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arXiv:quant-ph/0610227 · Physical Review Letters

Polarization-Controlled Single Photons

Tatjana Wilk, S. C. Webster, Holger Specht, Gerhard Rempe, Axel Kuhn

Published Feb 5, 2007• 122 citations
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Abstract

Vacuum-stimulated Raman transitions are driven between two magnetic substates of a 87Rb atom strongly coupled to an optical cavity. A magnetic field lifts the degeneracy of these states, and the atom is alternately exposed to laser pulses of two different frequencies. This produces a stream of single photons with alternating circular polarization in a predetermined spatiotemporal mode. MHz repetition rates are possible as no recycling of the atom between photon generations is required. Photon indistinguishability is tested by time-resolved two-photon interference.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.98.063601

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Vacuum-stimulated Raman transitions are driven between two magnetic substates of a 87Rb atom strongly coupled to an optical cavity. A magnetic field lifts the degeneracy of these states, and the atom is alternately exposed to laser pulses of two different frequencies. This produces a stream of single photons with alternating circular polarization in a predetermined spatiotemporal mode. MHz repetition rates are possible as no recycling of the atom between photon generations is required. Photon indistinguishability is tested by time-resolved two-photon interference.
Single-photons of well-defined polarization that are deterministically generated in a single spatio-temporal field mode are the key to the creation of multi-partite entangled states in photonic networks. Here, we present a novel scheme to produce such photons from a single atom in an optical cavity, by means of vacuum-stimulated Raman transitions between the Zeeman substates of a single hyperfine state. Upon each transition, a photon is emitted into the cavity, with a polarization that depends on the direction of the Raman process.
A sequence of single photons is emitted on demand from a single three-level atom strongly coupled to a high-finesse optical cavity. The photons are generated by an adiabatically driven stimulated Raman transition between two atomic ground states, with the vacuum field of the cavity stimulating one branch of the transition, and laser pulses deterministically driving the other branch. This process is unitary and therefore intrinsically reversible, which is essential for quantum communication and networking, and the photons should be appropriate for all-optical quantum information processing.
We present a mechanism to produce indistinguishable single-photon pulses on demand from a single atom-optical cavity system. We use sequences of two laser pulses of alternate circular polarizations at the two Raman transitions of a four-level atom. They allow the production of the same cavity-mode photons without repumping of the atom between photon generations. Photons that are emitted from the cavity with near-unity efficiency in well-defined temporal modes, feature the same polarization, frequency and identical shapes, controlled by the laser fields. The second order correlation function reveals the single-photon nature of the proposed source. A realistic setup for the experimental implementation is presented.
A single atom strongly coupled to a high-finesse optical-cavity is a versatile tool for quantum information processing. Utilized as a single-photon source, it allows one to generate single photons very efficiently in a well defined spatio-temporal mode. In a first experiment, polarization-control over the photons is shown. A time-resolved two-photon interference experiment proves the indistinguishability of these photons - required in various quantum information processing schemes. Moreover, in a second experiment, entanglement between the polarization of the emitted photon and the population of the atomic Zeeman levels is created. Subsequent state mapping of the atomic state onto another photon results in a pair of polarization-entangled photons emitted one after the other from the cavity. Although these schemes are in principle possible in free space, the cavity boosts the efficiency by several orders of magnitude.