Unity-Efficiency Parametric Down-Conversion via Amplitude Amplification

TL;DR

This paper introduces an optical scheme using amplitude amplification to achieve near-perfect conversion of n-photon states into photon pairs, surpassing traditional methods for small n and maintaining high efficiency up to n=50.

Contribution

It presents a novel scheme combining parametric down-conversion with nonlinear sign gates and amplitude amplification to enhance photon conversion efficiency.

Findings

Conversion efficiency reaches unity for 1 ≤ n ≤ 5.

Efficiency remains higher than conventional methods up to n=50.

Efficiency decreases monotonically beyond n=5 but stays above traditional approaches.

Abstract

We propose an optical scheme, employing optical parametric down-converters interlaced with nonlinear sign gates (NSGs), that completely converts an $n$-photon Fock-state pump to $n$ signal-idler photon pairs when the down-converters' crystal lengths are chosen appropriately. The proof of this assertion relies on amplitude amplification, analogous to that employed in Grover search, applied to the full quantum dynamics of single-mode parametric down-conversion. When we require that all Grover iterations use the same crystal, and account for potential experimental limitations on crystal-length precision, our optimized conversion efficiencies reach unity for $1\le n \le 5$, after which they decrease monotonically for $n$ values up to 50, which is the upper limit of our numerical dynamics evaluations. Nevertheless, our conversion efficiencies remain higher than those for a conventional (no NSGs) down-converter.