Energy-time entanglement generation in optical fibers under CW pumping

Long-distance temporal quantum ghost imaging over optical fibers

Since the first quantum ghost imaging (QGI) experiment in 1995, many QGI schemes have been put forward. However, the position-position or momentum-momentum correlation required in these QGI schemes cannot be distributed over optical fibers, which limits their large-scale geographical applications. In this paper, we propose and demonstrate a scheme for long-distance QGI utilizing frequency correlated photon pairs. In this scheme, the frequency correlation is transformed to the correlation between the illuminating position of one photon and the arrival time of the other photon, by which QGI can be realized in the time domain. Since frequency correlation can be preserved when the photon pairs are distributed over optical fibers, this scheme provides a way to realize long-distance QGI over large geographical scale. In the experiment, long-distance QGI over 50 km optical fibers has been demonstrated.

Broadband photon pair generation in green fluorescent proteins through spontaneous four-wave mixing

Recent studies in quantum biology suggest that quantum mechanics help us to explore quantum processes in biological system. Here, we demonstrate generation of photon pairs through spontaneous four-wave mixing process in naturally occurring fluorescent proteins. We develop a general empirical method for analyzing the relative strength of nonlinear optical interaction processes in five different organic fluorophores. Our results indicate that the generation of photon pairs in green fluorescent proteins is subject to less background noises than in other fluorophores, leading to a coincidence-to-accidental ratio ~145. As such proteins can be genetically engineered and fused to many biological cells, our experiment enables a new platform for quantum information processing in a biological environment such as biomimetic quantum networks and quantum sensors.

Color controllable polarization entanglement generation in optical fiber at telecommunication wavelengths

This article proposes a polarized entangled photon source in optical fiber with low Raman noise that features the controllable generation of specific signal and idler wavelengths (colors) by varying the pump power. The novel two color source can provide needed telecom entangled photon wavelengths for applications in quantum communications, quantum computing, and quantum imaging.

Generation of hyper-entanglement in polarization/energy-time and discrete-frequency/energy-time in optical fibers

In this paper, a generation scheme for telecom band hyper-entanglement is proposed and demonstrated based on the vector spontaneous four wave mixing (SFWM) processes in optical fibers. Two kinds of two-photon states are generated, one is hyper-entangled in the degree of freedoms (DOFs) of energy-time and polarization, the other is hyper-entangled in DOFs of energy-time and discrete-frequency. Experiments of Franson-type interference, two-photon interference under non-orthogonal polarization bases and spatial quantum beating are realized to demonstrate the entanglement in energy-time, polarization and frequency, respectively. This scheme provides a simple way to realize telecom band hyper-entanglement, which has potential for large geographic-scale applications of quantum communication and quantum information over optical fibers.

Generation of hyper-entanglement on polarization and energy-time based on a silicon micro-ring cavity

In this paper, hyper-entanglement on polarization and energy-time is generated based on a silicon micro-ring cavity. The silicon micro-ring cavity is placed in a fiber loop connected by a polarization beam splitter. Photon pairs are generated by the spontaneous four wave mixing (SFWM) in the cavity bi-directionally. The two photon states of photon pairs propagate along the two directions of the fiber loop and are superposed in the polarization beam splitter with orthogonal polarizations, leading to the polarization entanglement generation. On the other hand, the energy-time entanglement is an intrinsic property of photon pairs generated by the SFWM, which maintains in the process of the state superposition. The property of polarization entanglement is demonstrated by the two photon interferences under two non-orthogonal polarization bases. The property of energy-time entanglement is demonstrated by the Franson type interference under two non-orthogonal phase bases. The raw visibilities of all the measured interference fringes are higher than 1/2, the bench mark for violation of the Bell inequality. It indicates that silicon micro-ring cavity is a promising candidate to realize high performance hyper-entanglement generation.

High-visibility two-photon interference of frequency-time entangled photons generated in a quasi-phase-matched AlGaAs waveguide

We demonstrate experimentally the frequency-time entanglement of photon pairs produced in a CW-pumped quasi-phased-matched AlGaAs superlattice waveguide. A visibility of 96.0±0.7% without background subtraction has been achieved, which corresponds to the violation of the Bell inequality by 52 standard deviations.

Telecom-band degenerate-frequency photon pair generation in silicon microring cavities

In this Letter, telecom-band degenerate-frequency photon pairs are generated in a specific mode of a silicon microring cavity by the nondegenerate spontaneous four-wave mixing (SFWM) process, under two continuous-wave pumps at resonance wavelength of two different cavity modes. The ratio of coincidence to accidental coincidence is up to 100 under a time bin width of 5 ns, showing their characteristics of quantum correlation. Their quantum interference in balanced and unbalanced Mach-Zehnder interferometers is investigated theoretically and experimentally, and the results show potential in quantum metrology and quantum information.