Quantum optical synthesis in 2D time–frequency space

Rui-Bo Jin,Fumihiro China,Shigehito Miki,Kaoru Minoshima,Masahiro Yabuno,Kurumi Tazawa,Naoto Asamura,Hirotaka Terai,Ryosuke Shimizu

doi:10.1063/5.0059895

Abstract

Conventional optical synthesis, the manipulation of the phase and amplitude of spectral components to produce an optical pulse in different temporal modes, is revolutionizing ultrafast optical science and metrology. These technologies rely on the Fourier transform of light fields between time and frequency domains in one-dimensional space. However, within this treatment it is impossible to incorporate the quantum correlation among photons. Here we expand the Fourier synthesis into high dimensional space to deal with the quantum correlation, and carry out an experimental demonstration by manipulating the two-photon probability distribution of a biphoton in two-dimensional time and frequency space. As a potential application, we show manipulation of a heralded single-photon wave packet, which is never explained by the conventional one-dimensional Fourier optics. Our approach opens up a new pathway to tailor the temporal characteristics of a biphoton wave packet with high dimensional quantum-mechanical treatment. We anticipate such high dimensional treatment of light in time and frequency domains could bridge the research fields between quantum optics and ultrafast optical measurements.

Highlights

The invention of mode-locked lasers opened the door for ultrafast optical science and technology in the femtosecond region
Thanks to the GVM condition with femtosecond pulse pumping,23 the down-converted biphotons have an elliptical distribution along the diagonal direction in the frequency domain and along the anti-diagonal direction in the time domain, as shown on the left of Fig. 1(b)
After passing twice through the dual wave plate (DWP), the y(z)-polarized photon is interchanged with a z(y)-polarized photon, but the pump pulse is unchanged

Summary

Introduction

The invention of mode-locked lasers opened the door for ultrafast optical science and technology in the femtosecond region. We present a proof-of-concept demonstration of QOS by manipulating the amplitude and phase of the spectral distribution of biphotons in 2D frequency space and by directly observing the temporal distribution in 2D time space.

Results

Conclusion