Fiber based source of photon pairs at telecom band with high temporal coherence and brightness for quantum information processing

We experimentally demonstrate a bright pulsed source of correlated photon pairs at 1550 nm telecom band by pumping 300 m dispersion shifted fiber with a 4 ps pulse train. We investigate the coherence property of the source by measuring the second order intensity correlation function $g^{(2)}$ of individual signal (idler) photons. A preliminary Hong-Ou-Mandel type two-photon interference experiment with two such sources confirms the high temporal and spatial coherence of the source. The source is suitable for multi-photon quantum interference of independent sources, required in quantum information processing.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitte

An all fiber source of frequency entangled photon pairs

We present an all fiber source of frequency entangled photon pairs by using four wave mixing in a Sagnac fiber loop. Special care is taken to suppress the impurity of the frequency entanglement by cooling the fiber and by matching the polarization modes of the photon pairs counter-propagating in the fiber loop. Coincidence detection of signal and idler photons, which are created in pair and in different spatial modes of the fiber loop, shows the quantum interference in the form of spatial beating, while the single counts of the individual signal (idler) photons keep constant. When the production rate of photon pairs is about 0.013 pairs/pulse, the envelope of the quantum interference reveals a visibility of $(95\pm 2)$, which is close to the calculated theoretical limit 97.4%Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Spectral study of photon pairs generated in dispersion shifted fiber with a pulsed pump

Spectral correlation of photon pairs generated in dispersion shifted fiber by a pulsed pump is theoretically analyzed and experimentally investigated. We first calculate the spectral function of photon pairs according to the deduced two-photon state generated by spontaneous four wave mixing under the assumptions close to the real experimental conditions. We then experimentally study the spectral property of the signal and idler photon pairs generated in optical fiber by photon correlation measurements, and the experimental results agree with the calculation. The investigation is useful for developing fiber-based sources of entangled photon pairs and for studying multi-photon quantum interference with multiple photon pairs

Optical phase shifting with acousto-optic devices

A novel optical phase-shifting method based on a well-known acousto-optic interaction is proposed. By using a pair of acousto-optic modulators (AOMs) and properly aligning them, we construct an optical phase shifter that can directly control the phase of a collimated beam. The proposed phase shifter is insensitive to the polarization of the incident beam when polarization-insensitive AOMs are used, and no calibration is necessary. The proposed approach is confirmed with experimental results

Eigenspace-Based Generalized Sidelobe Canceler Beamforming Applied to Medical Ultrasound Imaging

The use of a generalized sidelobe canceler (GSC) can significantly improve the lateral resolution of medical ultrasound systems, but the contrast improvement isn’t satisfactory. Thus a new Eigenspace-based generalized sidelobe canceler (EBGSC) approach is proposed for medical ultrasound imaging, which can improve both the lateral resolution and contrast of the system. The weight vector of the EBGSC is obtained by projecting the GSC weight vector onto a vector subspace constructed from the eigenstructure of the covariance matrix, and using the new weight vector instead of the GSC ones leads to reduced sidelobe level and improved contrast. Simulated and experimental data are used to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. The Field II software is applied to obtain the simulated echo data of scattering points and circular cysts. Imaging of scattering points show that EBGSC has the same full width at half maximum (FWHM) as GSC, while the lateral resolution improves by 35.3% and 52.7% compared with synthetic aperture (SA) and delay-and-sum (DS), respectively. Compared with GSC, SA and DS, EBGSC improves the peak sidelobe level (PSL) by 23.55, 33.11 and 50.38 dB, respectively. Also the cyst contrast increase by EBGSC was calculated as 16.77, 12.43 and 26.73 dB, when compared with GSC, SA and DS, respectively. Finally, an experiment is conducted on the basis of the complete echo data collected by a medical ultrasonic imaging system. Results show that the proposed method can produce better lateral resolution and contrast than non-adaptive beamformers

Forward-backward generalized sidelobe canceler beamforming applied to medical ultrasound imaging

For adaptive ultrasound imaging, accurate estimation of the covariance matrix is of great importance, and it has a fundamental influence on the performance of the adaptive beamformer. In this paper, a new forward-backward generalized sidelobe canceler (FBGSC) approach is proposed for medical ultrasound imaging, which uses forward and backward subaperture averaging to accurate estimate the covariance matrix. And resulted from accurate estimating of covariance matrix, FBGSC can achieve better lateral resolution and contrast without preprocessing algorithms. Field II is applied to obtain the simulated echo data of scattering points and a circular cyst. Beamforming responses of scattering points show that FBGSC can improve the lateral resolution by 55.7% and 66.6% compared with synthetic aperture (SA) and delay-and-sum (DS), respectively. Similarly, the simulated results of circular cyst show that FBGSC can obtain better beamforming responses than traditional adaptive beamformers. Finally, an experiment is conducted based on the real echo data of a medical ultrasound system. Results demonstrate that the FBGSC can improve the imaging quality of medical ultrasound imaging system, with lower computational demand and higher reliability