An extremely low-noise heralded single-photon source: A breakthrough for quantum technologies

Low noise single-photon sources are a critical element for quantum technologies. We present a heralded single-photon source with an extremely low level of residual background photons, by implementing low-jitter detectors and electronics and a fast custom-made pulse generator controlling an optical s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters 2012-11, Vol.101 (22)
Main Authors: Brida, G., Degiovanni, I. P., Genovese, M., Piacentini, F., Traina, P., Della Frera, A., Tosi, A., Bahgat Shehata, A., Scarcella, C., Gulinatti, A., Ghioni, M., Polyakov, S. V., Migdall, A., Giudice, A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Autocorrelation
Channels
Electronics
Low level
Low noise
Optical switching
Photons
Shutters
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Summary:Low noise single-photon sources are a critical element for quantum technologies. We present a heralded single-photon source with an extremely low level of residual background photons, by implementing low-jitter detectors and electronics and a fast custom-made pulse generator controlling an optical shutter (a LiNbO3 waveguide optical switch) on the output of the source. This source has a second-order autocorrelation g(2)(0)=0.005(7), and an output noise factor (defined as the ratio of the number of noise photons to total photons at the source output channel) of 0.25(1)%. These are the best performance characteristics reported to date.
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.4768288