No Arabic abstract
We theoretically and numerically investigate the temperature-dependent properties of the biphotons generated from four isomorphs of periodically poled $mathrm{KTiOPO_4}$ (PPKTP): i.e., PPRTP, PPKTA, PPRTA and PPCTA. It is discovered that the first type of group-velocity-matched (GVM) wavelength is decreased by 6.4, 1.2, 8.9, 25.6 and 6.3 nm, while the phase-matched wavelength is decreased by 4.4, -0.4, -1.2, 29.1 and 59.5 nm for PPKTP, PPRTP, PPKTA, PPRTA and PPCTA, respectively, when the temperature is increased from 20$,^{circ}mathrm{C}$ to 120$,^{circ}mathrm{C}$. Although the maximal spectral purity of the heralded single photons is not changed at different temperature, the Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) interference shows different patterns due to a shift of the joint spectral amplitude. These thermal effects are very important for precise control of the quantum state for the future applications in quantum information processing, for example, in quantum interference or spectroscopy.
Highly efficient terahertz (THz) wave sources based on difference frequency generation (DFG) process in nonlinear optical crystals play an important role for the applications of THz wave. In order to find more novel nonlinear crystals, here we theoretically investigate the generation of THz wave using the isomorphs of periodically poled $mathrm{KTiOPO_4}$ (PPKTP), including periodically poled RTP, KTA, RTA and CTA. By solving the cascaded difference frequency coupled wave equations, it is found that the intensities of the THz wave generated from the cascaded difference frequency processes are improved by 5.27, 2.87, 2.82, 3.03, and 2.76 times from the non-cascaded cases for KTP, RTP, KTA, RTA and CTA, respectively. The effects of the crystal absorption, the phase mismatch and the pump intensity are also analyzed in detail. This study might help to provide a stronger THz radiation source based on the nonlinear crystals.
Spectrally intrinsically uncorrelated biphoton states generated from nonlinear crystals are very important but rare resources for quantum photonics and quantum information applications. Previously, such biphoton states were generated from several kinds of crystals, however, their wavelength ranges and nonlinear efficiencies were still limited for various applications. In order to explore new crystal for wider wavelength range and higher nonlinear efficiency, here we theoretically study the generation of spectrally uncorrelated biphoton states from 14 crystals in the `BBO family, including BBO, CLBO, KABO, KBBF, RBBF, CBBF, BABF, BiBO, LBO, CBO, LRB4, LCB, YCOB, and GdCOB. They satisfy three kinds of group-velocity matching condition from near-infrared to telecom wavelengths. Furthermore, heralded single photons can be generated with a purity as high as 0.98, which is achieved without any narrow filtering. The indistinguishability of photons from independent sources is examined by the Hong-Ou-Mandel interference, which results in a visibility of 98% also without any further filtering, i.e., photons from different heralded single-photon sources are highly indistinguishable. Our study may provide single-photon sources with good performance for quantum information processing at near-infrared and telecom wavelengths.
Spectrally uncorrelated biphoton state generated from the spontaneous nonlinear optical process is an important resource for quantum information. Currently such spectrally uncorrelated biphoton state can only be prepared from limited kinds of nonlinear media, thus limiting their wavelengths. In order to explore wider wavelength range, here we theoretically study the generation of spectrally uncorrelated biphoton state from 14 isomorphs of potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) crystal. We find that 11 crystals from the `KDP family still maintain similar nonlinear optical properties of KDP, such as KDP, DKDP, ADP, DADP, ADA, DADA, RDA, DRDA, RDP, DRDP and KDA, which satisfy 3 kinds of the group-velocity matching conditions for spectrally uncorrelated biphoton state generation from near-infrared to telecom wavelengths. Based on the uncorrelated biphoton state, we investigate the generation of heralded pure-state single photon by detecting one member of the biphoton state to herald the output of the other. The purity of the heralded single photon is as high as 0.98 without using a narrow-band filter; the Hong-Ou-Mandel interference from independent sources can also achieve a visibility of 98%. This study may provide more and better single-photon sources for quantum information processing at near-infrared and telecom wavelengths.
We experimentally demonstrate the steady-state generation of propagating Wigner-negative states from a continuously driven superconducting qubit. We reconstruct the Wigner function of the radiation emitted into propagating modes defined by their temporal envelopes, using digital filtering. For an optimized temporal filter, we observe a large Wigner logarithmic negativity, in excess of 0.08, in agreement with theory. The fidelity between the theoretical predictions and the states generated experimentally is up to 99%, reaching state-of-the-art realizations in the microwave frequency domain. Our results provide a new way to generate and control nonclassical states, and may enable promising applications such as quantum networks and quantum computation based on waveguide quantum electrodynamics.
We demonstrate pulsed polarization-entangled photons generated from a periodically poled $mathrm{KTiOPO_4}$ (PPKTP) crystal in a Sagnac interferometer configuration at telecom wavelength. Since the group-velocity-matching (GVM) condition is satisfied, the intrinsic spectral purity of the photons is much higher than in the previous scheme at around 800 nm wavelength. The combination of a Sagnac interferometer and the GVM-PPKTP crystal makes our entangled source compact, stable, highly entangled, spectrally pure and ultra-bright. The photons were detected by two superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPDs) with detection efficiencies of 70% and 68% at dark counts of less than 1 kcps. We achieved fidelities of 0.981 $pm$ 0.0002 for $left| {psi ^ -} rightrangle$ and 0.980 $pm$ 0.001 for $left| {psi ^ +} rightrangle$ respectively. This GVM-PPKTP-Sagnac scheme is directly applicable to quantum communication experiments at telecom wavelength, especially in free space.