Hamburg 2009 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 18: Quanteninformation: Photonen I

Q 18.3: Talk

Tuesday, March 3, 2009, 11:00–11:15, VMP 6 HS-D

Shaping the Phase of a Single Photon — •Holger Specht, Jörg Bochmann, Eden Figueroa, David Moehring, Martin Mücke, Christian Nölleke, Stephan Ritter, and Gerhard Rempe — Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Garching

We report on the controlled phase shaping of a light pulse containing a single photon. The single photon is sent through a fiber electro-optical modulator, and the applied phase change is confirmed via interference with a second unmodulated reference photon. According to Hong et al. [1], coalescence is expected for indistinguishable photons. This effect is insensitive to shot-to-shot phase changes but depends on phase changes that occur during the evolution of the light pulse [2]. For instance, the application of a sudden pi-phase change in the middle of the photon wave packet results in maximally distinguishable photons and, hence, a disappearance of the interference effect. However, a time-resolved evaluation proves that this is caused by averaging over two subgroups that show clear photon coalescence and anticoalescence, respectively. Moreover, our scheme allows for arbitrary phase shapes. For example, a linear phase ramp represents a change in the frequency of the photon, and results in characteristic oscillations in the time-resolved two-photon interference [2].

[1] C. K. Hong et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 59, 2044 - 2046 (1987)

[2] T. Legero et al. Adv. At., Mol., Opt. Phys. 53, 253 - 289 (2006)