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ABSTRACT: We experimentally study Bragg-scattering four-wave mixing in a highly nonlinear fiber at telecom wavelengths using photon counters. We explore the polarization dependence of this process with a continuous wave signal in the macroscopic and attenuated regime, with a wavelength shift of 23 nm. Our measurements of mean photon numbers per second under various pump polarization configurations agree well with the theoretical and numerical predictions based on classical models. We discuss the impact of noise under these different polarization configurations.
Optics Express 11/2012; 20(24):27220-5. · 3.59 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Wave-particle complementarity is one of the most intriguing features of quantum physics. To emphasize this measurement apparatus-dependent nature, experiments have been performed in which the output beam splitter of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer is inserted or removed after a photon has already entered the device. A recent extension suggested using a quantum beam splitter at the interferometer's output; we achieve this using pairs of polarization-entangled photons. One photon is tested in the interferometer and is detected, whereas the other allows us to determine whether wave, particle, or intermediate behaviors have been observed. Furthermore, this experiment allows us to continuously morph the tested photon's behavior from wavelike to particle-like, which illustrates the inadequacy of a naive wave or particle description of light.
Science 11/2012; 338(6107):637-40. · 31.20 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: When elliptically polarized maximally entangled states are considered, i.e.,
states having a non random phase factor between the two bipartite polarization
components, the standard settings used for optimal violation of Bell
inequalities are no longer adapted. One way to retrieve the maximal amount of
violation is to compensate for this phase while keeping the standard Bell
inequality analysis settings. We propose in this paper a general theoretical
approach that allows determining and adjusting the phase of elliptically
polarized maximally entangled states in order to optimize the violation of Bell
inequalities. The formalism is also applied to several suggested experimental
phase compensation schemes. In order to emphasize the simplicity and relevance
of our approach, we also describe an experimental implementation using a
standard Soleil-Babinet phase compensator. This device is employed to correct
the phase that appears in the maximally entangled state generated from a
type-II nonlinear photon-pair source after the photons are created and
distributed over fiber channels.
07/2012;
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ABSTRACT: We report the experimental observation of the nonlocal geometric phase in
Hanbury Brown-Twiss polarized intensity interferometry. The experiment involves
two independent, polar- ized, incoherent sources, illuminating two polarized
detectors. Varying the relative polarization angle between the detectors
introduces a geometric phase equal to half the solid angle on the Poincar\'e
sphere traced out by a pair of single photons. Local measurements at either
detector do not reveal the effect of the geometric phase, which appears only in
the coincidence counts between the two detectors, showing a genuinely nonlocal
effect. We show experimentally that coincidence rates of photon arrival times
at separated detectors can be controlled by the two photon geometric phase.
This effect can be used for manipulating and controlling photonic entanglement.
10/2011;
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ABSTRACT: Applications of Integrated Optics to quantum sources, detectors, interfaces,
memories and linear optical quantum computing are described in this review. By
their inherent compactness, efficiencies, and interconnectability, many of the
demonstrated individual devices can clearly serve as building blocks for more
complex quantum systems, that could also profit from the incorporation of other
guided wave technologies.
08/2011;
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ABSTRACT: In this paper we show that by suitably tailoring the dispersion characteristics of a Bragg reflection waveguide (BRW) mode, it is possible to achieve efficient photon pair generation over a large pump bandwidth while maintaining narrow signal bandwidth. The structure proposed consists of a high index core BRW with a periodically poled GaN core and periodically stratified cladding made up of alternate layers of Al(0.02)Ga(0.98)N and Al(0.45)Ga(0.55)N. Such photon-pair generators should find applications in realizing compact and stable sources for quantum information processing.
Optics Express 04/2008; 16(6):3577-82. · 3.59 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: We report a procedure to detect mid-infrared single photons at 4.65 microm by means of a two-stage scheme based on sum-frequency generation, by using a periodically poled lithium niobate nonlinear crystal and a silicon avalanche photodiode. An experimental investigation shows that, in addition to a high timing resolution, this technique yields a detection sensitivity of 1.24 pW with 63 mW of net pump power.
Optics Letters 05/2006; 31(8):1094-6. · 3.40 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: We report on a new kind of correlated photon-pair source based on a waveguide integrated on a Periodically Poled Lithium Niobate substrate. Using a pump laser of a few μW at 657 nm, we generate degenerate photonpairs at 1314 nm. Detecting about 1500 coincidences per second, we can infer a conversion rate of 10-6 pairs per pump photon, which is four orders of magnitude higher than that obtained with previous bulk sources. These results are very promising for the realization of sources for quantum communication and quantum metrology experiments requiring a high signal-to-noise ratio or working with more than one photon-pair at a time.
Electronics Letters / IEE Electronics Letters.
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ABSTRACT: We report the realization of a fiber coupled polarization entangled photon-pair source at 1310 nm based on a birefringent titanium in-diffused waveguide integrated on periodically poled lithium niobate. By taking advantage of a dedicated and high-performance setup, we characterized the quantum properties of the pairs by measuring two-photon interference in both Hong-Ou-Mandel and standard Bell inequality configurations. We obtained, for the two sets of measurements, interference net visibilities reaching nearly 100%, which represent important and competitive results compared to similar waveguide-based configurations already reported. These results prove the relevance of our approach as an enabling technology for long-distance quantum communication.
New Journal of Physics.
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ABSTRACT: In this paper, we address the issue of the generation of nondegenerate cross-polarization-entangled photon pairs using type-II periodically poled lithium niobate. We show that, by an appropriate engineering of the quasi-phase-matching grating, it is possible to simultaneously satisfy the conditions for two spontaneous parametric down-conversion processes, namely, ordinary pump photon down conversion to either extraordinary signal and ordinary idler paired photons or to ordinary signal and extraordinary idler paired photons. In contrast to single type-II phase matching, these two processes, when enabled together, can lead to the direct production of cross-polarization-entangled states for nondegenerate signal and idler wavelengths. Such a scheme should be of great interest in applications requiring polarization-entangled nondegenerate paired photons with, for instance, one of the entangled photons at an appropriate wavelength being used for local operation or for quantum storage in an atomic ensemble and the other one at the typical wavelength of 1550 nm for propagation through an optical fiber.
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ABSTRACT: Up-conversion, or hybrid, detectors have been investigated in quantum communication experiments to replace Indium-Gallium-Arsenide avalanche photodiodes (InGaAs-APD) for the detection of infrared and telecom single photons. Those detectors are based on the supposedly noise-free process of frequency up-conversion, also called sum-frequency generation (SFG), using a second order ($\chi^2$) non-linear crystal. Powered by an intense pump laser, this process permits transposing with a certain probability the single photons at telecom wavelengths to the visible range where silicon APDs (Si-APD) operate with a much better performance than InGaAs detectors. To date, the literature reports up-conversion detectors having efficiency and noise figures comparable to that of the best commercially available IngaAs-APDs. However, in all of these previous realizations, a pump-induced noise is always observed which was initially expected to be as low as the dark count level of the Si-APDs. Although this additional noise represents a problem for the detection, up-conversion detectors have advantageously replaced InGaAs-APDs in various long-distance quantum cryptography schemes since they offer a continuous regime operation mode instead of a gated mode necessary for InGaAs-APDs, and the possibility of much higher counting rates. Despite attempted explanations, no detailed nor conclusive study of this noise has been reported.
The aim of this paper is to offer a definitive explanation for this noise. We first give a review of the state of the art by describing already demonstrated up-conversion detectors. We discuss these realizations especially regarding the choices made for the material, in bulk or guided configurations, the single photon wavelengths, and the pump scheme. Then we describe an original device made of waveguides integrated on periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN)or on single-domain lithium niobate aimed at investigating the origin of the additional pump-induced noise. The poled waveguides are designed to up-convert single photons at 1550 nm to 600 nm when a 980 nm diode laser is used as pump. We obtain an overall efficiency of about 0.6% for a noise level of about $8\times 10^3$ counts/s. This overall efficiency includes both insertion and propagation losses, and internal up-conversion and quantum detection (Si-APD) efficiencies. Despite a low efficiency value compared to what has been obtained so far by other groups, the efficiency/noise ratio is still comparable which still allows us investigating the noise issue.
From the spectrum obtained in both poled and non-poled waveguides we conclude that the noise comes from an alternative phase-matching scheme which permits creating paired photons at 1550 and 2700 nm wavelength by down-conversion of the 980 nm pump laser. Knowing that 1550 nm corresponds to the input signal wavelength, up-conversion of actual signal or pump-induced photons at this particular wavelength cannot be discriminated, therefore contributing to the noise at the final wavelength of 600 nm. We believe that this process of down-conversion of the pump laser to the signal wavelength (plus complementary wavelength) is responsible for the unexpected noise level reported in all the up-conversion detector realizations.
EAS Publications Series.
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ABSTRACT: We report on a two-photon interference experiment in a quantum relay configuration using two picosecond regime PPLN waveguide based sources emitting paired photons at 1550 nm. The results show that the picosecond regime associated with a guided-wave scheme should have important repercussions for quantum relay implementations in real conditions, essential for improving both the working distance and the efficiency of quantum cryptography and networking systems. In contrast to already reported regimes, namely femtosecond and CW, it allows achieving a 99% net visibility two-photon interference while maintaining a high effective photon pair rate using only standard telecom components and detectors.
Physical Review A: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics.
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ABSTRACT: Quantum communication is the art of transferring quantum states, or quantum bits of information (qubits), from one place to another. On the fundamental side, this allows one to distribute entanglement and demonstrate quantum nonlocality over significant distances. On the more applied side, quantum cryptography offers, for the first time in human history, a provably secure way to establish a confidential key between distant partners. Photons represent the natural flying qubit carriers for quantum communication, and the presence of telecom optical fibres makes the wavelengths of 1310 and 1550 nm particulary suitable for distribution over long distances. However, to store and process quantum information, qubits could be encoded into alkaline atoms that absorb and emit at around 800 nm wavelength. Hence, future quantum information networks made of telecom channels and alkaline memories will demand interfaces able to achieve qubit transfers between these useful wavelengths while preserving quantum coherence and entanglement. Here we report on a qubit transfer between photons at 1310 and 710 nm via a nonlinear up-conversion process with a success probability greater than 5%. In the event of a successful qubit transfer, we observe strong two-photon interference between the 710 nm photon and a third photon at 1550 nm, initially entangled with the 1310 nm photon, although they never directly interacted. The corresponding fidelity is higher than 98%.
Nature.
