Single-photon Optomechanics

Optomechanics experiments are rapidly approaching the regime where the radiation pressure of a single photon displaces the mechanical oscillator by more than its zero-point uncertainty. We show that in this limit the power spectrum has multiple sidebands and that the cavity response has several resonances in the resolved-sideband limit. Using master-equation simulations, we also study the crossover from the weak-coupling many-photon to the single-photon strong-coupling regime. Finally, we find non-Gaussian steady-states of the mechanical oscillator when multi-photon transitions are resonant. Our study provides the tools to detect and take advantage of this novel regime of optomechanics.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Single-photon tunneling

Strong evidence of a single-photon tunneling effect, a direct analog of single-electron tunneling, has been obtained in the measurements of light tunneling through individual subwavelength pinholes in a thick gold film covered with a layer of polydiacetylene. The transmission of some pinholes reached saturation because of the optical nonlinearity of polydiacetylene at a very low light intensity of a few thousands photons per second. This result is explained theoretically in terms of "photon blockade", similar to the Coulomb blockade phenomenon observed in single-electron tunneling experiments. The single-photon tunneling effect may find many applications in the emerging fields of quantum communication and information processing.Comment: 4 pages, 4figure

Near-unity coupling efficiency of a quantum emitter to a photonic-crystal waveguide

A quantum emitter efficiently coupled to a nanophotonic waveguide constitutes a promising system for the realization of single-photon transistors, quantum-logic gates based on giant single-photon nonlinearities, and high bit-rate deterministic single-photon sources. The key figure of merit for such devices is the $\beta$-factor, which is the probability for an emitted single photon to be channeled into a desired waveguide mode. We report on the experimental achievement of $\beta = 98.43 \pm 0.04\%$ for a quantum dot coupled to a photonic-crystal waveguide, corresponding to a single-emitter cooperativity of $\eta = 62.7 \pm 1.5$. This constitutes a nearly ideal photon-matter interface where the quantum dot acts effectively as a 1D "artificial" atom, since it interacts almost exclusively with just a single propagating optical mode. The $\beta$-factor is found to be remarkably robust to variations in position and emission wavelength of the quantum dots. Our work demonstrates the extraordinary potential of photonic-crystal waveguides for highly efficient single-photon generation and on-chip photon-photon interaction

On the relationship between pump chirp and single-photon chirp in spontaneous parametric downconversion

We study the chronocyclic character, i.e. the joint temporal and spectral properties, of the single-photon constituents of photon pairs generated by spontaneous parametric down conversion. In particular we study how single photon properties, including purity and single-photon chirp, depend on photon pair properties, including the type of signal-idler spectral and correlations and the level of pump chirp.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure

Linear-optical processing cannot increase photon efficiency

We answer the question whether linear-optical processing of the states produced by one or multiple imperfect single-photon sources can improve the single-photon fidelity. This processing can include arbitrary interferometers, coherent states, feedforward, and conditioning on results of detections. We show that without introducing multiphoton components, the single-photon fraction in any of the single-mode states resulting from such processing cannot be made to exceed the efficiency of the best available photon source. If multiphoton components are allowed, the single-photon fidelity cannot be increased beyond 1/2. We propose a natural general definition of the quantum-optical state efficiency, and show that it cannot increase under linear-optical processing.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Single-photon emitting diode in silicon carbide

Electrically driven single-photon emitting devices have immediate applications in quantum cryptography, quantum computation and single-photon metrology. Mature device fabrication protocols and the recent observations of single defect systems with quantum functionalities make silicon carbide (SiC) an ideal material to build such devices. Here, we demonstrate the fabrication of bright single photon emitting diodes. The electrically driven emitters display fully polarized output, superior photon statistics (with a count rate of $>$300 kHz), and stability in both continuous and pulsed modes, all at room temperature. The atomic origin of the single photon source is proposed. These results provide a foundation for the large scale integration of single photon sources into a broad range of applications, such as quantum cryptography or linear optics quantum computing.Comment: Main: 10 pages, 6 figures. Supplementary Information: 6 pages, 6 figure