Shaping Single Photons through Multimode Optical Fibers using Mechanical Perturbations
arXiv:2306.02288 · doi:10.1063/5.0161654
Abstract
The capacity of information delivered by single photons is boosted by encoding high-dimensional quantum dits in their transverse shape. Transporting such high-dimensional quantum dits in optical networks may be accomplished using multimode optical fibers, which support the low-loss transmission of multiple spatial modes over existing infrastructure. However, when photons propagate through a multimode fiber their transverse shape gets scrambled because of mode mixing and modal interference. This is usually corrected using free-space spatial light modulators, inhibiting a robust all-fiber operation. In this work, we demonstrate an all-fiber approach for controlling the shape of single photons and the spatial correlations between entangled photon pairs, using carefully controlled mechanical perturbations of the fiber. We optimize these perturbations to localize the spatial distribution of a single photon or the spatial correlations of photon pairs in a single spot, enhancing the signal in the optimized spot by over an order of magnitude. Using the same approach we show a similar enhancement for coupling light from a multimode fiber into a single-mode fiber.
References in corpus (10)
- Satellite-to-ground quantum key distribution
- Efficient and mode selective spatial mode multiplexer based on Multi-Plane Light Conversion
- Progress in satellite quantum key distribution
- Controlling light propagation in multimode fibers for imaging, spectroscopy and beyond
- A high-brightness source of polarization-entangled photons optimized for applications in free space
- Fiber-based photon pair generation: a tutorial
- Two-photon speckle as a probe of multi-dimensional entanglement
- How to build the optical inverse of a multimode fibre
- Shaping entangled photons through emulated turbulent atmosphere
- Spectral Shaping in a Multimode Fiber by All-fiber Modulation