We present a new experiment, in which we measure quantum correlations between single photons that are mediated by the exchange of a single phonon. We create and annihilate a single optical phonon in bulk diamond using two ultrashort laser pulses at two different wavelengths, generated by a Ti:Sapph oscillator and a frequency-doubled optical parametric oscillator (APE Berlin). During Stokes Raman scattering, the first pulse creates a photon-phonon pair, while the second pulse convert the same phonon into an anti-Stokes photon. Using spectral filtering and photon counting, we measure the cross-correlations between the Stokes and anti-Stokes photons with a few hundred femtoseconds time resolution. As expected, the non-classical correlation (g(2) much larger than the classical bound) decays within a few picosecond, following to the dynamics of the phonon mode. Our results demonstrate a new source of broadly tunable quantum correlated photons, and can be extended to provide a new way of measuring non-classical dynamics in nanoscale systems — down to individual nanostructures.
We present a new experiment, in which we measure quantum correlations between single photons that are mediated by the exchange of a single phonon. We create and annihilate a single optical phonon in bulk diamond using two ultrashort laser pulses at two different wavelengths, generated by a Ti:Sapph oscillator and a frequency-doubled optical parametric oscillator (APE Berlin). During Stokes Raman scattering, the first pulse creates a photon-phonon pair, while the second pulse convert the same phonon into an anti-Stokes photon. Using spectral filtering and photon counting, we measure the cross-correlations between the Stokes and anti-Stokes photons with a few hundred femtoseconds time resolution. As expected, the non-classical correlation (g(2) much larger than the classical bound) decays within a few picosecond, following to the dynamics of the phonon mode. Our results demonstrate a new source of broadly tunable quantum correlated photons, and can be extended to provide a new way of measuring non-classical dynamics in nanoscale systems — down to individual nanostructures.
We propose and demonstrate a versatile technique to measure the lifetime of the one-phonon Fock state using two-color pump-probe Raman scattering and spectrally resolved, time-correlated photon counting. Following pulsed laser excitation, the n=1 phonon Fock state is probabilistically prepared by projective measurement of a single Stokes photon. The detection of an anti-Stokes photon generated by a second, time-delayed laser pulse probes the phonon population with subpicosecond time resolution. We observe strongly nonclassical Stokes-anti-Stokes correlations, whose decay maps the single phonon dynamics. Our scheme can be applied to any Raman-active vibrational mode. It can be modified to measure the lifetime of n≥1 Fock states or the phonon quantum coherences through the preparation and detection of two-mode entangled vibrational states.
With the development of quantum optics, photon correlations acquired a prominent role as a tool to test our understanding of physics, and played a key role in verifying the validity of quantum mechanics. The spatial and temporal correlations in a light field also reveal information about its origin, and allow us to probe the nature of the physical systems interacting with it. Additionally, with the advent of quantum technologies, they have acquired technological relevance, as they are expected to play an important role in quantum communication and quantum information processing. This thesis develops techniques that combine spontaneous Raman scattering with Time Correlated Single Photon Counting, and uses them to study the quantum mechanical nature of high frequency vibrations in crystals and molecules. We demonstrate photon bunching in the Stokes and anti-Stokes fields scattered from two ultrafast laser pulses, and use their cross-correlation to measure the 3.9 ps decay time of the optical phonon in diamond. We then employ this method to measure molecular vibrations in CS2, where we are able to excite the respective vibrational modes of the two isotopic species present in the sample in a coherent superposition, and observe quantum beating between the two signals. Stokes scattering, when combined with a projective measurement, leads to a well defined quantum state. We demonstrate this by measuring the second order correlation function of the anti-Stokes field conditional on detecting one or more photons in the Stokes field, which allows us to observe a phonon modeâ s transition form a thermal state into the first excited Fock state, and measure its decay over the characteristic phonon lifetime. Finally, we use this technique to prepare a highly entangled photon-phonon state, which violates a Bell-type inequality. We measure S = 2.360 ± 0.025, violating the CHSH inequality, compatible with the non-locality of the state. The techniques we developed open the door to the study of a broad range of physical systems, where spectroscopic information is obtained with the preparation of specific quantum states. They also hold potential for future technological use, and promote vibrational Raman scattering to a resource in nonlinear quantum optics -- where it used to be considered as a source of noise instead.
Controllable generation of photon pairs is essential for the utilization of quantum pair states for quantum applications such as quantum communication, quantum cryptography, teleportation, and linear optics quantum computing. Raman scattering is one of the most fundamental light-matter interactions and can be used to generate photon pairs. Using the spontaneous Stokes Raman interaction, a photon from a strong pump laser pulse is annihilated, and a Stokes photon and Raman-mediated collective excitation are created. This excitation can then be read out deterministically as an anti-Stokes photon with the application of a second laser pulse within the excitation lifetime, creating a photon pair. The heralding capability of the Stokes photon and lifetime of the excitation makes this source quasi-deterministic, where the anti-Stokes photon can be created at a later time than the Stokes. This gives additional advantages and uses over traditional photon-pair sources using nonlinear interactions of light in a transparent medium, which generate the pair of photons simultaneously. In this thesis, we study the correlations of photon pairs generated via spontaneous Raman interactions and demonstrate how these interactions can be used for quantum applications. First, we develop a model to study the spectral correlations between the Raman generated Stokes and anti-Stokes photons. This model is used to calculate the spectral single-photon purity of the photons in a generic material system ignoring the effects of material dispersion. We calculate how various parameters effect the purity including pump spectral bandwidth, excitation linewidth, and time delay between pump pulses. We then introduced an experimental realization of a Raman-mediated photon-pair source in an integrated quantum photonic circuit platform. Interstitial N2 molecules inherently trapped in silicon nitride thin films during the deposition process possess a sharp Raman mission corresponding to the vibrational mode of the molecules, which can be used as a Raman-mediated photon-pair source. We present evidence of N2 defects in silicon nitride thin films and estimate the defect density and excitation lifetime. By patterning the films into waveguide structures, the photon-matter interaction is enhanced. We perform finite-element simulation of light propagation in our fabricated waveguides and use the results to examine effects from the waveguide on ultrafast optical pulses and phase-matching requirements for efficient photon-pair generation. We then present experimental progress towards detecting Stokes and anti-Stokes photon-pair generation from N2 defects in silicon nitride waveguides. We show results from degenerate and non-degenerate wavelength optical pump pulses. We discuss limitations of the experimental methods and study in detail the sources of noise arising from the silicon nitride waveguide, and conclude by discussing future extensions on the results presented here.
The correlated Raman scattering, referred to here as the SaS process, occurs with the annihilation, within a material, of two photons of an excitation laser and the creation of a quantum correlated Stokes (S) and anti-Soktes (aS) photon pair where the phonon created in the S process is annihilated in the aS scattering. We found that, in addition to real SaS process where the energy exchange coincides with the energy of a vibrational state of the material, there is also the virtual SaS process, whose the exchange of energy and momentum between the photons of the laser, generating the S-aS photon pair, is mediated by a virtual vibrational excitation, setting up a photon-photon interaction similar to the electron-electron attraction responsible for the creation of Cooper pairs of the BCS theory of superconductivity. We observed the SaS process in transparent media in general, by measuring non-classical values of the normalized second-order cross-correlation function of the Stokes and anti-Stokes fields, 2(0). In diamond, we characterize the intensity of the virtual SaS scattering ( ) as a function of the virtual phonon energy, proving that the SaS process occurs only when the photon-photon interaction is attractive, as in the BCS theory for the Cooper pairs. We show that photons S and aS from the SaS process are scattered predominantly in the same polarization as the excitation laser of the sample and, with this, we implemented the pump-probe technique to study the lifetime of the real phonon (obtained in the diamond order 2.8 ps ) and the lifetime of the virtual excitation, which proved to be inferior to the temporal resolution of the measurement’s, characterizing one of the main differences between the two processes. We also observed that, due to the relations of energy and momentum conservation, have the same spatial intensity profile of the non-interacting laser that crosses the sample, different from the behavior observed for uncorrelated Raman scattering which spreads photons in all directions. We observed that the efficiency of the SaS scattering is proportional to the Raman scattering cross-section when we compare the process in different hydrocarbons and we generalize the observations made in the diamond to the sample of liquid decane. In water, the values of 2(0), predicted by the theoretical description of the process, corroborate the experimental data, validating the BCS theory for virtual SaS scattering, setting the pair of Stokes and anti-Stokes photons as counterparts of the Cooper pairs.
In this talk we show how time-resolved Raman spectroscopy can be combined with Time Correlated Single Photon Counting (TCSPC) to create and evidence entanglement between light and a collective molecular vibration (i.e. an optical phonon) [3]. We further show that the correlations are strong enough to violate the Bell Inequality, which provides the most stringent test for entanglement. We measure the decay of these hybrid photon-phonon Bell correlations with sub-picosecond time-resolution and find that they survive over several hundred oscillations at ambient conditions.