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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE

OPO-based narrow-band single-photon source for efficient coupling to quantum memories

Matthias Scholz, Lars Koch, Oliver J. Benson

Published Feb 12, 2009• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Narrow-band single photons represent an important resource for quantum memories due to their efficient interaction with atomic resonances. In this paper, we report on the generation of photons with 3 MHz linewidth by cavity-enhanced parametric down-conversion and demonstrate direct proof of their single-photon character by detection of heralding idler photons. Compared to a Poissonian source, a suppression of higher-order photon numbers by nearly two orders of magnitude could be achieved. Moreover, the brightness of our source exceeds previous realizations by more than a factor of 100.

DOI
10.1117/12.809149

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Narrow-band single photons represent an important resource for quantum memories due to their efficient interaction with atomic resonances. In this paper, we report on the generation of photons with 3 MHz linewidth by cavity-enhanced parametric down-conversion and demonstrate direct proof of their single-photon character by detection of heralding idler photons. Compared to a Poissonian source, a suppression of higher-order photon numbers by nearly two orders of magnitude could be achieved. Moreover, the brightness of our source exceeds previous realizations by more than a factor of 100.
Narrow-band single photons represent an important resource for quantum memories due to their efficient interaction with atomic resonances. In this Letter, we report on the generation of photons with 3 MHz linewidth by cavity-enhanced parametric down-conversion and demonstrate direct proof of their single-photon character by detection of heralding idler photons. Compared to a Poissonian source, a suppression of higher-order photon numbers by nearly 2 orders of magnitude could be achieved. Moreover, the brightness of our source exceeds previous realizations by more than a factor of 100.
Cavity-enhanced spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) can be used to implement heralded single-photon sources with narrow bandwidth down to tens of megahertz, thus compatible with atom-based quantum memories. In this work, we propose and study the cavities that are either singly resonant at the frequency of only one of the generated photons or doubly resonant at the frequency of one generated photon and for the pump field. We derive analytical expressions for the generation rate and the spectral brightness as a function of the main structure parameters. Our analysis shows that by exploiting counterpropagating SPDC inside a cavity with properly designed distributed Bragg reflectors, pure narrow-band heralded single photons can be generated. In particular, when a pulsed pump illuminates a 1-mm-long singly resonant cavity, the bandwidth of the resonant and the nonresonant photons will be 120 MHz and 5.7 GHz, respectively, with heralded single-photon purity as high as 0.993. Due to its small absorption probability inside the cavity, the heralding efficiency can approach unity if the nonresonant partner is used as a heralded single photon. Finally, we also show that continuous-wave excitation of a 1-cm-long cavity resonant for the pump and copropagating fields can provide photon pairs in a narrow bandwidth of 10 MHz with spectral brightness as high as $2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{6}$ $({\text{s}\phantom{\rule{4.pt}{0ex}}\text{mW}\phantom{\rule{4.pt}{0ex}}\text{MHz})}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$. This source can efficiently couple with quantum memories and can find applications in quantum information processing and communication.
Abstract We demonstrate an ultrabright, narrow-band and frequency-tunable photon-pair source based on cavity-enhanced spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC) which is compatible with atomic transition of rubidium D 2 -line (780 nm) or cesium D 2 -line (852 nm). With the pump beam alternating between a high and a low power phase, the output is switching between the optical parametric oscillator (OPO) and photon-pair generation mode. We utilize the OPO output light to lock the cavity length to maintain the double resonances of signal and idler, as well as to lock the signal frequency to cesium atomic transition. With a type-II phase matching and a double-passed pump scheme such that the cluster frequency spacing is larger than the SPDC bandwidth, the photon-pair output is in a nearly single-mode operation as confirmed by a scanning Fabry–Perot interferometer with its output detected by a photomultiplier. The achieved generation and detection rates are 7.24 × 10 5 and 6142 s −1 mW −1 , respectively. The correlation time of the photon pair is 21.6(2.2) ns, corresponding to a bandwidth of 2 π × 6.6(6) MHz. The spectral brightness is 1.06 × 10 5 s −1 mW −1 MHz −1 . This is a relatively high value under a single-mode operation with the cavity-SPDC scheme. The generated single photons can be readily used in experiments related to atomic quantum memories.
A single-photon source with narrow bandwidth, high purity, and large brightness can efficiently interact with material qubits strongly coupled to an optical microcavity for quantum information processing. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a degenerate doubly resonant single-photon source at 852 nm by the cavity-enhanced spontaneous parametric down-conversion process with a 100% duty cycle of generation. The single photon source possesses both high purity with a second-order correlation g (2) (0) = 0.021 and narrow linewidth with Δνsp = (800 ± 13) kHz. The single-photon source is compatible with the cesium atom D2 line and can be used for cesium-based quantum information processing.