No Arabic abstract
The progress in building large quantum states and networks requires sophisticated detection techniques to verify the desired operation. To achieve this aim, a cost- and resource-efficient detection method is the time multiplexing of photonic states. This design is assumed to be efficiently scalable; however, it is restricted by inevitable losses and limited detection efficiencies. Here, we investigate the scalability of time-multiplexed detectors under the effects of fiber dispersion and losses. We use the distinguishability of Fock states up to $n=20$ after passing the time-multiplexed detector as our figure of merit and find that, for realistic setup efficiencies of $eta=0.85$, the optimal size for time-multiplexed detectors is 256 bins.
An on-demand single-photon source is a key requirement for scaling many optical quantum technologies. A promising approach to realize an on-demand single-photon source is to multiplex an array of heralded single-photon sources using an active optical switching network. However, the performance of multiplexed sources is degraded by photon loss in the optical components and the non-unit detection efficiency of the heralding detectors. We provide a theoretical description of a general multiplexed single-photon source with lossy components and derive expressions for the output probabilities of single-photon emission and multi-photon contamination. We apply these expressions to three specific multiplexing source architectures and consider their tradeoffs in design and performance. To assess the effect of lossy components on near- and long-term experimental goals, we simulate the multiplexed sources when used for many-photon state generation under various amounts of component loss. We find that with a multiplexed source composed of switches with ~0.2-0.4 dB loss and high efficiency number-resolving detectors, a single-photon source capable of efficiently producing 20-40 photon states with low multi-photon contamination is possible, offering the possibility of unlocking new classes of experiments and technologies.
High-flux entangled photon source is the key resource for quantum optical study and application. Here it is realized in a lithium niobate on isolator (LNOI) chip, with 2.79*10^11 Hz/mW photon pair rate and 1.53*10^9 Hz/nm/mW spectral brightness. These data are boosted by over two orders of magnitude compared to existing technologies. A 130-nm broad bandwidth is engineered for 8-channel multiplexed energy-time entanglement. Harnessed by high-extinction frequency correlation and Franson interferences up to 99.17% visibility, such energy-time entanglement multiplexing further enhances high-flux data rate, and warrants broad applications in quantum information processing on a chip.
A promising result from optical quantum metrology is the ability to achieve sub-shot-noise performance in transmission or absorption measurements. This is due to the significantly lower uncertainty in light intensity of quantum beams with respect to their classical counterparts. In this work, we simulate the outcome of an experiment that uses a multiplexed single-photon source based on pair generation by continuous spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC) followed by a time multiplexing set-up with a binary temporal division strategy, considering several types of experimental losses. With such source, the sub-Poissonian statistics of the output signal is the key for achieving sub-shot-noise performance. We compare the numerical results with two paradigmatic limits: the shot-noise limit (achieved using coherent sources) and the quantum limit (obtained with an ideal photon-number Fock state as the input source). We also investigate conditions in which threshold detectors can be used, and the effect of input light fluctuations on the measurement error. Results show that sub-shot-noise performance can be achieved, even without using number-resolving detectors, with improvement factors that range from 1.5 to 2. This technique would allow measurements of optical absorption of a sample with reasonable uncertainty using ultra-low light intensity and minimum disruption of biological or other fragile specimens.
Detectors inherently capable of resolving photon numbers have undergone a significant development recently, and this is expected to affect multiplexed periodic single-photon sources where such detectors can find their applications. We analyze various spatially and time-multiplexed periodic single-photon source arrangements with photon-number-resolving detectors, partly to identify the cases when they outperform those with threshold detectors. We develop a full statistical description of these arrangements in order to optimize such systems with respect to maximal single-photon probability, taking into account all relevant loss mechanisms. The model is suitable for the description of all spatial and time multiplexing schemes. Our detailed analysis of symmetric spatial multiplexing identifies a particular range of loss parameters in which the use of the new type of detectors leads to an improvement. Photon number resolution opens an additional possibility for optimizing the system in that the heralding strategy can be defined in terms of actual detected photon numbers. Our results show that this kind of optimization opens an additional parameter range of improved efficiency. Moreover, this higher efficiency can be achieved by using less multiplexed units, i.e., smaller system size as compared to threshold-detector schemes. We also extend our investigation to certain time-multiplexed schemes of actual experimental relevance. We find that the highest single-photon probability is 0.907 that can be achieved by binary bulk time multiplexers using photon-number-resolving detectors.
Single-photon detectors are widely used in modern quantum optics experiments and applications. Like all detectors, it is important for these devices to be accurately calibrated. A single-photon detector is calibrated by determining its detection efficiency; the standard method to measure this quantity requires comparison to another detector. Here, we suggest a method to measure the detection efficiency of a single photon detector without requiring an external reference detector. Our method is valid for individual single-photon detectors as well as multiplexed detectors, which are known to be photon number resolving. The method exploits the photon-number correlations of a nonlinear source, as well as the nonlinear loss of a single photon detector that occurs when multiple photons are detected simultaneously. We have analytically modeled multiplexed detectors and used the results to experimentally demonstrate calibration of a single photon detector without the need for an external reference detector.