93 research outputs found
Observation of strongly entangled photon pairs from a nanowire quantum dot
A bright photon source that combines high-fidelity entanglement, on-demand
generation, high extraction efficiency, directional and coherent emission, as
well as position control at the nanoscale is required for implementing
ambitious schemes in quantum information processing, such as that of a quantum
repeater. Still, all of these properties have not yet been achieved in a single
device. Semiconductor quantum dots embedded in nanowire waveguides potentially
satisfy all of these requirements; however, although theoretically predicted,
entanglement has not yet been demonstrated for a nanowire quantum dot. Here, we
demonstrate a bright and coherent source of strongly entangled photon pairs
from a position controlled nanowire quantum dot with a fidelity as high as
0.859 +/- 0.006 and concurrence of 0.80 +/- 0.02. The two-photon quantum state
is modified via the nanowire shape. Our new nanoscale entangled photon source
can be integrated at desired positions in a quantum photonic circuit, single
electron devices and light emitting diodes.Comment: Article and Supplementary Information with open access published at:
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/141031/ncomms6298/full/ncomms6298.htm
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
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
Time-domain diffuse correlation spectroscopy
Physiological monitoring of oxygen delivery to the brain has great significance for improving the management of patients at risk for brain injury. Diffuse correlation spectroscopy (DCS) is a rapidly growing optical technology able to non-invasively assess the blood flow index (BFi) at the bedside. The current limitations of DCS are the contamination introduced by extracerebral tissue and the need to know the tissue's optical properties to correctly quantify the BFi. To overcome these limitations, we have developed a new technology for time-resolved diffuse correlation spectroscopy. By operating DCS in the time domain (TD-DCS), we are able to simultaneously acquire the temporal point-spread function to quantify tissue optical properties and the autocorrelation function to quantify the BFi. More importantly, by applying time-gated strategies to the DCS autocorrelation functions, we are able to differentiate between short and long photon paths through the tissue and determine the BFi for different depths. Here, we present the novel device and we report the first experiments in tissue-like phantoms and in rodents. The TD-DCS method opens many possibilities for improved non-invasive monitoring of oxygen delivery in humans
Analysis of detector performance in a gigahertz clock rate quantum key distribution system
We present a detailed analysis of a gigahertz clock rate environmentally robust phase-encoded quantum key distribution (QKD) system utilizing several different single-photon detectors, including the first implementation of an experimental resonant cavity thin-junction silicon single-photon avalanche diode. The system operates at a wavelength of 850 nm using standard telecommunications optical fibre. A general-purpose theoretical model for the performance of QKD systems is presented with reference to these experimental results before predictions are made about realistic detector developments in this system. We discuss, with reference to the theoretical model, how detector operating parameters can be further optimized to maximize key exchange rates
Correlated blinking of fluorescent emitters mediated by single plasmons
We observe time-correlated emission between a single CdSe/CdS/ZnS quantum dot exhibiting single-photon statistics and a fluorescent nanobead located micrometers apart. This is accomplished by coupling both emitters to a silver nanowire. Single plasmons are created on the latter from the quantum dot, and transfer energy to excite in turn the fluorescent nanobead. We demonstrate that the molecules inside the bead show the same blinking behavior as the quantum dot
Space QUEST mission proposal: experimentally testing decoherence due to gravity
Models of quantum systems on curved space-times lack sufficient experimental
verification. Some speculative theories suggest that quantum properties, such
as entanglement, may exhibit entirely different behavior to purely classical
systems. By measuring this effect or lack thereof, we can test the hypotheses
behind several such models. For instance, as predicted by Ralph and coworkers
[T C Ralph, G J Milburn, and T Downes, Phys. Rev. A, 79(2):22121, 2009, T C
Ralph and J Pienaar, New Journal of Physics, 16(8):85008, 2014], a bipartite
entangled system could decohere if each particle traversed through a different
gravitational field gradient. We propose to study this effect in a ground to
space uplink scenario. We extend the above theoretical predictions of Ralph and
coworkers and discuss the scientific consequences of detecting/failing to
detect the predicted gravitational decoherence. We present a detailed mission
design of the European Space Agency's (ESA) Space QUEST (Space - Quantum
Entanglement Space Test) mission, and study the feasibility of the mission
schema.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures, included radiation damage to detectors in
appendi
Planar architecture optimizes Si single-photon-counting detectors
A new planar structure for silicon single-photon-counting detectors leads to the doubling of detector efficiency while maintaining picosecond timing resolution, low dark counts, and low power consumption
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