Quantum Frequency Conversion of Single Photons from a Nitrogen-Vacancy Center in Diamond to Telecommunication Wavelengths
Anaïs Dréau (TU Delft - QN/Quantum Transport, Université de Montpellier, TU Delft - QID/Hanson Lab)
Anna Tcheborateva (TNO)
Aboubakr El Mahdaoui (TU Delft - ImPhys/Practicum support)
Cristian Bonato (TU Delft - QN/Quantum Transport, TU Delft - QID/Hanson Lab)
Ronald Hanson (TU Delft - QN/Hanson Lab, TU Delft - QID/Hanson Lab)
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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.