Experimental characterization of photon-number noise in Rarity-Tapster-Loudon-type interferometers
Vojtěch Trávníček, Karol Bartkiewicz, Antonín Černoch, Karel Lemr · Physical Review A · 2017
In this paper, we develop a simple model describing inherent photon-number noise in Rarity-Tapster-Loudon-type interferometers. This noise is caused by generating photon pairs in the process of spontaneous parametric down-conversion and adding a third photon by attenuating the fundamental laser mode to the single-photon level. We experimentally verify our model and present resulting signal-to-noise ratios as well as obtained three-photon generation rates as functions of various setup parameters. Subsequently we evaluate the impact of this particular source of noise on quantum teleportation which is a key quantum information protocol using this interferometric configuration.