Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

Optics Express

Photon correlation in single-photon frequency upconversion

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

Published Jan 19, 2012• 17 citations
Publisher

Abstract

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.

DOI
10.1364/oe.20.002399

Related papers

Single-photon frequency up-conversion with multimode pumping

Haifeng Pan, E Wu, Huafang Dong +1 more

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.

Physical Review A•Mar 6, 2008•17 citations

High-Speed Single-Photon Frequency Upconversion With Synchronous Pump Pulses

Xiaorong Gu, Yao Li, Haifeng Pan +2 more

Single-photon signals at 1.56 ¿m were converted into the visible region by sum-frequency generation, with synchronous pump pulses at 1.03 ¿m in a periodically poled lithium niobate crystal. The signal and pump sources were provided by two synchronized mode-locked fiber lasers at the operation rate of 7.88 MHz. Such a high-speed single-photon upconversion system has shown an overall detection efficiency of 10.4%. The corresponding background noise was measured to be 3.3 × 103s-1. The noise-equivalent power in this scheme was 9.93 × 10-17W/Hz1/2, which was the lowest compared to the other upconversion systems with similar pump and signal wavelengths.

IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics•Jan 1, 2009•8 citations

Ultrashort Laser Pulses for Frequency Upconversion

Kun Huang, E Wu, Xiaorong Gu +2 more

Single-photon frequency upconversion is a nonlinear process where the frequency of the signal photon is translated to the higher frequency with the complete preservation of all the quantum characteristics of the “flying” qubits [1,2]. One promising application of the singlephoton frequency upconversion is converting the infrared photons to the desired spectral regime (usually visible regime) where the high performance detectors are available for sensitive detections [3-6]. The infrared single-photon frequency upconversion detection technique has been successfully used in a variety of applications, including infrared imaging [7] and infrared ultra-sensitive spectroscopy [8,9]. Additionally, such upconversion detector has greatly benefited the applications stringently requiring efficient photon detection in optical quantum computation and communication [10-12]. Furthermore, due to the phase-matching requirement in the frequency upconversion process, the upconversion detectors have some unique features, such as narrow-band wavelength acceptance [13] and polarization sensitivity [14], both of which render them very useful for fiber based quantum systems [15]. In the recent decade, experiments bear that the photon correlation, entanglement, and photon statistics are all well preserved in the coherent frequency upconversion [16-18].

InTech eBooks•Oct 17, 2012•1 citation

Number Resolving, Mode-Selective Detection of High-Dimensional Correlated Photons

Misagh Izadi, Yuping Huang, Santosh Kumar +5 more

High-dimensional encoding in time-frequency and photon-number degrees of freedom promises photon-efficient quantum communication, but requires detectors that are both temporal-mode selective and photon-number resolving. Here we demonstrate time-correlated single-photon detection combining both capabilities. A train of shaped pump pulses drives quantum frequency up-conversion to select a chosen temporal mode, and the converted photons are counted with a photon-number-resolving detector. Applying to a photon-pair source by spontaneous parametric downconversion into signal and idler bands, we demonstrate direct sampling of the high-dimensional correlated quantum states on compound time-frequency and photon number bases. Our measurements show that the up-converted photons in each band exhibit thermal photon-number statistics, indicating strong single-mode selection. We reconstruct joint temporal intensities conditioned on one and two photon pairs, revealing signal-idler correlations in both time-frequency and photon number. Together, these results establish a unified technology framework linking high-dimensional quantum correlations, mode-selective photon measurement, and photon-number resolved detection. This approach provides a route to characterizing multimode photon-pair sources and to larger time-frequency and photon-number alphabets for high-dimensional quantum communication and information processing.

•Oct 28, 2026•0 citations

Number Resolving, Mode-Selective Detection of High-Dimensional Correlated Photons

Misagh Izadi, Yuping Huang, Santosh Kumar +5 more

High-dimensional encoding in time-frequency and photon-number degrees of freedom promises photon-efficient quantum communication, but requires detectors that are both temporal-mode selective and photon-number resolving. Here we demonstrate time-correlated single-photon detection combining both capabilities. A train of shaped pump pulses drives quantum frequency up-conversion to select a chosen temporal mode, and the converted photons are counted with a photon-number-resolving detector. Applying to a photon-pair source by spontaneous parametric downconversion into signal and idler bands, we demonstrate direct sampling of the high-dimensional correlated quantum states on compound time-frequency and photon number bases. Our measurements show that the up-converted photons in each band exhibit thermal photon-number statistics, indicating strong single-mode selection. We reconstruct joint temporal intensities conditioned on one and two photon pairs, revealing signal-idler correlations in both time-frequency and photon number. Together, these results establish a unified technology framework linking high-dimensional quantum correlations, mode-selective photon measurement, and photon-number resolved detection. This approach provides a route to characterizing multimode photon-pair sources and to larger time-frequency and photon-number alphabets for high-dimensional quantum communication and information processing.

•Oct 28, 2026•0 citations

Upconversion as a tool for characterization and preparation of photonic quantum states

Kevin A. O’Donnell, Alfred B. U’Ren

The process of upconversion in a nonlinear crystal involves the annihilation of two photons and the generation of a single photon with frequency given by the sum of the incident photon frequencies. In this paper we discuss recent work where we exploit the upconversion of two photonic modes, each of them generated by the process of spontaneous parametric downconversion, either from the same or different crystals. On the one hand, we describe an experiment where we exploit upconversion for the temporal characterization of photon pairs. On the other hand, we describe an experimental technique, which relies on the detection of an upconverted photon from two distinct photon-pair sources, which permits two photons that never interacted to become entangled in frequency.

Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE•Jul 29, 2010•0 citations
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.
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.
Single-photon signals at 1.56 ¿m were converted into the visible region by sum-frequency generation, with synchronous pump pulses at 1.03 ¿m in a periodically poled lithium niobate crystal. The signal and pump sources were provided by two synchronized mode-locked fiber lasers at the operation rate of 7.88 MHz. Such a high-speed single-photon upconversion system has shown an overall detection efficiency of 10.4%. The corresponding background noise was measured to be 3.3 × 103s-1. The noise-equivalent power in this scheme was 9.93 × 10-17W/Hz1/2, which was the lowest compared to the other upconversion systems with similar pump and signal wavelengths.
Single-photon frequency upconversion is a nonlinear process where the frequency of the signal photon is translated to the higher frequency with the complete preservation of all the quantum characteristics of the “flying” qubits [1,2]. One promising application of the singlephoton frequency upconversion is converting the infrared photons to the desired spectral regime (usually visible regime) where the high performance detectors are available for sensitive detections [3-6]. The infrared single-photon frequency upconversion detection technique has been successfully used in a variety of applications, including infrared imaging [7] and infrared ultra-sensitive spectroscopy [8,9]. Additionally, such upconversion detector has greatly benefited the applications stringently requiring efficient photon detection in optical quantum computation and communication [10-12]. Furthermore, due to the phase-matching requirement in the frequency upconversion process, the upconversion detectors have some unique features, such as narrow-band wavelength acceptance [13] and polarization sensitivity [14], both of which render them very useful for fiber based quantum systems [15]. In the recent decade, experiments bear that the photon correlation, entanglement, and photon statistics are all well preserved in the coherent frequency upconversion [16-18].
High-dimensional encoding in time-frequency and photon-number degrees of freedom promises photon-efficient quantum communication, but requires detectors that are both temporal-mode selective and photon-number resolving. Here we demonstrate time-correlated single-photon detection combining both capabilities. A train of shaped pump pulses drives quantum frequency up-conversion to select a chosen temporal mode, and the converted photons are counted with a photon-number-resolving detector. Applying to a photon-pair source by spontaneous parametric downconversion into signal and idler bands, we demonstrate direct sampling of the high-dimensional correlated quantum states on compound time-frequency and photon number bases. Our measurements show that the up-converted photons in each band exhibit thermal photon-number statistics, indicating strong single-mode selection. We reconstruct joint temporal intensities conditioned on one and two photon pairs, revealing signal-idler correlations in both time-frequency and photon number. Together, these results establish a unified technology framework linking high-dimensional quantum correlations, mode-selective photon measurement, and photon-number resolved detection. This approach provides a route to characterizing multimode photon-pair sources and to larger time-frequency and photon-number alphabets for high-dimensional quantum communication and information processing.
High-dimensional encoding in time-frequency and photon-number degrees of freedom promises photon-efficient quantum communication, but requires detectors that are both temporal-mode selective and photon-number resolving. Here we demonstrate time-correlated single-photon detection combining both capabilities. A train of shaped pump pulses drives quantum frequency up-conversion to select a chosen temporal mode, and the converted photons are counted with a photon-number-resolving detector. Applying to a photon-pair source by spontaneous parametric downconversion into signal and idler bands, we demonstrate direct sampling of the high-dimensional correlated quantum states on compound time-frequency and photon number bases. Our measurements show that the up-converted photons in each band exhibit thermal photon-number statistics, indicating strong single-mode selection. We reconstruct joint temporal intensities conditioned on one and two photon pairs, revealing signal-idler correlations in both time-frequency and photon number. Together, these results establish a unified technology framework linking high-dimensional quantum correlations, mode-selective photon measurement, and photon-number resolved detection. This approach provides a route to characterizing multimode photon-pair sources and to larger time-frequency and photon-number alphabets for high-dimensional quantum communication and information processing.
The process of upconversion in a nonlinear crystal involves the annihilation of two photons and the generation of a single photon with frequency given by the sum of the incident photon frequencies. In this paper we discuss recent work where we exploit the upconversion of two photonic modes, each of them generated by the process of spontaneous parametric downconversion, either from the same or different crystals. On the one hand, we describe an experiment where we exploit upconversion for the temporal characterization of photon pairs. On the other hand, we describe an experimental technique, which relies on the detection of an upconverted photon from two distinct photon-pair sources, which permits two photons that never interacted to become entangled in frequency.