Selective filtering of multi-photon events from a single-photon emitter

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Sbresny, Friedrich, Calcagno, Carolin, Kim, Sang Kyu, Boos, Katarina, Rauhaus, William, Bopp, Frederik, Riedl, Hubert, Finley, Jonathan J., Casalengua, Eduardo Zubizarreta, Müller, Kai
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Sbresny, Friedrich
Calcagno, Carolin
Kim, Sang Kyu
Boos, Katarina
Rauhaus, William
Bopp, Frederik
Riedl, Hubert
Finley, Jonathan J.
Casalengua, Eduardo Zubizarreta
Müller, Kai
author_facet Sbresny, Friedrich
Calcagno, Carolin
Kim, Sang Kyu
Boos, Katarina
Rauhaus, William
Bopp, Frederik
Riedl, Hubert
Finley, Jonathan J.
Casalengua, Eduardo Zubizarreta
Müller, Kai
contents Single-photon purity is one of the most important key metrics of many quantum states of light. For applications in photonic quantum technologies, e.g. quantum communication and linear optical quantum computing, a minimization of the multi-photon error rate is required because of its error-introducing nature. Ultimately, the purity of state-of-the-art single-photon sources was found to be limited by spontaneous emission and subsequent reexcitation during the interaction with the driving field. Here, we demonstrate that even this fundamental limit to the single-photon purity can be overcome due to the distinct spectro-temporal properties of the individual photons forming multi-photon errors. For driving pulses shorter than the emitter lifetime, we find that photons emitted during the pulse exhibit a significantly broader spectral shape than the emitter's natural linewidth. Thus, we can selectively filter out the majority of this instantaneously emitted photon by employing narrowband spectral filters which reduces the measured degree of second-order coherence at zero time delay by almost one order of magnitude. This enables a significant suppression of the multi-photon error rate without detrimental effects on the desired single-photon emission.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_22378
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Selective filtering of multi-photon events from a single-photon emitter
Sbresny, Friedrich
Calcagno, Carolin
Kim, Sang Kyu
Boos, Katarina
Rauhaus, William
Bopp, Frederik
Riedl, Hubert
Finley, Jonathan J.
Casalengua, Eduardo Zubizarreta
Müller, Kai
Quantum Physics
Single-photon purity is one of the most important key metrics of many quantum states of light. For applications in photonic quantum technologies, e.g. quantum communication and linear optical quantum computing, a minimization of the multi-photon error rate is required because of its error-introducing nature. Ultimately, the purity of state-of-the-art single-photon sources was found to be limited by spontaneous emission and subsequent reexcitation during the interaction with the driving field. Here, we demonstrate that even this fundamental limit to the single-photon purity can be overcome due to the distinct spectro-temporal properties of the individual photons forming multi-photon errors. For driving pulses shorter than the emitter lifetime, we find that photons emitted during the pulse exhibit a significantly broader spectral shape than the emitter's natural linewidth. Thus, we can selectively filter out the majority of this instantaneously emitted photon by employing narrowband spectral filters which reduces the measured degree of second-order coherence at zero time delay by almost one order of magnitude. This enables a significant suppression of the multi-photon error rate without detrimental effects on the desired single-photon emission.
title Selective filtering of multi-photon events from a single-photon emitter
topic Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.22378