Parametric down-conversion (PDC) offers the possibility to control the fabrication of non-Gaussian states such as Fock states. However, in conventional PDC sources energy and momentum conservation introduce strict frequency and photon number correlations, which impact the fidelity of the prepared state. In our work we optimize the preparation of single-photon Fock states from the emission of waveguided PDC via spectral filtering. We study the effect of correlations via photon number resolving detection and quantum interference. Our measurements show how the reduction of mixedness due to filtering can be evaluated. Interfering the prepared photon with a coherent state we establish an experimentally measured fidelity of the produced target state of 78%. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America
Parametric down-conversion (PDC) offers the possibility to control the fabrication of non-Gaussian states such as Fock states. However, in conventional PDC sources energy and momentum conservation introduce strict frequency and photon number correlations, which impact the fidelity of the prepared state. In our work we optimize the preparation of single-photon Fock states from the emission of waveguided PDC via spectral filtering. We study the effect of correlations via photon number resolving detection and quantum interference. Our measurements show how the reduction of mixedness due to filtering can be evaluated. Interfering the prepared photon with a coherent state we establish an experimentally measured fidelity of the produced target state of 78%. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America
Parametric down-conversion (PDC) offers the possibility to control the fabrication of non-Gaussian states such as Fock states. However, in conventional PDC sources energy and momentum conservation introduce strict frequency and photon number correlations, which impact the fidelity of the prepared state. In our work we optimize the preparation of single-photon Fock states from the emission of waveguided PDC via spectral filtering. We study the effect of correlations via photon number resolving detection and quantum interference. Our measurements show how the reduction of mixedness due to filtering can be evaluated. Interfering the prepared photon with a coherent state we establish an experimentally measured fidelity of the produced target state of 78%.
The generation of heralded pure Fock states via spontaneous parametric down-conversion (PDC) relies on perfect photon-number correlations in the output modes. Correlations in any other degree of freedom, however, degrade the purity of the heralded state. In this paper, we investigate spectral entanglement between the two output modes of a periodically poled waveguide. With the intent of generating heralded one- and two-photon Fock states, we expand the output state of the PDC to second order in photon number. We explore the effects of spectral filtering and inefficient detection, of the heralding mode, on the count rate, g (2) , and purity of the heralded state, as well as the fidelity between the resulting state and an ideal Fock state. We find that filtering can decrease spectral correlations, however, at the expense of the count rate and increased photon-number mixedness in the heralded output state. As a physical example, we model a type II PP-KTP waveguide pumped by lasers at wavelengths of 400 nm, 788 nm and 1.93 μm. The latter two allow the fulfillment of extended phase-matching conditions in an attempt to eliminate spectral correlations in the PDC output state without the use of filtering; however, we find that, even in these cases, some filtering is needed to achieve states of very high purity.
Parametric down-conversion (PDC) is one of the most widely used methods to create pure single-photon states for quantum information applications. However, little attention has been paid to higher-order photon components in the PDC process, yet these ultimately limit the prospects of generating single photons of high quality. In this paper we investigate the impact of higher-order photon components and multiple frequency modes on the heralding rates and single-photon fidelities. This enables us to determine the limits of PDC sources for single-photon generation. Our results show that a perfectly single-mode PDC source in conjunction with a photon-number-resolving detector is ultimately capable of creating single-photon Fock states with unit fidelity and a maximal state creation probability of 25. Hence, an array of 17 switched sources is required to build a deterministic ($>99%$ emission probability) pure single-photon source.
Parametric down-conversion (PDC) forms one of the basic building blocks for quantum optical experiments. However, the intrinsic multimode spectral-temporal structure of pulsed PDC often poses a severe hindrance for the direct implementation of the heralding of pure single photon states or, for example, continuous-variable entanglement distillation experiments. To get rid of multimode effects narrowband frequency filtering is frequently applied to achieve a single-mode behaviour. To date, the theoretical models of filtered PDC, however, only account for filtering in the low gain regime, where only a few photon-pairs are emitted at any single point in time. In this paper we extend these theoretical descriptions and present a rigorous theoretical model for filtered type-II PDC. Our theoretical investigations reveal that filtering a multimode type-II PDC state, followed by a careful optimization of the measurement basis, effectively achieves a single-mode behaviour and further enables the generation of single-mode EPR-entanglement. Considering the ever increasing brightness of PDC sources our developed theoretical framework, enables the accurate description of filtered PDC in quantum optical experiments.
Highly correlated photons or, accordingly, high-fidelity single-photon states are a prerequisite for closing detection loopholes in experimental tests of local realism and implementing scalable linear optical quantum computation. We demonstrate a parametric down-conversion source exhibiting a conditional detection efficiency of 51 (with corresponding preparation efficiency of 85) and extraordinarily high detection rates of up to $8.5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{5}\text{ }\mathrm{c}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{i}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{c}\mathrm{i}\mathrm{d}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{c}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{s}/(\mathrm{s}\text{ }\mathrm{m}\mathrm{W})$. We exploit a novel type-II phase matching configuration in a microstructured waveguide in conjunction with an ultrashort pump.
Parametric down-conversion (PDC) is mostly known in the low-gain (spontaneous) regime, in which the correlated photon pairs are produced. Spontaneous PDC (SPDC) plays a very important role for quantum optics as a variety of quantum states is produced via SPDC. In the high-gain case PDC leads to generation of bright states having up to hundreds mW mean power. With such states almost any nonlinear optical interaction or light-matter interaction becomes more efficient. Even being macroscopically bright, the produced states maintain nonclassical properties as, for example, the fluctuations of electric field quadratures are squeezed below the shot-noise level. The high-gain PDC could be used not only in the same applications as SPDC, it also can provide new ones. Apart from that the high-gain PDC has many remarkable spectral and statistical properties, which are in the focus of this work. The description starts from the PDC generation in normal and anomalous group velocity dispersion ranges. The spectrum and mode content of high-gain PDC is considered as well as their change with the parametric gain are demonstrated. Then, there are the interference effects emerging from the PDC correlations presented, namely the macroscopic analogue of the Hong-Ou-Mandel interference. In addition, it is shown how spatial and temporal walk-off matching could be used for the generation of giant narrowband twin beams. Finally, the statistical properties of high-gain PDC are reviewed as well as their use for multiphoton effects is demonstrated. Photon-number fluctuations of PDC are studied via normalized correlation functions and probability distributions. These fluctuations enhance the generation efficiency for multiphoton effects by orders of magnitude and lead to tremendously fluctuating light described by heavy-tailed photon-number probability distributions.