Heralded single-photon generation using imperfect single-photon sources and a two-photon-absorbing medium
Thomas R. Konrad, Artur Scherer, Michael Nock, Jürgen Audretsch · Physical Review A · 2006
We propose a setup for a heralded, i.e., announced generation of a pure single-photon state given two imperfect sources whose outputs are represented by mixtures of the single-photon Fock state $\ensuremath{\mid}1⟩$ with the vacuum $\ensuremath{\mid}0⟩$. Our purification scheme uses beam splitters, photodetection, and a two-photon-absorbing medium. The admixture of the vacuum is fully eliminated. We discuss two potential realizations of the scheme.