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International Journal of Quantum Information

Generation of optical-terahertz biphoton pairs via spontaneous parametric down-conversion

Vladimir V. Kornienko, Semyon Germanskiy, G. Kh. Kitaeva, Alexander N. Penin

Published Nov 1, 2014• 10 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We examine the features of parametric down-conversion for generating non-classical optical-terahertz biphoton fields. The calculations were performed for a second-order correlation function and noise reduction factor (NRF), which were selected as measures of non-classicality of the field states. NRF measurement schemes were found to be less advantageous. Overall system temperature at which non-classical effects are still observable has been estimated as about 10 K. The priority of the main complicating factors for the quantum-optical measurements in the terahertz range has been determined. Thus, the most important parameter is the temperature of the system, after that come the absorption losses at terahertz frequencies, and the parametric conversion efficiency has the lowest impact. Increasing the pump radiation power has been found to be inefficient for "noise" suppression in this case. The calculations performed were based on lithium niobate dispersion properties due to its outstanding nonlinear optical properties and because it is frequently used for optical-to-terahertz frequency conversion.

DOI
10.1142/s0219749915600230

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We examine the features of parametric down-conversion for generating non-classical optical-terahertz biphoton fields. The calculations were performed for a second-order correlation function and noise reduction factor (NRF), which were selected as measures of non-classicality of the field states. NRF measurement schemes were found to be less advantageous. Overall system temperature at which non-classical effects are still observable has been estimated as about 10 K. The priority of the main complicating factors for the quantum-optical measurements in the terahertz range has been determined. Thus, the most important parameter is the temperature of the system, after that come the absorption losses at terahertz frequencies, and the parametric conversion efficiency has the lowest impact. Increasing the pump radiation power has been found to be inefficient for "noise" suppression in this case. The calculations performed were based on lithium niobate dispersion properties due to its outstanding nonlinear optical properties and because it is frequently used for optical-to-terahertz frequency conversion.
We study conditions for the generation of strongly correlated photons of two extremely different frequency ranges, optical and terahertz, via the spontaneous parametric down-conversion effect in a nonlinear medium. Analytical expressions for the correlation function are derived using equations of the generalized Kirchhoff law for the second-order field moments with account of both classical thermal and quantum vacuum field fluctuations, possible inherent absorption of the medium at terahertz frequencies, and angular divergences of signal and idler radiation caused by a transverse limited spatial profile of the Gaussian pump beam. Associated with the current absence of terahertz photon counting detectors and coincidence schemes, the possible experimental limitations in measuring the second-order optical-terahertz field correlations are studied. Numerical calculations of noncollinear eee-geometry parametric down-conversion in a Mg:LiNbO3\mathrm{Mg}:\mathrm{LiNb}{\mathrm{O}}_{3}Mg:LiNbO3​ crystal demonstrate angular characteristics, particular features of the temperature and spectral behavior of the second-order quantum correlation function of optical-terahertz biphotons.
The conditions for the generation and detection of quantum-correlated pairs of optical and terahertz photons in the process of strongly frequency-nondegenerate parametric down-conversion of light are investigated. An approach based on increasing the frequency of the optical pump is proposed, whereby the power of a weak flux of terahertz idler photons can be measured for a wide range of parametric gain coefficients, down to the onset of the spontaneous down-conversion regime, using the same terahertz detector with a limited dynamic range. It is shown experimentally that the doubling of the frequency of pulsed laser pump leads to a 5-fold reduction in the lowest value of parametric gain that is still sufficient for detecting terahertz idler photons with a cooled hot-electron bolometer.
The effect of the structure of angular modes of an optical–terahertz biphoton field appearing in strongly nondegenerate parametric down-conversion on the possibility of measuring nonclassical correlation properties of this field has been studied theoretically. It has been shown that the nonlinear interaction operator describing parametric down-conversion can be diagonalized in the space of azimuth angles if idler radiation has a terahertz frequency. This feature makes it possible to determine azimuthal eigenmodes and the scattering matrix at arbitrary coefficients of the parametric gain. The determined scattering matrix has been used to find the dependences of the normalized correlation function and the noise reduction factor of the optical–terahertz biphoton field on the angular apertures of detectors recording the signal and idler radiation.
Frequency-angular characteristics of signal and idler photons generated under spontaneous parametric down-conversion are studied in a strongly frequency nondegenerate regime, without paraxial approximation, accounting for possible inherent absorption of idler waves in a nonlinear crystal, classical thermal field fluctuations, and the multimode character of parametric interaction induced by transverse spatial limitation of the pump beam. Spatial limitation is shown to lead to a huge increase in angular divergence of the idler photons generated at terahertz frequencies. General expressions are obtained for the frequency-angular sensitivity function of the nonlinear-optical terahertz wave detector and for power densities of the signal and idler photon fluxes. The absorption-induced difference in the parametric conversion coefficients for the noise and externally incident radiation of the idler frequency is shown to be described by approximately the same loss factor for all active spatial idler modes. Two different parametric contributions of the internal thermal noise to the number of output idler photons were revealed with different dependence on the idler-wave absorption. Expressions for the loss factors, which describe absorption-induced effects in signal and idler channels, are obtained and shown to be turning into one another by changing the sign of the absorption coefficient. Relative contribution of thermal and quantum field fluctuations into the intrinsic radiation of a nonlinear crystal at signal and idler frequencies is analyzed accounting for the crystal absorption properties.