We demonstrate the generation of two-photon correlation trains based on spectral filtering of broadband biphotons. Programmable amplitude filtering is employed to create biphoton frequency combs, which when coupled with optical dispersion allows us to experimentally verify the temporal Talbot effect for entangled photons. Additionally, an alternative spectral phase-filtering approach is shown to significantly improve the overall efficiency of the generation process when a comb-like spectrum is not required. Our technique is ideal for the creation of tunable and high-repetition-rate biphoton states.
We demonstrate the generation of two-photon correlation trains based on spectral filtering of broadband biphotons. Programmable amplitude filtering is employed to create biphoton frequency combs, which when coupled with optical dispersion allows us to experimentally verify the temporal Talbot effect for entangled photons. Additionally, an alternative spectral phase-filtering approach is shown to significantly improve the overall efficiency of the generation process when a comb-like spectrum is not required. Our technique is ideal for the creation of tunable and high-repetition-rate biphoton states.
Time-frequency entangled photons ("biphotons") exhibit joint spectral and temporal correlations that are unattainable with classical light. Besides being deployed for tests of quantum nonlocality, these photonic states are desirable for a unique range of applications that can significantly impact communications and computation. In this dissertation, we describe novel schemes based on spectral and temporal domain processing for manipulating and characterizing broadband biphotons. Implementing frequency-dependent filters, first, we present and demonstrate a technique for controlling the relative delay between a pair of entangled photons, relying on pump frequency tuning and the quantum concept of nonlocal dispersion cancellation. Next, we demonstrate near-field frequency-to-time mapping, a technique adopted from classical photonics, for arbitrary control of biphoton temporal correlations. Subsequently, we generate temporal correlation trains by creating biphoton frequency combs through programmable spectral amplitude shaping and demonstrate the temporal Talbot effect with entangled photons for the first time. Moreover, in the absence of fast single-photon detectors, we show how electro-optic phase modulation (originally a time-dependent operation) can be used to examine the coherence of biphoton frequency combs. Lastly, we introduce a scheme based on electro-optic intensity modulation, another time-domain operation, for improving the resolution in biphoton temporal correlation measurements. Overall, our body of work could provide additional insight into the manipulation and characterization of biphoton states, as well as contribute towards the improvement of quantum technologies.
We demonstrate a two-photon interference experiment for phase coherent biphoton frequency combs (BFCs), created through spectral amplitude filtering of biphotons with a continuous broadband spectrum. By using an electro-optic phase modulator, we project the BFC lines into sidebands that overlap in frequency. The resulting high-visibility interference patterns provide an approach to verify frequency-bin entanglement even with slow single-photon detectors; we show interference patterns with visibilities that surpass the classical threshold for qubit and qutrit states. Additionally, we show that with entangled qutrits, two-photon interference occurs even with projections onto different final frequency states. Finally, we show the versatility of this scheme for weak-light measurements by performing a series of two-dimensional experiments at different signal-idler frequency offsets to measure the dispersion of a single-mode fiber.
Biphoton frequency combs are promising resources for quantum networking due in large part to their compatibility with the telecommunication infrastructure. In this work, we propose a method to periodically compress broadband frequency-entangled photons into biphoton frequency combs by utilizing time-varying linear cavities. Our approach hinges on rapid modulation of the input cavity coupling, yielding high spectral purity in each output comb line similar to that achieved with narrowband filters, but without the associated loss in flux. We examine the dependence of spectral purity and compression on coupling strength, cavity loss, and switching speed, finding realistic regimes supporting purities in excess of 0.999 and peak enhancement factors of 100× and beyond.
Chirped biphotons generated via spontaneous parametric down-conversion in chirped quasi-phase-matched nonlinear crystals have ultrabroadband frequency spectra, while their correlation times are not ultranarrow, due to the nonlinear frequency dependence of the phase factor. Based on the idea of Fresnel zone lenses, we propose a Fresnel-inspired binary phase-shaping scheme for tailoring broadband biphoton spectra. By applying binary phase masks to the biphoton spectrum, a Fresnel zone lens was produced in the frequency domain, compressing the broadband temporal wave packets of the chirped biphotons to the Fourier-transform limit due to the effective removal of the quadratic phase. Furthermore, biphoton correlation trains can also be generated by properly shaping the biphoton spectrum with this scheme. This provides a method for biphoton compression and shaping, which avoids the length dependence and the impact of higher-order dispersion in a dispersive medium by using the phase compensation method. Our results could prove useful in quantum metrology, lithography, and coding of entangled photons.
Photonic entanglement distribution with wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology is a promising method for increasing capacity in quantum communication. So far, various experiments [1], [2] have been actively conducted by using broadband entangled photon pairs based on spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) with WDM-compatible spectral filters. However, the separation of broadband photon pairs over the channels inevitably wastes a large amount of photon energy for sufficient suppression of channel crosstalk, which causes photon pairs to have a low brightness. The cavity-enhanced SPDC can be used to overcome this problem. Because the generated photon pairs are gathered into resonant peaks with a spectral spacing determined by the cavity, the joint spectrum of the photon pairs becomes a comb-like structure called a biphoton frequency comb [3–5]. Consequently, by designing the free spectral range (FSR) of cavity to be the same as the channel spacing of the WDM channels, efficient and precise extraction of photon pairs from a biphoton frequency comb to each channel of the WDM system can be achieved [6].
Control over the joint spectral amplitude of a photon pair has proved highly desirable for many quantum applications, since it contains the spectral quantum correlations, and has crucial effects on the indistinguishability of photons, as well as promising emerging applications involving complex quantum functions and frequency encoding of qudits. Until today, this has been achieved by engineering a single degree of freedom, either by custom poling nonlinear crystal or by shaping the pump pulse. We present a combined approach where two degrees of freedom, the phase-matching function, and the pump spectrum, are controlled. This approach enables the two-dimensional control of the joint spectral amplitude, generating a variety of spectrally encoded quantum states - including frequency uncorrelated states, frequency-bin Bell states, and biphoton qudit states. In addition, the joint spectral amplitude is controlled by photon bunching and anti-bunching, reflecting the symmetry of the phase-matching function.