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

Narrowband source of correlated photon pairs via four-wave mixing in a cold atomic ensemble

Bharath Srivathsan, Gurpreet Kaur Gulati, Brenda Chng, Gleb Maslennikov, Dzmitry Matsukevich, Alessandro Ceré, Christian Kurtsiefer

Published May 1, 2013• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

We report on a source of narrowband pairs of time-correlated photons generated via four-wave mixing in a laser-cooled atomic ensemble of87Rb atoms. We employ a cascade decay level scheme in which two copropagating pump beams of 780nm and 776nm excite the atoms to the 5D3/2, F = 3 level and the photon pairs of wavelength 762nm and 795nm from the cascade decay are coupled into single mode fibers and sent to silicon avalanche photodetectors. The photodetection events exhibit a strong correlation in time (g(2)(τ = 0) ≈ 5800), and a high coupling efficiency, as indicated by a pair-to-single ratio of 23%. An instantaneous pair generation rate of 7700 pairs per second (uncompensated for optical losses and detector efficiency) is observed with an increased 776nm pump power of 14mW. The violation of the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality by a factor of 8.4 × 106indicates a strong non-classical correlation between the generated fields, while a Hanbury-Brown-Twiss experiment in the individual photons reveals their thermal nature.

DOI
10.1109/cleoe-iqec.2013.6801634

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Chinese Physics Letters•Jul 1, 2011•9 citations
We report on a source of narrowband pairs of time-correlated photons generated via four-wave mixing in a laser-cooled atomic ensemble of87Rb atoms. We employ a cascade decay level scheme in which two copropagating pump beams of 780nm and 776nm excite the atoms to the 5D3/2, F = 3 level and the photon pairs of wavelength 762nm and 795nm from the cascade decay are coupled into single mode fibers and sent to silicon avalanche photodetectors. The photodetection events exhibit a strong correlation in time (g(2)(τ = 0) ≈ 5800), and a high coupling efficiency, as indicated by a pair-to-single ratio of 23%. An instantaneous pair generation rate of 7700 pairs per second (uncompensated for optical losses and detector efficiency) is observed with an increased 776nm pump power of 14mW. The violation of the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality by a factor of 8.4 × 106indicates a strong non-classical correlation between the generated fields, while a Hanbury-Brown-Twiss experiment in the individual photons reveals their thermal nature.
We observe narrow band pairs of time-correlated photons of wavelengths 776 and 795 nm from nondegenerate four-wave mixing in a laser-cooled atomic ensemble of ^{87}Rb using a cascade decay scheme. Coupling the photon pairs into single mode fibers, we observe an instantaneous rate of 7700 pairs per second with silicon avalanche photodetectors, and an optical bandwidth below 30 MHz. Detection events exhibit a strong correlation in time [g((2))(τ = 0) ≈ 5800] and a high coupling efficiency indicated by a pair-to-single ratio of 23%. The violation of the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality by a factor of 8.4 × 10(6) indicates a strong nonclassical correlation between the generated fields, while a Hanbury Brown-Twiss experiment in the individual photons reveals their thermal nature. The comparison between the measured frequency bandwidth and 1/e decay time of g((2)) indicates a transform-limited spectrum of the photon pairs. The narrow bandwidth and brightness of our source makes it ideal for interacting with atomic ensembles in quantum communication protocols.
We present our recently-built experimental setup designed to generate near-infrared and narrow-band correlated photon pairs by inducingfour-wave mixing in a cold gas of 87Rb atoms confined in a magneto-optical trap. The experimental setup and its automation and control approach are described in detail. A characterization of the optical density of the atomic ensemble as well as the basic statistical measurements of the generated light are reported. The non-classical nature of the photons pairs is confirmed by observing a violation of Cauchy-Schwarz inequality by a factor of 5.6 × 10 5 in a Hanbury Brown – Twiss interferometer. A 1/e coherence time for the heralded, idler photons of 4.4 ± 0.1 ns is estimated from our observations. We are able to achieve a value of 104 s−1pair-detection-rate, which results in a spectral brightness of 280 (MHz s)−1. The combination of high brightness and narrow-band spectrum makes this photon-pair source a viable tool in fundamental studies of quantum states and opens the door to use them in quantum technologies.
We demonstrate a bright correlated photon-pair source using double-A four-wave mixing in a87Rb cold atomic ensemble prepared in a magneto-optical trap. A counter-propagating pump configuration, combined with the small-angle collection along the propagation direction, enables clear distinction of resulting Stokes (780nm) and anti-Stokes (795nm) photons from pump fields. From measurements, we infer a generation rate of correlated photon pairs up to 107count per second (cps) into a collection mode waist of 175 μm. This is competitive with previous results observed in cold atomic ensembles [1], [2]. Their narrow spectral bandwidth makes these photons highly suitable for direct interaction with atomic systems and long-distance fiber transmission.
We experimentally prepare the non-classical correlated photon pairs at the wavelengths of 780 and 776 nm via the cascade transition of 5S 1/2 –5P 3/2 –5D 5/2 in a hot 85 Rb atomic ensemble. By measuring the function of cross-correlation and auto-correlation of photons, a violation of Cauchy—Schwarz inequality by a factor of 283 is obtained, which clearly indicates a strong non-classical correlation between the generated photons. We also find that noise photons scattered from pump lasers have a strong effect on the Cauchy—Schwarz inequality factor by changing the intensity of the pump laser, the experimental results are consistent with the theoretical predictions.
Abstract Nonclassical photon sources of high brightness are key components of quantum communication technologies. We here demonstrate the generation of narrowband, nonclassical photon pairs by employing spontaneous four-wave mixing in an optically-dense ensemble of cold atoms within a hollow-core fiber. The brightness of our source approaches the limit of achievable generated spectral brightness at which successive photon pairs start to overlap in time. For a generated spectral brightness per pump power of up to 2 × 10 9 pairs/(s MHz mW) we observe nonclassical correlations at pump powers below 100 nW and a narrow bandwidth of 2 π × 6.5 MHz. In this regime we demonstrate that our source can be used as a heralded single-photon source. By further increasing the brightness we enter the regime where successive photon pairs start to overlap in time and the cross-correlation approaches a limit corresponding to thermal statistics. Our approach of combining the advantages of atomic ensembles and waveguide environments is an important step toward photonic quantum networks of ensemble-based elements.
Non-classical paired photons are generated by a four-wave mixing process in a far-detuning three-level system with cold atoms. A violation of the Cauchy-Schwartz inequality of a factor of 310 is observed. This phenomenon shows that paired photons have a non-classical correlation. The experimental results are compared with theoretical results obtained using perturbation theory. The oscillation frequencies of the two-photon intensity correlation functions are in reasonable agreement with the effective Rabi frequencies of the coupling laser. However, we find that the dephasing rates (or decay rates) observed are far larger than the theoretical values.