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arXiv:quant-ph/0408136 · New Journal of Physics

High-quality asynchronous heralded single-photon source at telecom wavelength

Sylvain Fasel, Olivier Alibart, Sébastien Tanzilli, Pascal A. Baldi, A. Beveratos, Nicolas Gisin, Hugo Zbinden

Published Nov 13, 2004• 221 citations
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Abstract

We report on the experimental realization and characterization of an asynchronous heralded single-photon source based on spontaneous parametric down-conversion. Photons at 1550 nm are heralded as being inside a single-mode fibre with more than 60% probability, and the multi-photon emission probability is reduced by a factor of up to more than 500 compared to Poissonian light sources. These figures of merit, together with the choice of telecom wavelength for the heralded photons, are compatible with practical applications needing very efficient and robust single-photon sources.

DOI
10.1088/1367-2630/6/1/163

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•Jan 1, 2012•31 citations
We report on the experimental realization and characterization of an asynchronous heralded single-photon source based on spontaneous parametric down-conversion. Photons at 1550 nm are heralded as being inside a single-mode fibre with more than 60% probability, and the multi-photon emission probability is reduced by a factor of up to more than 500 compared to Poissonian light sources. These figures of merit, together with the choice of telecom wavelength for the heralded photons, are compatible with practical applications needing very efficient and robust single-photon sources.
We report on a guided wave asynchronous heralded photon source based on the creation of non-degenerate photon pairs by spontaneous parametric down conversion in a Periodically Poled Lithium Niobate waveguide. We show that using the signal photon at 1310\nm as a trigger, a gated detection process permits announcing the arrival of single photons at 1550nm at the output of a single mode optical fiber with a high probability of 0.37. At the same time the multi-photon emission probability is reduced by a factor of 10 compared to poissonian light sources.
We make a thorough analysis of heralded single photon sources regarding how factors such as the detector gate-period, the photon rates, the fiber coupling efficiencies, and the system losses affect the performance of the source. In the course of this we give a detailed description of how to determine fiber coupling efficiencies from experimentally measurable quantities. We show that asynchronous sources perform, under most conditions, better than synchronous sources with respect to multiphoton events, but only for nearly perfect coupling efficiencies. We apply the theory to an asynchronous source of heralded single photons based on spontaneous parametric downconversion in a periodically poled, bulk, KTiOPO4 crystal. The source generates light with highly non-degenerate wavelengths of 810 nm and 1550 nm, where the 810 nm photons are used to announce the presence of the 1550 nm photons inside a single-mode optical fiber. For our setup we find the probability of having a 1550 nm photon present in the single-mode fiber, as announced by the 810 nm photon, to be 48%. The probability of multiphoton events is strongly suppressed compared to a Poissonian light source, giving highly sub-Poisson photon statistics.
We report on a guided-wave asynchronous heralded single-photon source based on the creation of nondegenerate photon pairs by spontaneous parametric downconversion in a periodically poled lithium niobate wave-guide. We show that, by use of the signal photon at 1310 nm as a trigger, a gated detection process permits announcement of the arrival of single photons at 1550 nm at the output of a single-mode optical fiber with a high probability of 0.37. At the same time the multiphoton emission probability is reduced by a factor of 10 compared with Poissonian light sources. Furthermore, the model we have developed to calculate those figures of merit is shown to be accurate. This study can therefore serve as a paradigm for the conception of new quantum communication and computation networks.
We report on the realization of a synchronous source of heralded single photons at telecom wavelengths with MHz heralding rates and high heralding efficiency. This source is based on the generation of photon pairs at 810 and 1550 nm via Spontaneous Parametric Down Conversion (SPDC) in a 1 cm periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) crystal pumped by a 532 nm pulsed laser. As high rates are fundamental for multi-photon experiments, we show that single telecom photons can be announced at 4.4 MHz rate with 45% heralding efficiency. When we focus only on the optimization of the coupling of the heralded photon, the heralding efficiency can be increased up to 80%. Furthermore, we experimentally observe that group velocity mismatch inside long crystals pumped in a pulsed mode affects the spectrum of the emitted photons and their fibre coupling efficiency. The length of the crystal in this source has been chosen as a trade off between high brightness and high coupling efficiency.
We report a fibre-integrated heralded single-photon source based on a commercial Zn-indiffused MgO:PPLN ridge waveguide operated in Type-0 degenerate spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC). The device emits a broadband spectrum spanning approximately 70 nm across the telecom C-and L-bands, with an absolute brightness of 9.1×1099.1\times 10^{9}9.1×109 pairs/(s mW). After accounting for optical losses, we determine an internal heralding efficiency of 58(5)%. The source maintains high purity, exhibiting a coincidences-to-accidentals ratio exceeding 9×1049\times 10^{4}9×104 and a heralded second-order correlation of gh(2)(0)=(5.53±0.46)×10−4g_{\text{h}}^{(2)}(0) = (5.53 \pm 0.46)\times 10^{-4}gh(2)​(0)=(5.53±0.46)×10−4. Low multi-photon noise and broadband emission demonstrate the viability of such platforms for wavelength-multiplexed quantum networking.
We report on the realization of a synchronous source of heralded single photons at telecom wavelengths with MHz heralding rates and high heralding efficiency. This source is based on the generation of photon pairs at 810 and 1550 nm via Spontaneous Parametric Down Conversion (SPDC) in a 1 cm periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) crystal pumped by a 532 nm pulsed laser. As high rates are fundamental for multi-photon experiments, we show that single telecom photons can be announced at 4.4 MHz rate with 45% heralding efficiency. When we focus only on the optimization of the coupling of the heralded photon, the heralding efficiency can be increased up to 80%. Furthermore, we experimentally observe that group velocity mismatch inside long crystals pumped in a pulsed mode affects the spectrum of the emitted photons and their fibre coupling efficiency. The length of the crystal in this source has been chosen as a trade off between high brightness and high coupling efficiency.