A tuneable telecom-wavelength entangled light emitting diode

TL;DR

This paper presents the first fully electrically operated telecom-wavelength entangled light emitting diode with over 25nm tunability, capable of multiplexing entangled photons with classical data in a real fiber network.

Contribution

It introduces a novel electrically tunable telecom entangled LED suitable for field deployment and multiplexing in quantum networks.

Findings

Achieved over 25nm wavelength tunability in an electrically operated device.

Demonstrated multiplexing of entangled photons with classical data traffic.

Attained entanglement fidelities above 95% in an installed fiber network.

Abstract

Entangled light emitting diodes based on semiconductor quantum dots are promising devices for security sensitive quantum network applications, thanks to their natural lack of multi photon-pair generation. Apart from telecom wavelength emission, network integrability of these sources ideally requires electrical operation for deployment in compact systems in the field. For multiplexing of entangled photons with classical data traffic, emission in the telecom O-band and tuneability to the nearest wavelength channel in compliance with coarse wavelength division multiplexing standards (20 nm channel spacing) is highly desirable. Here we show the first fully electrically operated telecom entangled light emitting diode with wavelength tuneability of more than 25nm, deployed in an installed fiber network. With the source tuned to 1310.00 nm, we demonstrate multiplexing of true single entangled photons with classical data traffic and achieve entanglement fidelities above 95% on an installed fiber in a city.