Heralded Single Photons Based on Spectral Multiplexing and Feed-Forward Control

Phys Rev Lett. 2017 Aug 25;119(8):083601. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.083601. Epub 2017 Aug 25.

Abstract

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a novel approach to a heralded single-photon source based on spectral multiplexing (SMUX) and feed-forward-based spectral manipulation of photons created by means of spontaneous parametric down-conversion in a periodically poled LiNbO_{3} crystal. As a proof of principle, we show that our three-mode SMUX increases the heralded single-photon rate compared to that of the individual modes without compromising the quality of the emitted single photons. We project that by adding further modes, our approach can lead to a deterministic single-photon source.