Heralded Generation of Ultrafast Single Photons in Pure Quantum States

Peter J. Mosley, Jeff S. Lundeen, Brian J. Smith, Piotr Wasylczyk, Alfred B. U’Ren, Christine Silberhorn, and Ian A. Walmsley
Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 133601 – Published 3 April 2008

Abstract

We present an experimental demonstration of heralded single photons prepared in pure quantum states from a parametric down-conversion source. It is shown that, through controlling the modal structure of the photon pair emission, one can generate pairs in factorable states and thence eliminate the need for spectral filters in multiple-source interference schemes. Indistinguishable heralded photons were generated in two independent spectrally engineered sources and Hong-Ou-Mandel interference observed between them without spectral filters. The measured visibility of 94.4% sets a minimum bound on the mean photon purity.

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  • Received 30 October 2007

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.133601

©2008 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Peter J. Mosley1,*, Jeff S. Lundeen1, Brian J. Smith1, Piotr Wasylczyk1,2, Alfred B. U’Ren3, Christine Silberhorn4, and Ian A. Walmsley1

  • 1Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PU, United Kingdom
  • 2Institute of Experimental Physics, Warsaw University, ul. Hoza 69, 00-681 Warsaw, Poland
  • 3Division de Fisica Aplicada, Centro de Investigacion Cientifica y de Educacion Superior de Ensenada, Ensenada, Baja California, 22800 Mexico
  • 4Max-Planck-Forschungsgruppe fur Optik, Gunther-Scharowsky Strasse 1/Bau 24, 91058 Erlangen, Germany

  • *p.mosley1@physics.ox.ac.uk

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Issue

Vol. 100, Iss. 13 — 4 April 2008

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