Photonics for Quantum (PfQ)
Toward frequency multiplexing for time-bin states
Benjamin E. Nussbaum, Ujaan Purakayastha, John Floyd, Jerzy Szuniewicz, Filip Sośnicki, Michał Karpiński, Paul G. Kwiat
Abstract
Time-bin entangled states are a promising paradigm for quantum communication between nodes of a quantum network. In addition, high-dimensional time-bin states are easy to generate and could offer significantly improved transmission fidelity compared to standard qubits. However, the overall rate of these transmissions is necessarily diminished because successive higher-dimensional time-bin states must be delayed such that they do not overlap in time. We propose to alleviate this concern by introducing an optical frequency shift on each time bin, taking advantage of quantum wavelength division multiplexing to greatly increase the rate of communication possible within a quantum channel. Here we report frequency shifts over a range of ∼ 2 nm (∼ 240 GHz) of telecom pulses in two time-bins separated by ∼ 250 ps, consistent with the requirements for multiplexing.