our theoretical model. Compared to single-mode pumping, multimode pumping is not a suitable technique for attaining stable near-unity-efficiency frequency conversion. However, our results could find application in the characterization of the spectral or temporal structure of multi-longitudinal-mode lasers.
Single-photon frequency conversion for quantum interface plays an important role in quantum communications and networks, which is crucial for the realization of quantum memory, faithful entanglement swapping and quantum teleportation. In this talk, I will present our recent experiments about single-photon frequency conversion based on quadratic nonlinear processes. Firstly, we demonstrated spectrum compression of broadband single photons at the telecom wavelength to the near-visible window. A positively chirped single-photon-level laser pulse and a negatively chirped classical one are converted to a narrowband single-photon pulse, with a spectrum compression factor of 58, through sum-frequency generation (SFG), marking a critical step towards coherent photonic interface. Secondly, we demonstrated the nonlinear interaction between two chirped broadband single-photon-level coherent states. A high SFG efficiency of 1.06 × 10−7 is realized, which may be utilized to achieve heralding entanglement at a distance. Finally, we theoretically introduced and experimentally demonstrated single-photon frequency conversion in the telecom band, enabling switching of single photons between dense wavelength-division multiplexing channels. Using cascaded quasi-phase matched sum/difference frequency generation, the signal photon of a photon pair from spontaneous down-conversion is precisely shifted to identically match its counterpart, i.e. idler photon, in frequency to manifest a clear non-classical dip in the Hong-Ou-Mandel interference. Moreover, quantum entanglement between the photon pair is maintained after the frequency conversion. Our researches have realized three significant quantum interfaces via single-photon frequency conversion, which hold great promise for the development of quantum communications and networks.
Optical frequency conversion plays a key role in realizing large-scale quantum networks, including multi-qubit discrete-variable quantum computers and quantum communication links where photons serve as the fundamental qubits. However, achieving efficient conversion via nonlinear optical processes for specific target wavelengths remains a significant challenge, as precise dispersion control is essential to satisfy phase-matching conditions across specific frequency ranges. An intriguing approach to solve this challenge is leveraging the modal degree of freedom in spatially multimoded waveguides and realizing intermodal nonlinear interaction. Following this approach, we present the experimental demonstration of tunable, number-state-preserving frequency conversion of true single photons emitted from a quantum dot. The conversion is achieved in a multimode fiber and exhibits a peak internal efficiency of 85% while retaining single photon purity of 99% during conversion. Our results show that the intermodal platform presents a promising and versatile approach for overcoming phase-matching limitations in quantum frequency conversion, thus allowing the efficient interfacing of different optical quantum devices.
Frequency up-conversion technology can be used to increase detection efficiency for near infrared photons, as has been demonstrated in fiber-based quantum communication systems. In a continuous wave pumped up-conversion detector, the temporal resolution is limited by the timing jitter of the detector in the visible range, which limits the maximum clock rate of a quantum communication system. In this paper we describe a scheme to improve the temporal resolution of an up-conversion single-photon detector using multi-wavelength optical-sampling techniques, allowing for increased transmission rates in single-photon communications systems. We experimentally demonstrate our approach with an up-conversion detector using two spectrally and temporally distinct pump pulses, and show that it allows for high-fidelity single-photon detection at twice the rate supported by a conventional single-pump up-conversion detector.