Quantum Frequency Conversion of Single Photons from a Nitrogen-Vacancy Center in Diamond to Telecommunication Wavelengths

Journal article (2018)

Authors

A.E. Dréau QN/Quantum Transport , QID/Hanson Lab - QuTech Advanced Research Centre , Université de Montpellier
A. El Mahdaoui ImPhys/Practicum support
C. Bonato QID/Hanson Lab - QuTech Advanced Research Centre , QN/Quantum Transport
R. Hanson QN/Hanson Lab - AS , QID/Hanson Lab - QuTech Advanced Research Centre
Research Group
QID/Hanson Lab (QuTech Advanced Research Centre) (TU Delft)
Copyright: © 2018 A.E. Dréau, Anna Tcheborateva, A. El Mahdaoui, C. Bonato, R. Hanson
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.9.064031
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Published Date

19-06-2018

Language

English

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Faculty

QuTech Advanced Research Centre

Department

Quantum Internet Division

Research Group

QID/Hanson Lab

Abstract

We report on the conversion to telecommunication wavelengths of single photons emitted by a nitrogen-vacancy (NV) defect in diamond. By means of difference frequency generation, we convert spin-selective photons at 637 nm, associated with the coherent NV zero-phonon line, to the target wavelength of 1588 nm in the L-telecommunication band. The successful conversion is evidenced by time-resolved detection revealing a telecommunication-photon lifetime identical to that of the original 637-nm photon. Furthermore, we show by second-order correlation measurements that the single-photon statistics are preserved. The overall efficiency of this one-step conversion reaches 17% in our current setup, along with a signal-to-noise ratio of approximately 7 despite the low probability (<10-3) of an incident 637-nm photon. This result shows the potential for efficient telecommunication-photon-NV-center interfaces and marks an important step towards future long-range entanglement-based quantum networks.