TY - JOUR
T1 - Active temporal and spatial multiplexing of photons
AU - Mendoza, Gabriel
AU - Santagati, Raffaele
AU - Munns, K J W
AU - Hemsley, Lizzy
AU - Piekarek, Mateusz
AU - Martin Lopez, Enrique
AU - Marshall, Graham David
AU - Bonneau, Damien
AU - Thompson, Mark G
AU - O'Brien, Jeremy L
PY - 2016/2
Y1 - 2016/2
N2 - The maturation of many photonic technologies from individual components to next-generation system-level circuits will require exceptional active control of complex states of light. A prime example is in quantum photonic technology: while single-photon processes are often probabilistic, it has been shown in theory that rapid and adaptive feedforward operations are sufficient to enable scalability. Here, we use simple “off-the-shelf” optical components to demonstrate active multiplexing—adaptive rerouting to single modes—of eight single-photon “bins” from a heralded source. Unlike other possible implementations, which can be costly in terms of resources or temporal delays, our new configuration exploits the benefits of both time and space degrees of freedom, enabling a significant increase in the single-photon emission probability. This approach is likely to be employed in future near-deterministic photon multiplexers with expected improvements in integrated quantum photonic technology.
AB - The maturation of many photonic technologies from individual components to next-generation system-level circuits will require exceptional active control of complex states of light. A prime example is in quantum photonic technology: while single-photon processes are often probabilistic, it has been shown in theory that rapid and adaptive feedforward operations are sufficient to enable scalability. Here, we use simple “off-the-shelf” optical components to demonstrate active multiplexing—adaptive rerouting to single modes—of eight single-photon “bins” from a heralded source. Unlike other possible implementations, which can be costly in terms of resources or temporal delays, our new configuration exploits the benefits of both time and space degrees of freedom, enabling a significant increase in the single-photon emission probability. This approach is likely to be employed in future near-deterministic photon multiplexers with expected improvements in integrated quantum photonic technology.
KW - (270.5290) Photon statistics
KW - (270.5585) Quantum information and processing
U2 - 10.1364/OPTICA.3.000127
DO - 10.1364/OPTICA.3.000127
M3 - Article (Academic Journal)
VL - 3
SP - 127
EP - 132
JO - Optica
JF - Optica
SN - 2334-2536
IS - 2
ER -