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Gerd Leuchs

Publications and source records attributed to Gerd Leuchs.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
arXiv2016

Frequency tuning of a triply-resonant whispering-gallery mode resonator to MHz wide transitions for proposed quantum repeater schemes

Quantum repeaters rely on an interfacing of flying qubits with quantum memories. The most common implementations include a narrowband single photon matched in bandwidth and central frequency to an atomic system. Previously, we demonstrated the compatibility of our versatile source of heralded single photons, which is based on parametric down-conversion in a triply-resonant whispering-gallery mode resonator, with alkaline transitions [Schunk et al., Optica 2, 773 (2015)]. In this paper, we analyze our source in terms of phase matching, available wavelength-tuning mechanisms, and applications to narrow-band atomic systems. We resonantly address the D1 transitions of cesium and rubidium with this optical parametric oscillator pumped above its oscillation threshold. Below threshold, the efficient coupling of single photons to atomic transitions heralded by single telecom-band photons is demonstrated. Finally, we present an accurate analytical description of our observations. Providing the demonstrated flexibility in connecting various atomic transitions with telecom wavelengths, we show a promising approach to realize an essential building block for quantum repeaters.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2016

Conditionally generating a mesoscopic superposition of N00N states

We study the generation of superpositions of N00N states by overlapping few-photon-subtracted squeezed vacuum states and coherent states on a 50/50 beam splitter. Assuming parameters that are feasible with current technology results in output states with mean photon numbers of several tens. We show that the generated quantum states violate local realism even in the presence of considerable loss. The occurrence of strong quantum correlations for mesoscopic quantum states of light is particularly beneficial for coupling light and matter quantum systems.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2016

Heralded Source of Bright Multi-mode Mesoscopic Sub-Poissonian Light

In a direct detection scheme we observed 7.8 dB of twin-beam squeezing for multi-mode two-color squeezed vacuum generated via parametric down conversion. Applying post-selection, we conditionally prepared a sub-Poissonian state of light containing $6.3\cdot10^5$ photons per pulse on the average with the Fano factor $0.63\pm0.01$. The scheme can be considered as the heralded preparation of pulses with the mean energy varying between tens and hundreds of fJ and the uncertainty considerably below the shot-noise level. Such pulses can be used in metrology (for instance, for radiometers calibration) as well as for probing multi-mode nonlinear optical effects.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2016

Tighter spots of light with superposed orbital angular momentum beams

The possibility of focusing light to an ever tighter spot has important implications for many applications and fields of optics research, such as nano-optics and plasmonics, laser-scanning microscopy, optical data storage and many more. The size of lateral features of the field at the focus depends on several parameters, including the numerical aperture of the focusing system, but also the wavelength and polarization, phase and intensity distribution of the input beam. Here, we study the smallest achievable focal feature sizes of coherent superpositions of two co-propagating beams carrying opposite orbital angular momentum. We investigate the feature sizes for this class of beams not only in the scalar limit, but also use a fully vectorial treatment to discuss the case of tight focusing. Both our numerical simulations and our experimental results confirm that lateral feature sizes considerably smaller than those of a tightly focused Gaussian light beam can be observed. These findings may pave the way for improving the resolution of imaging systems or may find applications in nano-optics experiments.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2016

Detecting the spatial quantum uncertainty of bosonic systems

We present the quantum theory of the measurement of bosonic particles by multipixel detectors. For the sake of clarity, we specialize on beams of photons. We study the measurement of different spatial beam characteristics, as position and width. The limits of these measurements are set by the quantum nature of the light field. We investigate how both, detector imperfections and finite pixel size affect the photon counting distribution. An analytic theory for the discretized measurement scheme is derived. We discuss the results and compare them to the theory presented by Chille et al. in "Quantum uncertainty in the beam width of spatial optical modes," Opt. Express 23, 32777 (2015), which investigates the beam width noise independently of the measurement system. Finally, we present numerical simulations which furnish realistic and promising predictions for possible experimental studies.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2016

Shaping a single photon without interacting with it

Complete control over the properties of light up to the level of single photons is an invaluable tool for quantum information science and fundamental studies of light-matter interaction. The crucial prerequisite is the ability to create a spatio-temporal distribution of single-photon electromagnetic field with the desired characteristics, i.e. to shape a photon by design. Despite the ever-growing demand for tuneable single-photon sources, there is a lack of practical, efficient and scalable methods for photon shaping. Here we put forward a novel generic method that enables lossless shaping of single photons with respect to any degree of freedom or several degrees of freedom simultaneously. Shaping is performed in a heralded manner, which ensures flexibility and scalability of the scheme. Our method can be directly integrated with the current technologies: this enables experimental realization of numerous proposals involving shaped single photons and opens up qualitatively new opportunities in the future.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2016

Evading Vacuum Noise: Wigner Projections or Husimi Samples?

The accuracy in determining the quantum state of a system depends on the type of measurement performed. Homodyne and heterodyne detection are the two main schemes in continuous-variable quantum information. The former leads to a direct reconstruction of the Wigner function of the state, whereas the latter samples its Husimi $Q$~function. We experimentally demonstrate that heterodyne detection outperforms homodyne detection for almost all Gaussian states, the details of which depend on the squeezing strength and thermal noise.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2016

30 years of squeezed light generation

Squeezed light generation has come of age. Significant advances on squeezed light generation has been made over the last 30 years - from the initial, conceptual experiment in 1985 till todays top- tuned, application-oriented setups. Here we review the main experimental platforms for generating quadrature squeezed light that has been investigated the last 30 years.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2016

Free-space quantum signatures using heterodyne detection

Digital signatures guarantee the authorship of electronic communications. Currently used "classical" signature schemes rely on unproven computational assumptions for security, while quantum signatures rely only on the laws of quantum mechanics. Previous quantum signature schemes have used unambiguous quantum measurements. Such measurements, however, sometimes give no result, reducing the efficiency of the protocol. Here, we instead use heterodyne detection, which always gives a result, although there is always some uncertainty. We experimentally demonstrate feasibility in a real environment by distributing signature states through a noisy 1.6km free-space channel. Our results show that continuous-variable heterodyne detection improves the signature rate for this type of scheme and therefore represents an interesting direction in the search for practical quantum signature schemes.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2016

Ring-shaped spectra of parametric down-conversion and entangled photons that never meet

We report on the observation of an unusual type of parametric down-conversion. In the regime where collinear degenerate emission is in the anomalous range of group-velocity dispersion, its spectrum is restricted in both angle and wavelength. Detuning from exact collinear-degenerate phasematching leads to a ring shape of the wavelength-angular spectrum, suggesting a new type of spatiotemporal coherence and entanglement of photon pairs. By imposing a phase varying in a specific way in both angle and wavelength, one can obtain an interesting state of an entangled photon pair, with the two photons being never at the same point at the same time.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2016

Experimental generation of amplitude squeezed vector beams

We present an experimental method for the generation of amplitude squeezed high-order vector beams. The light is modified twice by a spatial light modulator such that the vector beam is created by means of a collinear interferometric technique. A major advantage of this approach is that it avoids systematic losses, which are detrimental as they cause decoherence in continuous-variable quantum systems. The utilisation of a spatial light modulator (SLM) gives the flexibility to switch between arbitrary mode orders. The conversion efficiency with our setup is only limited by the efficiency of the SLM. We show the experimental generation of Laguerre-Gauss (LG) modes with radial indices up to 1 and azimuthal indices up to 3 with complex polarization structures and a quantum noise reduction up to -0.9dB$\pm$0.1dB. The corresponding polarization structures are studied in detail by measuring the spatial distribution of the Stokes parameters.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2016

Polarization Controlled Directional Scattering for Nanoscopic Position Sensing

Controlling the propagation and coupling of light to sub-wavelength antennas is a crucial prerequisite for many nanoscale optical devices. Recently, the main focus of attention has been directed towards high-refractive-index materials such as silicon as an integral part of the antenna design. This development is motivated by the rich spectral properties of individual high-refractive-index nanoparticles. Here, we take advantage of the interference of their magnetic and electric resonances, to achieve remarkably strong lateral directionality. For controlled excitation of a spherical silicon nanoantenna we use tightly focused radially polarized light. The resultant directional emission depends on the antenna's position relative to the focus. This approach finds application as a novel position sensing technique, which might be implemented in modern nanometrology and super-resolution microscopy setups. We demonstrate in a proof-of-concept experiment, that a lateral resolution in the Angstrom regime can be achieved.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2016

Efficient single sideband microwave to optical conversion using an electro-optical whispering gallery mode resonator

Linking classical microwave electrical circuits to the optical telecommunication band is at the core of modern communication. Future quantum information networks will require coherent microwave-to-optical conversion to link electronic quantum processors and memories via low-loss optical telecommunication networks. Efficient conversion can be achieved with electro-optical modulators operating at the single microwave photon level. In the standard electro-optic modulation scheme this is impossible because both, up- and downconverted, sidebands are necessarily present. Here we demonstrate true single sideband up- or downconversion in a triply resonant whispering gallery mode resonator by explicitly addressing modes with asymmetric free spectral range. Compared to previous experiments, we show a three orders of magnitude improvement of the electro-optical conversion efficiency reaching 0.1% photon number conversion for a 10GHz microwave tone at 0.42mW of optical pump power. The presented scheme is fully compatible with existing superconducting 3D circuit quantum electrodynamics technology and can be used for non-classical state conversion and communication. Our conversion bandwidth is larger than 1MHz and not fundamentally limited.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2016

Optical Polarization Möbius Strips and Points of Purely Transverse Spin Density

Tightly focused light beams can exhibit electric fields spinning around any axis including the one transverse to the beams' propagation direction. At certain focal positions, the corresponding local polarization ellipse can degenerate into a perfect circle, representing a point of circular polarization, or C-point. We consider the most fundamental case of a linearly polarized Gaussian beam, where - upon tight focusing - those C-points created by transversely spinning fields can form the center of 3D optical polarization topologies when choosing the plane of observation appropriately. Due to the high symmetry of the focal field, these polarization topologies exhibit non trivial structures similar to Möbius strips. We use a direct physical measure to find C-points with an arbitrarily oriented spinning axis of the electric field and experimentally investigate the fully three-dimensional polarization topologies surrounding these C-points by exploiting an amplitude and phase reconstruction technique.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2016

Unveiling the optical properties of a metamaterial synthesized by electron-beam-induced deposition

The direct writing using a focused electron beam allows for fabricating truly three-dimensional structures of sub-wavelength dimensions in the visible spectral regime. The resulting sophisticated geometries are perfectly suited for studying light-matter interaction at the nanoscale. Their overall optical response will strongly depend not only on geometry but also on the optical properties of the deposited material. In case of the typically used metal-organic precursors, the deposits show a substructure of metallic nanocrystals embedded in a carbonaceous matrix. Since gold-containing precursor media are especially interesting for optical applications, we experimentally determine the effective permittivity of such an effective material. Our experiment is based on spectroscopic measurements of planar deposits. The retrieved permittivity shows a systematic dependence on the gold particle density and cannot be sufficiently described using the common Maxwell-Garnett approach for effective medium.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2016

Single-mode squeezing in arbitrary spatial modes

As the generation of squeezed states of light has become a standard technique in laboratories, attention is increasingly directed towards adapting the optical parameters of squeezed beams to the specific requirements of individual applications. It is known that imaging, metrology, and quantum information may benefit from using squeezed light with a tailored transverse spatial mode. However, experiments have so far been limited to generating only a few squeezed spatial modes within a given setup. Here, we present the generation of single-mode squeezing in Laguerre-Gauss and Bessel-Gauss modes, as well as an arbitrary intensity pattern, all from a single setup using a spatial light modulator (SLM). The degree of squeezing obtained is limited mainly by the initial squeezing and diffractive losses introduced by the SLM, while no excess noise from the SLM is detectable at the measured sideband. The experiment illustrates the single-mode concept in quantum optics and demonstrates the viability of current SLMs as flexible tools for the spatial reshaping of squeezed light.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2016

Classically entangled optical beams for high-speed kinematic sensing

Tracking the kinematics of fast-moving objects is an important diagnostic tool for science and engineering. Existing optical methods include high-speed CCD/CMOS imaging, streak cameras, lidar, serial time-encoded imaging and sequentially timed all-optical mapping. Here, we demonstrate an entirely new approach to positional and directional sensing based on the concept of classical entanglement in vector beams of light. The measurement principle relies on the intrinsic correlations existing in such beams between transverse spatial modes and polarization. The latter can be determined from intensity measurements with only a few fast photodiodes, greatly outperforming the bandwidth of current CCD/CMOS devices. In this way, our setup enables two-dimensional real-time sensing with temporal resolution in the GHz range. We expect the concept to open up new directions in photonics-based metrology and sensing.

quant-ph↗