Single-photon Mode Research Articles

Full-Field Quantum Correlations of Spatially Entangled Photons

Spatially entangled twin photons allow the study of high-dimensional entanglement, and the Laguerre-Gauss modes are the most commonly used basis to discretize the single-photon mode spaces. In this basis, to date only the azimuthal degree of freedom has been investigated experimentally due to its fundamental and experimental simplicity. We show that the full spatial entanglement is indeed accessible experimentally; i.e., we have found practicable radial detection modes with negligible cross correlations. This allows us to demonstrate hybrid azimuthal-radial quantum correlations in a Hilbert space with more than 100 dimensions per photon.

Experimental verification of improved effective index method for endlessly single mode photonic crystal fiber

We report the experimental verification of Improved Effective Index Method (IEIM) for Endlessly Single Mode Photonic Crystal Fibers (ESM PCFs) from far field intensity measurements. In this paper all the key parameters i.e. V-Number, effective refractive index of the cladding, radius of the core and numerical aperture have been obtained from the experimentally measured far-field intensity pattern of ESM-PCFs. It is shown that the transmission characteristics of ESM-PCFs match with the simulation result obtained using IEIM and also with the core diameter of PCF obtained from scanning electron microscope (SEM) within the experimental limit.

Regimes of strong light-matter coupling under incoherent excitation

We study a two-level system (atom, superconducting qubit or quantum dot) strongly coupled to the single photonic mode of a cavity, in the presence of incoherent pumping and including detuning and dephasing. This system displays a striking quantum to classical transition. On the grounds of several approximations that reproduce to various degrees exact results obtained numerically, we separate five regimes of operations, that we term "linear", "quantum", "lasing", "quenching" and "thermal". In the fully quantized picture, the lasing regime arises as a condensation of dressed states and manifests itself as a Mollow triplet structure in the direct emitter photoluminescence spectrum, which embeds fundamental features of the full-field quantization description of light-matter interactions.

Nonclassicality of Single-Variable Hermite Polynomial State and Its Fidelity with Squeezed Vacuum State

The nonclassicality of the single-variable Hermite polynomial state (SHPS) and its fidelity with squeezed vacuum state are studied in this paper. It is found that the SHPS can be considered as a single mode photon subtracted squeezed vacuum state. A compact expression for the Wigner function (WF) is also derived analytically by using the Weyl-ordered operator invariance under similar transformations. Especially, the nonclassicality is discussed in terms of the negativity of the WF. At last, the fidelity as a non-Gaussianity measure for this state is also discussed.

Mode Selectivity in Bragg Reflection Waveguide Lasers

Bragg reflection waveguides (BRWs) have recently been proposed for the development of high performance single mode lasers and nonlinear frequency conversion devices. In this letter, we experimentally demonstrate single transverse photonic bandgap mode operation in a large core BRW laser with low threshold current density (~594 A/cm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> ) and high characteristic temperature (T <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0</sub> ~ 175 K). The mode selectivity is examined theoretically using the effective index method and experimentally via far field and gain spectra measurements. Mode competition is found to take place among the lateral modes despite the optical thickness of the core layer being larger than the wavelength.

Giant mesoscopic photoconductance fluctuations in Ge/Si quantum dot system

We studied the impact of weak photon flux on the electron transport in strongly localized quantum dot system. Exploring devices with narrow transport channels lead to the observation of giant fluctuations of the photoconductance, which is attributed to the strong dependence of hopping current on the filling of dots by holes. This phenomenon has the potential to detect a single photoexcited carrier for a wide range of wavelength. In our experiments, single-photon mode operation is indicated by the linear dependence of the frequency of photoinduced fluctuations on the light intensity and the steplike response of conductance on the pulse excitation.

Time-resolved luminescence of the coupled quantum dot–microcavity system: general theory

The general theory of the time-resolved luminescence of the coupled system consisting of a single-mode microcavity and a two-level quantum dot containing one electron placed inside this microcavity is presented. It is based on the study of the time evolution of the density matrix of a larger system consisting of one electron in the two-level quantum dot, single-mode photons in the microcavity and external photons in a spatial region in which the emitted photons are detected. The decoherence of the system is taken into account in the Markov approximation. The explicit analytical form of the time dependence of the intensity of the emitted photon beam is established. It depends not only on the physical parameters of the system but also contains the matrix elements determining the initial condition of the luminescence process.

Quantum phase measurement and Gauss sum factorization of large integers in a superconducting circuit

We study the implementation of quantum phase measurement in a superconducting circuit, where two Josephson phase qubits are coupled to the photon field inside a resonator. We show that the relative phase of the superposition of two Fock states can be imprinted in one of the qubits. The qubit can thus be used to probe and store the quantum coherence of two distinguishable Fock states of the single-mode photon field inside the resonator. The effects of dissipation of the photon field on the phase detection are investigated. We find that the visibilities can be greatly enhanced if the Kerr nonlinearity is exploited. We also show that the phase measurement method can be used to perform the Gauss sum factorization of numbers (${\geq} 10^4$) into a product of prime integers, as well as to precisely measure both the resonator's frequency and the nonlinear interaction strength. The largest factorizable number is mainly limited by the coherence time. If the relaxation time of the resonator were to be ${\sim} 10$ $\mu$s (${\sim} 1$ ms), then the largest factorizable number can be ${\geq} 10^4N$ (${\geq} 10^{7}N$), where $N$ is the number of photons in the resonator.

Geometric Phase in the Interaction System of Multi-atom in Micro-cavity with Single-mode Photon Field

By using the Lewis-Riesenfeld invariant theory, we have studied the dynamical and the geometric phases in the interaction system of multi-atom in micro-cavity with single-mode photon field. We find that the geometric phases in a cycle case have nothing to do with the frequency of the photon field, the coupling coefficient between photons and atoms, and the atom transition frequency.

Bridging visible and telecom wavelengths with a single-mode broadband photon pair source

We present a spectrally decorrelated photon pair source bridging the visible and telecom wavelength regions. Tailored design and fabrication of a solid-core photonic crystal fiber (PCF) lead to the emission of signal and idler photons into only a single spectral and spatial mode. Thus no narrowband filtering is necessary and the heralded generation of pure photon number states in ultrafast wave packets at telecom wavelengths becomes possible.

Up on the Jaynes–Cummings ladder of a quantum-dot/microcavity system

In spite of their different natures, light and matter can be unified under the strong-coupling regime, yielding superpositions of the two, referred to as dressed states or polaritons. After initially being demonstrated in bulk semiconductors and atomic systems, strong-coupling phenomena have been recently realized in solid-state optical microcavities. Strong coupling is an essential ingredient in the physics spanning from many-body quantum coherence phenomena, such as Bose-Einstein condensation and superfluidity, to cavity quantum electrodynamics. Within cavity quantum electrodynamics, the Jaynes-Cummings model describes the interaction of a single fermionic two-level system with a single bosonic photon mode. For a photon number larger than one, known as quantum strong coupling, a significant anharmonicity is predicted for the ladder-like spectrum of dressed states. For optical transitions in semiconductor nanostructures, first signatures of the quantum strong coupling were recently reported. Here we use advanced coherent nonlinear spectroscopy to explore a strongly coupled exciton-cavity system. We measure and simulate its four-wave mixing response, granting direct access to the coherent dynamics of the first and second rungs of the Jaynes-Cummings ladder. The agreement of the rich experimental evidence with the predictions of the Jaynes-Cummings model is proof of the quantum strong-coupling regime in the investigated solid-state system.

Strong Field Interactions between a Nanomagnet and a Photonic Cavity

We analyze the interaction of a nanomagnet (ferromagnetic) with a single photonic mode of a cavity in a fully quantum-mechanical treatment and find that exceptionally large quantum-coherent magnet-photon coupling can be achieved. Coupling terms in excess of several THz are predicted to be achievable in a spherical cavity of approximately 1 mm radius with a nanomagnet of approximately 100 nm radius and ferromagnetic resonance frequency of approximately 200 GHz. Eigenstates of the magnet-photon system correspond to entangled states of spin orientation and photon number, in which over 10{5} values of each quantum number are represented; conversely, initial (coherent) states of definite spin and photon number evolve dynamically to produce large oscillations in the microwave power (and nanomagnet spin orientation), and are characterized by exceptionally long dephasing times.

Imaginary Photon Field Effect in the Interaction System of Multi-atom with Single-mode Photon Field

By using the Lewis–Riesenfeld invariant theory, we have studied the dynamical and the geometric phases in the interaction system of multi-atom with single-mode photon field with imaginary photon process. We find that the geometric phases in a cycle case have nothing to do with the frequency of the photon field, the coupling coefficient between photons and atoms, and the atom transition frequency. If we use the more accuracy device, the geometric phases in the imaginary photon process may be observed, and the geometric phases in this process have the observable physical effect.

Polariton lasing in a multilevel quantum dot strongly coupled to a single photon mode

We present an approximate analytic expression for the photoluminescence spectral function of a model polariton system, which describes a quantum dot, with a finite number of fermionic levels, strongly interacting with the lowest photon mode of a pillar microcavity. Energy eigenvalues and wavefunctions of the electron-hole-photon system are obtained by numerically diagonalizing the Hamiltonian. Pumping and photon losses through the cavity mirrors are described with a master equation, which is solved in order to determine the stationary density matrix. The photon first-order correlation function, from which the spectral function is found, is computed with the help of the Quantum Regression Theorem. The spectral function qualitatively describes the polariton lasing regime in the model, corresponding to pumping rates two orders of magnitude lower than those needed for ordinary (photon) lasing. The second-order coherence functions for the photon and the electron-hole subsystems are computed as functions of the pumping rate.

Generation efficiency of single-photon current pulses in the Geiger mode of silicon avalanche photodiodes

Statistical fluctuations of the avalanche’s multiplication efficiency were studied as applied to the single-photon (Geiger) mode of avalanche photodiodes. The distribution function of partial multiplication factors with an anomalously wide (of the order of the average) dispersion was obtained. Expressions for partial feedback factors were derived in terms of the average gain and the corresponding dependences on the diode’s overvoltage were calculated. Final expressions for the photon-electric pulse’s conversion were derived by averaging corresponding formulas over the coordinate of initiating photoelectron generation using the functions of optical photon absorption in silicon.

Single-mode photon number measurement for the squeezed two-mode number state

Based on the fact that a two-mode squeezed number state is a two-variable Hermite polynomial excitation of the two-mode squeezed vacuum state, the result of one-mode l-photon measurement for the two-mode squeezed number state S2|m, n⟩ is discussed. It is found that a remaining field-mode simultaneously collapses into a number state |n – m + l⟩ with the coefficient being a Jacobi polynomial of n, m and l, which manifestly exhibits the entanglement between the two modes, i.e. it depends on the number-difference between the two modes. The second mode collapses into an excited coherent state when the first mode is measured as a coherent state.

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We present an efficient and highly alignment-tolerant light coupling and distribution system for a multichannel Si3N4/SiO2 single-mode photonics sensing chip. The design of the input and output couplers and the distribution splitters is discussed. Examples of multichannel data obtained with the system are given.

Ge–Si separate absorption and multiplication avalanche photodiode for Geiger mode single photon detection

A Ge–Si separate absorption and multiplication avalanche photodiode (SAM-APD) is reported. The structure is grown using a low temperature in situ clean and epitaxy process, Tinsitu and Tepitaxy&amp;lt;∼460°C, resulting in a Ge layer with a dislocation density of ∼5×1010cm−2. The SAM-APD has a responsivity of 3.2×10−4A∕W (1310nm) and a dark current density at punch-through of 0.2mA∕cm2. In Geiger mode (GM) at 206K, the dark count rates (DCRs) are ∼280kHz, which is within an order of magnitude of DCR reported for InGaAs∕InP GM APDs despite the high defect density in the Ge.

The analysis of the integral gated mode single photon detector

This paper critically analyses and simulates the circuit configuration of the integral gated mode single photon detector which is proposed for eliminating the transient spikes problem of conventional gated mode single photon detector. The relationship between the values of the circuit elements and the effect of transient spikes cancellation has been obtained. With particular emphasis, the bias voltage of the avalanche photodiode and the output signal voltage of the integrator have been calculated. The obtained analysis results indicate that the output signal voltage of the integrator only relates to the total quantity of electricity of the avalanche charges by choosing the correct values of the circuit elements and integral time interval. These results can be used to optimize the performance of single photon detectors and provide guides for the design of single photon detectors.

Higgs boson decays into single photon plus unparticle

The decay of the standard model Higgs boson into a single photon and a vector unparticle through a one-loop process is studied. For an intermediate-mass Higgs boson, this single photon plus unparticle mode can have a branching ratio comparable with the two-photon discovery mode. The emitted photon has a continuous energy spectrum encoding the nature of the recoil unparticle. It can be measured in precision studies of the Higgs boson after its discovery.