Photon-number state on-demand source by cavity parametric downconversion
Alex Hayat, Meir Orenstein
The authors propose a realizable scheme for an arbitrary photon-number state on-demand source based on parametric downconversion in a doubly resonant photonic cavity. The signal-wavelength resonance serves as storage for signal photons and the idler-wavelength resonance generates time separation between exiting idler photons, enabling photon-number-resolving detection. The counting of idler photons indicates the desired signal photon-number state, which can be released from the cavity on demand. They analyze the statistics of photon-number states generation and estimate the maximal repetition rates. Performance of the monolithic cavity for signal-storage and idler time spacing is limited, however, by external devices, namely, the long recovery time of existing single-photon detectors.
Applied Physics Letters•Oct 23, 2006•10 citations