No Arabic abstract
A setup to frequency-convert an arbitrary image encoded in the spatial profile of a probe field onto a signal field using four-wave mixing in a thermal atom vapor is proposed. The atomic motion is exploited to cancel diffraction of both signal and probe fields simultaneously. We show that an incoherent probe field can be used to enhance the transverse momentum bandwidth which can be propagated without diffraction, such that smaller structures with higher spatial resolution can be transmitted. It furthermore compensate linear absorption with non-linear gain, to improve the four-wave mixing performance since the propagation dynamics of the various field intensities is favorably modified.
Efficient frequency conversion of photons has important applications in optical quantum technology because the frequency range suitable for photon manipulation and communication usually varies widely. Recently, an efficient frequency conversion system using a double-$Lambda$ four-wave mixing (FWM) process based on electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) has attracted considerable attention because of its potential to achieve a nearly 100% conversion efficiency (CE). To obtain such a high CE, the spontaneous emission loss in this resonant-type FWM system must be suppressed considerably. A simple solution is to arrange the applied laser fields in a backward configuration. However, the phase mismatch due to this configuration can cause a significant decrease in CE. Here, we demonstrate that the phase mismatch can be effectively compensated by introducing the phase shift obtained by two-photon detuning. Under optimal conditions, we observe a wavelength conversion from 780 to 795 nm with a maximum CE of 91.2(6)% by using this backward FWM system at an optical depth of 130 in cold rubidium atoms. The current work represents an important step toward achieving low-loss, high-fidelity EIT-based quantum frequency conversion.
Using four-wave mixing in a hot atomic vapor, we generate a pair of entangled twin beams in the microsecond pulsed regime near the D1 line of $^{85}$Rb, making it compatible with commonly used quantum memory techniques. The beams are generated in the bright and vacuum-squeezed regimes, requiring two separate methods of analysis, without and with local oscillators, respectively. We report a noise reduction of up to $3.8pm 0.2$ dB below the standard quantum limit in the pulsed regime and a level of entanglement that violates an Einstein--Podolsky--Rosen inequality.
We develop a general Hamiltonian treatement of spontaneous four-wave mixing in a microring resonator side-coupled to a channel waveguide. The effect of scattering losses in the ring is included, as well as parasitic nonlinear effects including self- and cross-phase modulation. A procedure for computing the output of such a system for arbitrary parameters and pump states is presented. For the limit of weak pumping an expression for the joint spectral intensity of generated photon pairs, as well as the singles-to-coincidences ratio, is derived.
In this article, we use quantum Langevin equations to provide a theoretical understanding of the non-classical behavior of Kerr optical frequency combs when pumped below and above threshold. In the configuration where the system is under threshold, the pump field is the unique oscillating mode inside the resonator, and triggers the phenomenon of spontaneous four-wave mixing, where two photons from the pump are symmetrically up- and down-converted in the Fourier domain. This phenomenon can only be understood and analyzed from a fully quantum perspective as a consequence of the coupling between the field of the central (pumped) mode and the vacuum fluctuations of the various sidemodes. We analytically calculate the power spectra of the spontaneous emission noise, and we show that these spectra can be either single- or double peaked depending on the parameters of the system. We also calculate as well the overall spontaneous noise power per sidemode, and propose simplified analytical expressions for some particular cases. In the configuration where the system is pumped above threshold, we investigate the phenomena of quantum correlations and multimode squeezed states of light that can occur in the Kerr frequency combs originating from stimulated four-wave mixing. We show that for all stationary spatio-temporal patterns, the side-modes that are symmetrical relatively to the pumped mode in the frequency domain display quantum correlations that can lead to squeezed states of light. We also explicitly determine the phase quadratures leading to photon entanglement, and analytically calculate their quantum noise spectra. We finally discuss the relevance of Kerr combs for quantum information systems at optical telecommunication wavelengths, below and above threshold.
We observed electromagnetically-induced-transparency-based four-wave mixing (FWM) in the pulsed regime at low light levels. The FWM conversion efficiency of 3.8(9)% was observed in a four-level system of cold 87Rb atoms using a driving laser pulse with a peak intensity of approximately 80 {mu}W/cm^2, corresponding to an energy of approximately 60 photons per atomic cross section. Comparison between the experimental data and the theoretical predictions proposed by Harris and Hau [Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 4611 (1999)] showed good agreement. Additionally, a high conversion efficiency of 46(2)% was demonstrated when applying this scheme using a driving laser intensity of approximately 1.8 mW/cm^2. According to our theoretical predictions, this FWM scheme can achieve a conversion efficiency of nearly 100% when using a dense medium with an optical depth of 500.