Highly efficient frequency conversion with bandwidth compression of quantum light.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 28134242.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms14288 and PMC identifier 5290268.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Hybrid quantum networks rely on efficient interfacing of dissimilar quantum nodes, as elements based on parametric downconversion sources, quantum dots, colour centres or atoms are fundamentally different in their frequencies and bandwidths. Although pulse manipulation has been demonstrated in very different systems, to date no interface exists that provides both an efficient bandwidth compression and a substantial frequency translation at the same time. Here we demonstrate an engineered sum-frequency-conversion process in lithium niobate that achieves both goals. We convert pure photons at telecom wavelengths to the visible range while compressing the bandwidth by a factor of 7.47 under preservation of non-classical photon-number statistics. We achieve internal conversion efficiencies of 61.5%, significantly outperforming spectral filtering for bandwidth compression. Our system thus makes the connection between previously incompatible quantum systems as a step towards usable quantum networks.