Fast and highly resolved capture of the joint spectral density of photon pairs

Bin Fang,Marco Liscidini,Offir Cohen,John E. Sipe,Virginia O. Lorenz

doi:10.1364/optica.1.000281

Abstract

Controlling the spatial and spectral–temporal properties of photon pairs produced in artificially structured materials is fundamental to the realization of numerous photonic quantum information applications. Tailoring the joint spectral properties of photon pairs is of particular importance for applications relying on time–energy entanglement, high-visibility interference, and heralding. Yet measuring the joint spectral properties is a time-consuming task requiring coincidence counting, typically resulting in low-resolution spectra with a poor signal-to-noise ratio. In this work we capture the joint spectral correlations of photon pairs that would be produced in optical fibers with unprecedented speed, resolution, and signal-to-noise ratio, using a scheme based on stimulated four-wave mixing. We also illustrate that this technique can be used in engineering joint spectral correlations, making it a powerful tool for studying quantum states.

Highlights

Some of the most promising strategies for enabling quantum information applications rely on photonic quantum states produced in artificially structured materials
The design of the joint spectral properties of photon pairs [12,13,14] is of particular importance, as many protocols rely on specific types of spectral correlations, such as strongly correlated photons for time–energy entanglement [15] and uncorrelated photons for high-visibility interference and heralding [16]
We use stimulated four-wave mixing to capture, with unprecedented speed and resolution, the joint spectral density (JSD) of photon pairs that would be generated by spontaneous four-wave mixing (SFWM) in an optical fiber

Summary

Introduction

Some of the most promising strategies for enabling quantum information applications rely on photonic quantum states produced in artificially structured materials. Measurement of the properties of the joint spectral amplitude and its magnitude [12,17,18,19,20] has been nontrivial, typically relying on single-photon detection, which results in slow characterization and low resolution. We use stimulated four-wave mixing to capture, with unprecedented speed and resolution, the joint spectral density (JSD) of photon pairs that would be generated by SFWM in an optical fiber.

Results

Conclusion