Spatiotemporal single-photon Airy bullets

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the first complete control over the spatiotemporal quantum wavefunction of a single photon, creating self-accelerating, non-spreading Airy photon bullets with potential for advanced quantum information applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method combining temporal waveform generation and spatial shaping to produce arbitrary quantum nonspreading spatiotemporal light bullets.

Findings

Successfully generated (2+1)D Airy single-photon optical bullets

Photons exhibit self-acceleration and resistance to spreading

Bullets can be concealed and revealed amidst classical noise

Abstract

Uninhibited control of the complex spatiotemporal quantum wavefunction of a single photon has so far remained elusive even though it can dramatically increase the encoding flexibility and thus the information capacity of a photonic quantum link. By fusing temporal waveform generation in a cold atomic ensemble and spatial single-photon shaping, we hereby demonstrate for the first time complete spatiotemporal control of a propagation invariant (2+1)D Airy single-photon optical bullet. These correlated photons are not only self-accelerating and impervious to spreading as their classical counterparts, but can be concealed and revealed in the presence of strong classical light noise. Our methodology allows one to synthesize in a robust and versatile manner arbitrary quantum nonspreading spatiotemporal light bullets and in this respect could have ramifications in a broad range of applications such as quantum imaging, long-distance quantum communications, and multidimensional information encoding.