Hamburg 2009 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 30: Poster II

Q 30.44: Poster

Tuesday, March 3, 2009, 16:30–19:00, VMP 9 Poster

Phase modulation of single photons — •Eden Figueroa, Jörg Bochmann, David Moehring, Martin Mücke, Christian Nölleke, Stephan Ritter, Holger Specht, and Gerhard Rempe — Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Garching

Recently, photonic sources with the capability to tailor the bandwidth of single photons have been developed. Using either DCLZ schemes in atomic ensembles or atoms trapped in QED cavities the production of long photons (as compared to the detection time) has been achieved. The production of photons with these characteristics enables the high frequency modulation of the photon shape, opening interesting avenues for research [1]. In this work we extend these ideas, by studying the effect of phase modulation in the interference of two photons produced by atoms trapped in a QED cavity. One single photon is sent through a fiber electro-optical modulator, and the result of the applied phase change is studied via its interference with a second un-modulated reference photon. If no modulation is introduced, a Hong-Ou-Mandel behavior is expected. Interestingly, if a phase change is applied within the photon envelope, the coalescence behavior of the interference can be altered. This scheme can be applied in the context of quantum key distribution as proposed by Inoue et al. [2], and might compare favorably to the latter, since intrinsically it does not require phase stability.

[1] P. Kolchin, et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 103601 (2008)

[2] K. Inoue et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 037902 (2002)