An extremely low-noise heralded single-photon source: A breakthrough for quantum technologies

Brida, G.; Degiovanni, I. P.; Genovese, M.; Piacentini, Fabrizio; Traina, P.; Frera, Adriano Della; Tosi, Alberto; Shehata, Andrea Bahgat; Scarcella, Carmelo; Gulinatti, Angelo; Ghioni, M.; Polyakov, Sergey V.; Migdall, Alan L.; Giudice, Andrea

doi:10.1063/1.4768288

Cited by 65 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…In our experimental setup, heralding photons are detected by an old-generation SSPD showing a η D ≃ 0.17. This value is well below the detection efficiency of Si-APDs used in many previous experiments [9,11,13,25] non-degenerate emission of pairs of photon with heralding photons in the visible and NIR range of wavelengths. At the same time, we note that new generation SSPDs shows now quantum efficiency at telecom wavelength as high as 90% [26,27].…”

mentioning

confidence: 77%

Ultra-fast heralded single photon source based on telecom technology

Ngah

Alibart

Labonté

et al. 2015

Laser & Photonics Reviews

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The realization of an ultra-fast source of heralded single photons emitted at the wavelength of 1540 nm is reported. The presented strategy is based on state-of-the-art telecom technology, combined with off-the-shelf fiber components and waveguide non-linear stages pumped by a 10 GHz repetition rate laser. The single photons are heralded at a rate as high as 2.1 MHz with a heralding efficiency of 42%. Single photon character of the source is inferred by measuring the second-order autocorrelation function. For the highest heralding rate, a value as low as 0.023 is found. This not only proves negligible multi-photon contributions but also represents the best measured value reported to date for heralding rates in the MHz regime. These prime performances, associated with a device-like configuration, are key ingredients for both fast and secure quantum communication protocols.The reliable generation of single photon states is crucial for a wide variety of quantum optical technologies, ranging from quantum computation and communication [1,2] to quantum metrology and detector calibration [3,4]. As an example, the use of single photon states is essential in quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols, where the unintended presence of more than one photon per time window can be exploited by an eavesdropper to extract part of the information [5].Ideal sources should be able to emit indistinguishable single photons in a deterministic way, at an arbitrarily high repetition rate and with zero probability of multiphoton emissions [1]. In particular, the request of ultrafast photon sources is mandatory to speed up data exchanges in quantum communication protocols. In anticipation to such optimal cases, a pertinent alternative is represented by heralded single photon sources (HSPS), where the detection of one photon of two simultaneously generated is used to herald the emission time of the second one [1,6]. In such schemes, the produced single photons rate is proportional to the detected heralding photon one, R H , and to the heralding efficiency, P 1 , namely, the probability of observing one heralded photon per heralding event. We note that, in experiments, the value of P 1 is essentially determined by optical losses [6].In the original and most common implementations, pairs of simultaneous photons are generated in nonlinear crystals via spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC) of a pump beam [6]. In particular, an accurate choice of the phase matching can lead to the production of photons at telecom wavelength, as required for long distance transmission in optical fibers [7,8]. SPDC being a probabilistic process, a way to obtain high photon rates is to increase the probability of generating the photon pairs as well as the photon transmission after the SPDC crystal. Accordingly, in the last years, many papers have been focusing on the realization of bright SPDC sources [9,10] and much effort has been made towards optimizing paired photon collection, separation and prop- * Corresponding author: virginia.dauria@unice.fr agati...

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confidence: 77%

Ultra-fast heralded single photon source based on telecom technology

Ngah

Alibart

Labonté

et al. 2015

Laser & Photonics Reviews

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“…A P 1 ≈ 0.37 was measured with a g (2) (0) = 0.08 for a heralding rate on the order of 100 kHz. An interesting review of heralded single photon sources for quantum communication technology is available in [163] for an exhaustive list of realizations and it is worth mentioning an original work from a collaboration between US and Italian groups for developing an extremely low-noise heralded single-photon source [164] exploiting a PPLN/W.…”

Section: Heralded Single Photon Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantum photonics at telecom wavelengths based on lithium niobate waveguides

Alibart¹,

D’Auria²,

Micheli³

et al. 2016

J. Opt.

168

116

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Integrated optical components on lithium niobate play a major role in standard high-speed communication systems. Over the last two decades, after the birth and positioning of quantum information science, lithium niobate waveguide architectures have emerged as one of the key platforms for enabling photonics quantum technologies. Due to mature technological processes for waveguide structure integration, as well as inherent and efficient properties for nonlinear optical effects, lithium niobate devices are nowadays at the heart of many photon-pair or triplet sources, single-photon detectors, coherent wavelength-conversion interfaces, and quantum memories. Consequently, they find applications in advanced and complex quantum communication systems, where compactness, stability, efficiency, and interconnectability with other guided-wave technologies are required. In this review paper, we first introduce the material aspects of lithium niobate, and subsequently discuss all of the above mentioned quantum components, ranging from standard photon-pair sources to more complex and advanced circuits.

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“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] Diamond is a promising platform for the development of single-photon emitters, due to a remarkable variety of luminescent defects 8,9 with appealing emission properties combined with the broad spectral transparency of the hosting crystal structure. The negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (NVÀ) complex had a prominent role in the development of the¯rst diamond-based single-photon emitters [10][11][12] due to its abundance, quantum e±ciency and well understood electronic transition structure.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Single-photon emitters based on NIR color centers in diamond coupled with solid immersion lenses

Monticone

Forneris

Levi

et al. 2014

Int. J. Quantum Inform.

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Single-photon sources represent a key enabling technology in quantum optics, and single color centers in diamond are a promising platform to serve this purpose, due to their high quantum efficiency and photostability at room temperature. The widely studied nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers are characterized by several limitations, thus other defects have recently been considered, with a specific focus of centers emitting in the near-infra red (NIR). In the present work, we report on the coupling of native NIR-emitting centers in high-quality single-crystal diamond with solid immersion lens (SIL) structures fabricated by focused ion beam (FIB) lithography. The reported improvements in terms of light collection efficiency make the proposed system an ideal platform for the development of single-photon emitters with appealing photophysical and spectral properties

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An extremely low-noise heralded single-photon source: A breakthrough for quantum technologies

Cited by 65 publications

References 29 publications

Ultra-fast heralded single photon source based on telecom technology

Ultra-fast heralded single photon source based on telecom technology

Quantum photonics at telecom wavelengths based on lithium niobate waveguides

Single-photon emitters based on NIR color centers in diamond coupled with solid immersion lenses

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