Heralded single-photon generation using imperfect single-photon sources and a two-photon-absorbing medium

Abstract

We propose a setup for a heralded, i.e. announced generation of a pure single-photon state given two imperfect sources whose outputs are represented by mixtures of the single-photon Fock state $|1⟩$ with the vacuum $|0⟩$. Our purification scheme uses beam splitters, photodetection and a two-photon-absorbing medium. The admixture of the vacuum is fully eliminated. We discuss two potential realizations of the scheme.

22 pages, 8 figures (LaTeX). In version v2 we have slightly modified our setup so as to increase the success probability of single-photon generation by a factor of two. In addition, in an appendix we discuss alternative realizations of single-photon generation without a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. Three new figures have been added. Version v3 is a revised version published in Phys. Rev. A. It contains numerous minor corrections and clarifications. A new figure has been added in order to clarify our convention regarding labelling the field modes. The action of the beam splitters in the Schroedinger picture is introduced. A new reference has been included

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Cited by in corpus (4)

• Creation of high-quality long-distance entanglement with flexible resources
• Single Photon Source Using Laser Pulses and Two-Photon Absorption
• Squeezed state purification with linear optics and feed forward
• Production of heralded pure single photons from imperfect sources using cross phase modulation