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Optica Quantum

Efficient quantum frequency translation of broadband single photons by Bragg-scattering four-wave mixing

Ramy Tannous, Philip J. Bustard, Duncan G. England, Frédéric Bouchard, Guillaume Thekkadath, Benjamin Sussman

Published Mar 12, 2025• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate frequency translation of a non-classical optical field by Bragg-scattering four-wave mixing, driven by orthogonally polarized pump pulses in a birefringent optical fiber. Heralded single photons are up- and down-translated by 6.8 THz between bands at 688.1 nm and 678.2 nm, each with efficiency > 97%. The input and output spectral shape and bandwidth show negligible modulation. Second-order auto-correlation measurements of the 678.2 nm and 688.1 nm fields at maximum conversion yield values of 0.0302 ± 0.0005 and 0.028 ± 0.001, respectively, compared with the input second-order correlation of 0.026 ± 0.001; this indicates that the frequency translation process preserves the non-classical nature of the field. The high efficiency, broad bandwidth, and low noise render this scheme useful for quantum networks and sources.

DOI
10.1364/opticaq.555978

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We experimentally demonstrate frequency translation of a non-classical optical field by Bragg-scattering four-wave mixing, driven by orthogonally polarized pump pulses in a birefringent optical fiber. Heralded single photons are up- and down-translated by 6.8 THz between bands at 688.1 nm and 678.2 nm, each with efficiency > 97%. The input and output spectral shape and bandwidth show negligible modulation. Second-order auto-correlation measurements of the 678.2 nm and 688.1 nm fields at maximum conversion yield values of 0.0302 ± 0.0005 and 0.028 ± 0.001, respectively, compared with the input second-order correlation of 0.026 ± 0.001; this indicates that the frequency translation process preserves the non-classical nature of the field. The high efficiency, broad bandwidth, and low noise render this scheme useful for quantum networks and sources.
We experimentally demonstrate frequency translation of a nonclassical optical field via four-wave mixing (Bragg-scattering process) in a photonic crystal fiber (PCF). The high nonlinearity and the ability to control dispersion in PCF enable efficient translation between nearby photon channels within the visible to-near-infrared spectral range, useful in quantum networks. Heralded single photons at 683 nm were translated to 659 nm with an efficiency of 28.6±2.2 percent. Second-order correlation measurements on the 683- and 659-nm fields yielded g(683)(2) (0)=0.21±0.02 and g(659)(2) (0)=0.19±0.05, respectively, showing the nonclassical nature of both fields.
The authors consider, experimentally and theoretically, the quantum frequency translation (i.e., noiseless conversion) of quantum states of light, including single-photon states. This process is useful for allowing quantum optical systems (atoms, ions, cavities, fibers, detectors) operating at different wavelengths to communicate with each other. The authors recently developed the process of frequency translation in optical fiber through use of the Bragg scattering four-wave mixing process. The high nonlinearity and the ability to control dispersion in photonic crystal fiber (PCF) enable efficient translation between nearby photon channels within the visible to-near-infrared spectral range, useful in quantum networks. This offers an important advantage compared with frequency translation using second-order nonlinear optical crystals, which limits the translation process to widely separated frequencies only.
We explore the frequency translation of single-photon states of light and the creation of photon pairs by four-wave mixing in optical fiber. Frequency translation refers to changing the central frequency of a field, while photon pair creation refers to the creation of two individual photons at the same time. We demonstrate these effects in third-order nonlinear optical fiber. While both phenomena have previously been shown by three-wave mixing in second-order nonlinear media, there are compelling reasons to develop these tasks in third-order media. Most importantly, frequency translation in third-order material allows for the practical implementation of both small and large frequency shifts, while second-order material only practically allows for large shifts. Photon creation in third-order media often permits more flexible phase-matching conditions, allowing for the creation of a wider variety of quantum states than is often possible in second-order media. In our theoretical study of photon pair creation, we focus on the spectral correlations of the photon pairs. We pay particular attention to the creation of quantum states of high purity, where the photons are not spectrally correlated with one another. High purity photons are a requisite resource for several different quantum information processing applications, such as linear-optical quantum computing. We find that states with high purity can be realized with a minimal amount of spectral filtering. Experimentally, we study photon frequency translation in photonic crystal fiber. The central wavelength of the input photons was translated from 683 nm to 659 nm. We perform second-order intensity correlation measurements on both channels to demonstrate their quantum nature. This resulted in values of 0.21 ± 0.02 and 0.19 ± 0.05 for the 683-nm and 659-nm channels, respectively, demonstrating that those fields were dominated by their single-photon component. The efficiency at which the process occurred was 29 percent. Theoretically, we develop a Green function formalism to describe the translation process and develop a computational model to calculate the solution to the governing equations. Also, in a related experiment, we demonstrate classical frequency translation from 851 nm to 641 nm, a record translation in both wavelength and frequency, at an efficiency of 0.2 percent in a birefringent fiber.
We present a quantum-mechanical model that describes fiber-based frequency conversion by four-wave-mixing Bragg scattering in the presence of Raman interactions. In the case of continuous-wave pumps, we find closed-form expressions for the conversion efficiency and photon statistics characterized by the second-order correlation function. For pulsed pumps, we derive a highly general model based on Green functions and provide a numerical solution method using a split-step scheme. In both cases, we find that noise from spontaneous Raman scattering can pose a serious challenge to this type of frequency conversion if the pumps are less than 30 THz from the quantum fields. However, this impact can be mitigated with cross-polarized pumps and, on the anti-Stokes side, through fiber cooling.
This thesis deals with applications of nonlinear four-wave mixing in the context of optical quantum information science. By enabling diverse functionalities such as single-photon generation, temporal shaping, and frequency conversion, four-wave mixing is a highly versatile tool for processing optical quantum information. The first part addresses the use of spontaneous four-wave mixing for generating entangled photon pairs with the particular property that the photons are uncorrelated in time and frequency. Two schemes are proposed to achieve this. The first proposal relies on a gradually varying interaction between two orthogonally polarized pump pulses in a birefringent waveguide. It is shown that, if the two pump pulses undergo a complete walk-through, the two generated photons emerge in orthogonal polarizations with uncorrelated- and tailorable time-frequency distributions. The second proposal deals with photon-pair generation in a microring resonator. In this setting, it is shown that a dual-pulse configuration can be used to excite- and subsequently de-excite the resonator on a sub-lifetime timescale. This turns out to strongly diminish time-frequency correlations. The second part considers the four-wave-mixing process Bragg scattering, which is known to enable noise-free frequency conversion. The Bragg-scattering process treated here, which occurs in a birefringent waveguide, is shown to allow for shape-preserving and strongly uni-directional conversion with a large acceptance bandwidth.