Bandwidth manipulation of quantum light by an electro-optic time lens

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates an electro-optic time lens technique that efficiently manipulates the spectrum of quantum light, enabling significant bandwidth compression and increased photon flux for quantum information applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel electro-optic method for deterministic, unitary spectral manipulation of non-classical light without classical filtering or amplification.

Findings

Six-fold spectral bandwidth compression of single photons

Over two-fold increase in photon flux into narrowband absorbers

Preservation of quantum coherence during spectral manipulation

Abstract

The ability to manipulate the spectral-temporal waveform of optical pulses has enabled a wide range of applications from ultrafast spectroscopy to high-speed communications. Extending these concepts to quantum light has the potential to enable breakthroughs in optical quantum science and technology. However, filtering and amplifying often employed in classical pulse shaping techniques are incompatible with non-classical light. Controlling the pulsed mode structure of quantum light requires efficient means to achieve deterministic, unitary manipulation that preserves fragile quantum coherences. Here we demonstrate an electro-optic method for modifying the spectrum of non-classical light by employing a time lens. In particular we show highly-efficient wavelength-preserving six-fold compression of single-photon spectral intensity bandwidth, enabling over a two-fold increase of single-photon flux into a spectrally narrowband absorber. These results pave the way towards spectral-temporal photonic quantum information processing and facilitate interfacing of different physical platforms where quantum information can be stored or manipulated.