Work

Experimental certification of level dynamics in single-photon emitters

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Emitters of single photons are essential resources for emerging quantum technologies and developed within different platforms including nonlinear optics and atomic and solid-state systems. The energy-level structures of emission processes are critical for reaching and controlling high-quality sources. The most commonly applied test uses a Hanbury Brown and Twiss (HBT) setup to determine the emitter energy-level structure based on fitting temporal correlations of photon detection events. However, only partial information about the emission process is extracted from such detection, that might be followed by an inconclusive fitting of the data. This process predetermines our limited ability to quantify and understand the dynamics in the photon emission process that are of importance for the applications in communication, sensing, and computing. In this work, we present a complete analysis based on all normalized coincidences between detection and no-detection events recorded in the same HBT setup to certify expected properties of an emitted photonic state. As a proof of concept we apply our methodology to single nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond, in which case the certification conclusively rejects a model based on a two-level emitter that radiates a photonic state mixed with any classical noise background. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Source: Physical Review Research

DOI: 10.1103/physrevresearch.6.033254

Authors: Lukáš Lachman, Ilya P. Radko, Maxime Bergamin, Ulrik L. Andersen, Alexander Huck, Radim Filip

Institutions: Palacký University Olomouc, Technical University of Denmark

Language: English

Topic: Quantum optics and atomic interactions

Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,625