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Smart Systems Integration Conference and Exhibition (SSI)

Towards a Miniaturized Version of the Hanbury-Brown-Twiss Configuration

Martin Jahn, Christian Möller, Mario Bahr, Thomas Ortlepp

Published Apr 27, 2021• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

An important step towards the commercialization of quantum technology is the miniaturization of nowadays tabletop setups. The Hanbury Brown-Twiss (HBT) configuration is an important building block in many quantum optics experiments. Within this contribution, we present and compare different concepts for realizing a miniaturized, fiber-coupled HBT configuration, which will be robust and adjustment free. The design process is based on ray tracing simulations, with the aim of finding the best compromise regarding the level of miniaturization and detection efficiency. As an application example, the detection of the luminescence of two different charge states of nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers in diamond is used. For this reason, in contrast to the actual HBT experiment, a dichroic beam splitter is used.

DOI
10.1109/ssi52265.2021.9467025

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An important step towards the commercialization of quantum technology is the miniaturization of nowadays tabletop setups. The Hanbury Brown-Twiss (HBT) configuration is an important building block in many quantum optics experiments. Within this contribution, we present and compare different concepts for realizing a miniaturized, fiber-coupled HBT configuration, which will be robust and adjustment free. The design process is based on ray tracing simulations, with the aim of finding the best compromise regarding the level of miniaturization and detection efficiency. As an application example, the detection of the luminescence of two different charge states of nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers in diamond is used. For this reason, in contrast to the actual HBT experiment, a dichroic beam splitter is used.
Miniaturized versions of nowadays tabletop setups will be necessary for a successful commercialization of quantum cryptography and computing. Within this contribution, we present a concept for downsizing the Hanbury Brown-Twiss configuration. The design is based on optical simulations, with the aim of finding the best compromise of detection efficiency and level of miniaturization. Since scattering effects are important for evaluating the system’s performance, a complete scattering analysis got performed.
The Hanbury Brown–Twiss (HBT) effect holds a pivotal place in intensity interferometry and gave a seminal contribution to the development of quantum optics. To observe such an effect, both good spectral and timing resolutions are necessary. Most often, the HBT effect is observed for a single frequency at a time due to its limitations in dealing with multifrequencies simultaneously, halting and limiting some applications. Here, we report a fast and data-driven spectrometer built with a one-dimensional array of single-photon-sensitive avalanche diodes. We report observing the HBT effect for multiple frequencies at the same time. In particular, we observe the HBT effect for up to five lines of the Ne spectrum, but this can be improved upon to include more lines. Our work represents a major step in making spectral binning and multifrequency HBT more widely available. The technology we present can benefit both classical and quantum applications.
Emitters of single photons are essential resources for emerging quantum technologies and developed within different platforms including nonlinear optics and atomic and solid-state systems. The energy-level structures of emission processes are critical for reaching and controlling high-quality sources. The most commonly applied test uses a Hanbury Brown and Twiss (HBT) setup to determine the emitter energy-level structure based on fitting temporal correlations of photon detection events. However, only partial information about the emission process is extracted from such detection, that might be followed by an inconclusive fitting of the data. This process predetermines our limited ability to quantify and understand the dynamics in the photon emission process that are of importance for the applications in communication, sensing, and computing. In this work, we present a complete analysis based on all normalized coincidences between detection and no-detection events recorded in the same HBT setup to certify expected properties of an emitted photonic state. As a proof of concept we apply our methodology to single nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond, in which case the certification conclusively rejects a model based on a two-level emitter that radiates a photonic state mixed with any classical noise background. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
The Hanbury Brown–Twiss (HBT) effect, at the quantum level, is essentially an interference of one particle with another, as opposed to interference of a particle with itself. Conventional treatments of identical particles encounter difficulties while dealing with entanglement. A recently introduced label-free approach to indistinguishable particles is described, and is used to analyze the HBT effect. Quantum wave-packets have been used to provide a better understanding of the quantum interpretation of the HBT effect. The effect is demonstrated for two independent particles governed by Bose–Einstein or Fermi–Dirac statistics. The HBT effect is also analyzed for pairs of entangled particles. Surprisingly, entanglement has almost no effect on the interference seen in the HBT effect. In the light of the results, an old quantum optics experiment is reanalyzed, and it is argued that the interference seen in that experiment is not a consequence of non-local correlations between the photons, as is commonly believed. Quanta 2017; 6: 61–69.
The Hanbury Brown–Twiss (HBT) interferometer, which is used to measure the correlation of two photons or two light beams, has played a crucial role in quantum optics and quantum information. We propose a generalized HBT interferometer, which is able to measure the correlation of photons or light beams up to eight in a single experimental run. With an improved time correlated single-photon counting (TCSPC) algorithm, two-, three-, and four-photon coincidence counts, and the degree of fifth-order coherence of pseudothermal light are measured with a data collection time of 60 s. The generalized HBT interferometer can be used to measure the correlation of two multi-photon detection events by simulating photon number resolving detectors with multiple single-photon detectors. The generalized HBT interferometer and improved TCSPC algorithm provide a versatile framework for studying multi-photon correlations and interference, which is helpful to understand the physics of multi-photon interference and may find applications in fluorescence lifetime imaging and other techniques using TCSPC.
An elementary experiment in optics consists of a light source and a detector. Yet, if the source generates nonclassical correlations such an experiment is capable of unambiguously demonstrating the quantum nature of light. We realized such an experiment with a defect center in diamond and a superconducting detector. Previous experiments relied on more complex setups, such as the Hanbury Brown and Twiss configuration, where a beam splitter directs light to two photodetectors, creating the false impression that the beam splitter is a fundamentally required element. As an additional benefit, our results provide a simplification of the widely used photon-correlation techniques.