Reliable and efficient control of two-photon interference in the frequency domain
Laurent Olislager, I. Mbodji, Erik Woodhead, Johann Cussey, Luca Furfaro, Philippe Emplit, Serge Massar, Kien Phan Huy, Jean-Marc Mérolla · arXiv (Cornell University) · 2011
It has recently been demonstrated that radio-frequency adjustable phase modulation of frequency entangled photons leads to a two-photon interference pattern in the frequency domain. Here we introduce new theoretical and experimental developments showing that this method is potentially a competitive platform for the realization of quantum communication protocols in standard telecommunication fibres. We derive a simple theoretical expression for the coincidence probabilities and use it to optimize a Bell inequality. Furthermore, we establish an equivalence between the entangled photon scheme and a classical interference scheme and use it in the lab to easily test the performance of the system. The use of a frequency-stabilized pump laser and low-noise superconducting single-photon detectors together with an accurate automated control of the radio-frequency parameters of the modulation highlights the main strengths of our method, i.e. stability and high-visibility measurements. We exploit these strengths to experimentally validate the theoretical results. PACS numbers: 42.65.Lm, 03.65.Ud, 03.67.Bg Submitted to: New J. Phys. Reliable and efficient control of two-photon interference in the frequency domain 2