Optical quantum generator, a new source of light its properties and applications in metrology

Katarina Žikić, André Stefanov, S. Sobolev +5 more

The ARTEMIS project aims to develop integrable quantum sources based on metal-organic compounds with transition metal and/or lanthanide ions. These materials exhibit tunable linear emission and nonlinear optical properties, enabling on-demand generation of single photons and entangled photon pairs or triplets. When integrated with plasmonic supernanostructured cavities, these molecular emitters achieve strong optical enhancement. Our group focuses on the quantum characterisation of the light emitted by these sources to explore their potential for new metrology and sensing applications in the quantum regime. Spectroscopic and time-resolved measurements on newly synthesized compounds Tb N(Bzlm)3 and Eu N(Bzlm)3 dissolved in DMSO at high concentration reveal narrow emission bands and relatively long decay times.

A. P. Alodjants, Dmitriy V. Tsarev, Dmitry Kuts +2 more

Andrew R. Wade, Georgia L. Mansell, S. Chua +4 more

Non-classical squeezed states of light are becoming increasingly important to a range of metrology and other quantum optics applications in cryptography, quantum computation and biophysics. Applications such as improving the sensitivity of advanced gravitational wave detectors and the development of space-based metrology and quantum networks will require robust deployable vacuum-compatible sources. To date non-linear photonics devices operated under high vacuum have been simple single pass systems, testing harmonic generation and the production of classically correlated photon pairs for space-based applications. Here we demonstrate the production under high-vacuum conditions of non-classical squeezed light with an observed 8.6 dB of quantum noise reduction down to 10 Hz. Demonstration of a resonant non-linear optical device, for the generation of squeezed light under vacuum, paves the way to fully exploit the advantages of in-vacuum operations, adapting this technology for deployment into new extreme environments.

A. P. Alodjants, Dmitriy V. Tsarev, Dmitry Kuts +2 more

Thomas Gerrits

Christopher J. Chunnilall, Ivo Pietro Degiovanni, S. Kück +2 more

The generation, measurement, and manipulation of light at the single- and few-photon levels underpin a rapidly expanding range of applications. These range from applications moving into the few-photon regime in order to achieve improved sensitivity and/or energy efficiency, as well as new applications that operate solely in this regime, such as quantum key distribution and physical quantum random number generation. There is intensive research to develop new quantum optical technologies, for example, quantum sensing, simulation, and computing. These applications rely on the performance of the single-photon sources and detectors they employ; this review article gives an overview of the methods, both conventional and recently developed, that are available for measuring the performance of these devices, with traceability to the SI system.