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Optical photons are supreme carriers of quantum info. However to work collectively in a quantum laptop or community, they should have the identical coloration — or frequency — and bandwidth. Altering a photon’s frequency requires altering its vitality, which is especially difficult on built-in photonic chips.
Not too long ago, researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson Faculty of Engineering and Utilized Sciences (SEAS) developed an built-in electro-optic modulator that may effectively change the frequency and bandwidth of single photons. The machine might be used for extra superior quantum computing and quantum networks.
The analysis is revealed in Mild: Science & Functions.
Changing a photon from one coloration to a different is often executed by sending the photon right into a crystal with a robust laser shining by way of it, a course of that tends to be inefficient and noisy. Section modulation, wherein photon wave’s oscillation is accelerated or slowed down to alter the photon’s frequency, provides a extra environment friendly methodology, however the machine required for such a course of, an electro-optic part modulator, has confirmed troublesome to combine on a chip.
One materials could also be uniquely fitted to such an utility — thin-film lithium niobate.
“In our work, we adopted a brand new modulator design on thin-film lithium niobate that considerably improved the machine efficiency,” mentioned Marko Lončar, the Tiantsai Lin Professor of Electrical Engineering at SEAS and senior writer of the research. “With this built-in modulator, we achieved record-high terahertz frequency shifts of single photons.”
The staff additionally used the identical modulator as a “time lens” — a magnifying glass that bends gentle in time as an alternative of area — to alter the spectral form of a photon from fats to skinny.
“Our machine is rather more compact and energy-efficient than conventional bulk gadgets,” mentioned Di Zhu, the primary writer of the paper. “It may be built-in with a variety of classical and quantum gadgets on the identical chip to comprehend extra subtle quantum gentle management.”
Di is a former postdoctoral fellow at SEAS and is at the moment a analysis scientist on the Company for Science, Analysis and Expertise (A*STAR) in Singapore.
Subsequent, the staff goals to make use of the machine to regulate the frequency and bandwidth of quantum emitters for functions in quantum networks.
The analysis was a collaboration between Harvard, MIT, HyperLight, and A*STAR.
The paper was co-authored by Changchen Chen, Mengjie Yu, Linbo Shao, Yaowen Hu, C. J. Xin, Matthew Yeh, Soumya Ghosh, Lingyan He, Christian Reimer, Neil Sinclair, Franco N. C. Wong, and Mian Zhang.
This analysis was funded by the Harvard Quantum Initiative (HQI), Military Analysis Workplace/Protection Superior Tasks Company (DARPA) (W911NF2010248), Air Power Workplace of Scientific Analysis (FA9550-20-1-01015), DARPA Lasers for Common Microscale Optical Techniques (HR0011-20-C-0137), Division of Power (DE-SC0020376), Nationwide Science Basis (EEC-1941583), Air Power Analysis Laboratory (FA9550-21-1-0056), HQI post-doctoral fellowship, A*STAR SERC Central Analysis Fund (CRF), and Pure Sciences and Engineering Analysis Council of Canada (NSERC).
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