Temporal-Spectral Multimode Photonics for Quantum Information Science

University Of Oregon Eugene, Eugene OR

Investigators

Abstract

Visible light is one of the primary ways we get information about the world and the universe, for example using microscopes and telescopes. Light pulses are also used to convey information across the globe at unprecedented rates using the world-wide fiber-optical network that supports the Internet, e-commerce, and even the international financial markets. Furthermore, light can be used to control material systems with applications ranging from laser eye surgery to optical "tweezers" that can trap and manipulate individual molecules. Many of these developments have been enabled by new methods to generate, manipulate and detect light. Today, researchers are developing means to generate, control, and measure the fundamental constituents of light, single photons (individual light "particles"), which obey the laws of quantum physics. This project will explore methods to produce, manipulate and measure individual photons with well-defined pulse characteristics (color and temporal pulse shape) and examine the potential of such single-photon pulses for applications such as secure communications, enhanced precision measurements, and high-capacity computation. The project supports education through training of a diverse group of undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral researchers in the field of quantum information science, and provides outreach to local high schools and colleges. This project aims to harness the potential advances in quantum technologies offered by encoding information in the wavelength and temporal shape of individual photons. By exploring methods to produce, manipulate and measure single photons with well-defined pulse characteristics (wavelength and temporal shape), this research program will examine the impact of spectral-temporal single-photon encoding for improved performance in applications such as sensing and quantum communication. To address these goals, the project explores wave-guided optical sources of controllable spectral-temporal entangled photon pairs based upon spontaneous nonlinear optical processes. It examines methods for manipulating single-photon pulses by application of well-defined temporal and spectral phase implemented using electro-optic phase modulators and engineered spectral dispersion in optical fibers. It also investigates methods to characterize the pulse-mode structure of one and two photons by temporal- and spectral-shearing interferometry. This platform for information encoding in the single-photon spectral-temporal shape offers increased information capacity for single photons in integrated-optical systems.