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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC)

Tunable diode laser based biphoton source for quantum spectroscopy

Andreas Jechow, Axel Heuer, Ralf Menzel

Published Jun 1, 2009• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Photon pairs generated by spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) are essential for a number of quantum-optics experiments. By utilizing periodically poled (PP) waveguide structures high flux rates of biphotons in one transversal mode can be obtained. The biphoton source presented here is explicitly designed for quantum spectroscopic application and is based on a frequency doubled broad area external cavity diode laser (BA-ECDL) that pumps SPDC inside a PPLN waveguide crystal. A time correlated single photon counting device has been used for the correlation measurements.

DOI
10.1109/cleoe-eqec.2009.5192142

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•Jan 1, 2013•0 citations
Photon pairs generated by spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) are essential for a number of quantum-optics experiments. By utilizing periodically poled (PP) waveguide structures high flux rates of biphotons in one transversal mode can be obtained. The biphoton source presented here is explicitly designed for quantum spectroscopic application and is based on a frequency doubled broad area external cavity diode laser (BA-ECDL) that pumps SPDC inside a PPLN waveguide crystal. A time correlated single photon counting device has been used for the correlation measurements.
A compact all solid state continuous-wave biphoton source, tunable around 488 nm, for quantum spectroscopic applications based on a frequency doubled diode laser system is presented. Copolarized photon pairs in the fundamental transversal mode could be generated at 976 nm by spontaneous parametric down conversion inside a type-0 quasi phase matched periodically poled lithium niobate waveguide crystal with an efficiency of 8-10(-6). A high flux rate greater than 10(7) photon pairs per second has been achieved at pump powers in the muW range resulting in more than 7-10(9) photon pairs/s-mW. Further a detailed investigation of the spectral behavior and the flux rate as a function of the detuning from the degenerated case is presented.
Spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) is one of the most important sources for entangled or correlated photon pairs, which are the foundation of the emerging fields of quantum-optical imaging and spectroscopy. Using periodically poled materials as an SPDC-source allows broad emission spectra in widely tunable wavelength ranges in an efficient and walk-off-free process. For applications that employ nonlinear interference setups, maximum interferometric contrast is only achieved when signal and idler modes are overlapped precisely in the second crystal. Thus, accurate knowledge of the spectral-angular characteristic of SPDC is crucial for designing such devices.
There has been increasing interest in the generation of such photon pairs using a spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) source inside an optical cavity to enhance the down-conversion into modes resonant to the cavity, each of the modes having a MHz spectrum. These optical parametric oscillators (OPO) operated far below threshold also provide a well defined spatial mode. Our setup consists of a bow-tie cavity with a periodically poled KTP crystal as nonlinear medium, phase-matched for parametric down-conversion. This photon-pair source is designed to provide photons suitable for interaction with atoms. These photons could be directly used in applications towards a quantum memory of light, like in experiments on slow light or the storage of single photons in EIT media. In this way an optical polarization rotation in an atomic sample could be measured achieving super-resolution.
We explore the potential of versatile and efficient entangled photon pair generation by spontaneous parametric downconversion in Bragg reflection waveguides. By employing a quantum treatment of modes in channel waveguides, and by accounting for group velocity dispersion in the modes, the quantum state of the generated biphotons is realistically calculated. The pair production rate is predicted to reach 4×108 pairs/s/nm/mW of pump light in a 2 mm-long structure, on par with or exceeding the performance of previously reported designs. This is attributable to an enhanced nonlinear interaction through tight mode confinement in the waveguide. Strategies for device performance optimization and phase matching wavelength tunability are outlined and numerically demonstrated. The proposed design platform is versatile and allows photon pair generation with controllable flux, bandwidth, Schmidt number, and degree of polarization entanglement. The possibility of monolithic integration with a diode laser pump offers a way to design an electrically pumped entangled photon source.
There is an important class of experiments that characterize the properties of quantum mechanical systems using correlated photons, and a typical source for correlated photons is the process of Spontaneous Parametric Down Conversion (SPDC). SPDC is a quantum mechanical process in which a single “pump” photon is converted into two photons that have half the frequency and double the wavelength of the original photon. This process takes place inside a crystal with particular optical properties that allow for SPDC, and we used a uniaxial Beta Barium Borate crystal. A single photon counting module (SPCM) was used as a detector for the photons. Our goal was to characterize a 474 nanometer (nm) Diode Pumped Solid State (DPSS) laser as a possible source for SPDC correlated photons. Measurements of the DPSS laser radiation showed that it emitted photons with a wavelength of both 474 nm and 948 nm, which was expected. The SPDC photons produced by our apparatus would also have a wavelength of 948 nm, so we tested whether the down converted photons could be detected without the 948 nm signal from the DPSS laser overwhelming the SPCM. Software for determining the parameters of SPDC in a given system is available from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and we used it to determine where we could expect to see SPDC photons. Initial measurements suggest that the system can produce SPDC photons, and we will continue to characterize the apparatus.