Hong-Ou-Mandel interference between independent III-V on silicon waveguide integrated lasers.

The versatility of silicon photonic integrated circuits has led to a widespread usage of this platform for quantum information-based applications, including quantum key distribution (QKD). However, the integration of simple high-repetition-rate photon sources is yet to be achieved. The use of weak-coherent pulses (WCPs) could represent a viable solution. For example, measurement device independent QKD (MDI-QKD) envisions the use of WCPs to distill a secret key immune to detector side channel attacks at large distances. Thus, the integration of III-V lasers on silicon waveguides is an interesting prospect for quantum photonics. Here we report the experimental observation of Hong-Ou-Mandel interference with 46±2% visibility between WCPs generated by two independent III-V on silicon waveguide integrated lasers. This quantum interference effect is at the heart of many applications, including MDI-QKD. This Letter represents a substantial first step towards an implementation of MDI-QKD fully integrated in silicon and could be beneficial for other applications such as standard QKD and novel quantum communication protocols.

Shape-preserving and unidirectional frequency conversion by four-wave mixing.

In this work, we investigate the properties of four-wave mixing Bragg scattering driven by orthogonally polarized pumps in a birefringent waveguide. This configuration enables a large signal conversion bandwidth, and allows strongly unidirectional frequency conversion as undesired Bragg-scattering processes are suppressed by waveguide birefringence. Moreover, we show that this form of Bragg scattering preserves the (arbitrary) signal pulse shape, even when driven by pulsed pumps.

Engineering spectrally unentangled photon pairs from nonlinear microring resonators by pump manipulation.

The future of integrated quantum photonics relies heavily on the ability to engineer refined methods for preparing the quantum states needed to implement various quantum protocols. An important example of such states is quantum-correlated photon pairs, which can be efficiently generated using spontaneous nonlinear processes in integrated microring-resonator structures. In this work, we propose a method for generating spectrally unentangled photon pairs from a standard microring resonator. The method utilizes interference between a primary and a delayed secondary pump pulse to effectively increase the pump spectral width inside the cavity. This enables on-chip generation of heralded single photons with state purities in excess of 99% without spectral filtering.

Generation of two-temporal-mode photon states by vector four-wave mixing.

Photon pair states and multiple-photon squeezed states have many applications in quantum information science. In this paper, Green functions are derived for spontaneous four-wave mixing in the low- and high-gain regimes. Nondegenerate four-wave mixing in a strongly-birefringent medium generates signal and idler photons that are associated with only one pair of temporal (Schmidt) modes, for a wide range of pump powers and arbitrary pump shapes. The Schmidt coefficients (expected photon numbers) depend sensitively on the pump powers, and the Schmidt functions (shapes of the photon wavepackets) depend sensitively on the pump powers and shapes, which can be controlled.

Temporal mode selectivity by frequency conversion in second-order nonlinear optical waveguides: erratum.

We correct typographical errors in four equations showing the integral forms of the equations of motion and the corresponding perturbative approximation. Subsequently presented derivations, results, and conclusions remain unchanged.

Inter-modal four-wave mixing study in a two-mode fiber.

We demonstrate efficient four-wave mixing among different spatial modes in a 1-km long two-mode fiber at telecommunication wavelengths. Two pumps excite the LP01 and LP11 modes, respectively, while the probe signal excites the LP01 mode, and the phase conjugation (PC) and Bragg scattering (BS) idlers are generated in the LP11 mode. For these processes we experimentally characterize their phase matching efficiency and bandwidth and find that they depend critically on the wavelength separation of the two pumps, in good agreement with the numerical study we carried out. We also confirm experimentally that BS has a larger bandwidth than PC for the optimum choice of the pump wavelength separation.

Sub-100 fs pulses from an all-polarization maintaining Yb-fiber oscillator with an anomalous dispersion higher-order-mode fiber.

We present an Yb-fiber oscillator with an all-polarization-maintaining cavity with a higher-order-mode fiber for dispersion compensation. The polarization maintaining higher order mode fiber introduces not only negative second order dispersion but also negative third order dispersion in the cavity, in contrast to dispersion compensation schemes used in previous demonstrations of all-polarization maintaining Yb-fiber oscillators. The performance of the saturable absorber mirror modelocked oscillator, that employs a free space scheme for coupling onto the saturable absorber mirror and output coupling, was investigated for different settings of the intracavity dispersion. When the cavity is operated with close to zero net dispersion, highly stable 0.5-nJ pulses externally compressed to sub-100-fs are generated. These are to our knowledge the shortest pulses generated from an all-polarization-maintaining Yb-fiber oscillator. The spectral phase of the output pulses is well behaved and can be compensated such that wing-free Fourier transform limited pulses can be obtained. Further reduction of the net intracavity third order dispersion will allow generating broader output spectra and consequently shorter pulses, without sacrificing pulse fidelity.

Temporal mode sorting using dual-stage quantum frequency conversion by asymmetric Bragg scattering.

The temporal shape of single photons provides a high-dimensional basis of temporal modes, and can therefore support quantum computing schemes that go beyond the qubit. However, the lack of linear optical components to act as quantum gates has made it challenging to efficiently address specific temporal-mode components from an arbitrary superposition. Recent progress towards realizing such a "quantum pulse gate," has been proposed using nonlinear optical signal processing to add coherently the effect of multiple stages of quantum frequency conversion. This scheme, called temporal-mode interferometry [D. V. Reddy, Phys. Rev. A 91, 012323 (2015)], has been shown in the case of three-wave mixing to promise near-unity mode-sorting efficiency. Here we demonstrate that it is also possible to achieve high mode-sorting efficiency using four-wave mixing, if one pump pulse is long and the other short - a configuration we call asymmetrically-pumped Bragg scattering.

Interference patterns and extinction ratio of the diatom Coscinodiscus granii.

We report experimental and theoretical verification of the nature and position of multiple interference points of visible light transmitted through the valve of the centric diatom species Coscinodiscus granii. Furthermore, by coupling the transmitted light into an optical fiber and moving the diatom valve between constructive and destructive interference points, an extinction ratio of 20 dB is shown.

Temporal mode selectivity by frequency conversion in second-order nonlinear optical waveguides.

We explore theoretically the feasibility of using frequency conversion by sum- or difference-frequency generation, enabled by three-wave-mixing, for selectively multiplexing orthogonal input waveforms that overlap in time and frequency. Such a process would enable a drop device for use in a transparent optical network using temporally orthogonal waveforms to encode different channels. We model the process using coupled-mode equations appropriate for wave mixing in a uniform second-order nonlinear optical medium pumped by a strong laser pulse. We find Green functions describing the process, and employ Schmidt (singular-value) decompositions thereof to quantify its viability in functioning as a coherent waveform discriminator. We define a selectivity figure of merit in terms of the Schmidt coefficients, and use it to compare and contrast various parameter regimes via extensive numerical computations. We identify the most favorable regime (at least in the case of no pump chirp) and derive the complete analytical solution for the same. We bound the maximum achievable selectivity in this parameter space. We show that including a frequency chirp in the pump does not improve selectivity in this optimal regime. We also find an operating regime in which high-efficiency frequency conversion without temporal-shape selectivity can be achieved while preserving the shapes of a wide class of input pulses. The results are applicable to both classical and quantum frequency conversion.

Raman and loss induced quantum noise in depleted fiber optical parametric amplifiers.

We present a semi-classical approach for predicting the quantum noise properties of fiber optical parametric amplifiers. The unavoidable contributors of noise, vacuum fluctuations, loss-induced noise, and spontaneous Raman scattering, are included in the analysis of both phase-insensitive and phase-sensitive amplifiers. We show that the model agrees with earlier fully quantum approaches in the linear gain regime, whereas in the saturated gain regime, in which the classical equations are valid, we predict that the amplifier increases the signal-to-noise ratio by generating an amplitude-squeezed state of light. Also, in the same process, we analyze the quantum noise properties of the pump, which is difficult using standard quantum approaches, and we discover that the pump displays complicated dynamics in both the linear and the nonlinear gain regimes.

Effects of nonlinear phase modulation on Bragg scattering in the low-conversion regime.

In this paper, we consider the effects of nonlinear phase modulation on frequency conversion by four-wave mixing (Bragg scattering) in the low-conversion regime. We derive the Green functions for this process using the time-domain collision method, for partial collisions, in which the four fields interact at the beginning or the end of the fiber, and complete collisions, in which the four fields interact at the midpoint of the fiber. If the Green function is separable, there is only one output Schmidt mode, which is free from temporal entanglement. We find that nonlinear phase modulation always chirps the input and output Schmidt modes and renders the Green function formally nonseparable. However, by pre-chirping the pumps, one can reduce the chirps of the Schmidt modes and enable approximate separability. Thus, even in the presence of nonlinear phase modulation, frequency conversion with arbitrary pulse reshaping is possible, as predicted previously [Opt. Express 20, 8367-8396 (2012)].

Polarization-maintaining higher-order mode fiber module with anomalous dispersion at 1 µm.

This Letter demonstrates a polarization-maintaining higher-order mode fiber module that has anomalous dispersion at 1 µm. The group velocity dispersion of the module is measured, showing a split of the two polarization axes. The excellent polarization-maintaining properties of the relevant fiber modes for the higher-order mode fiber are likewise demonstrated employing a new simple method for the measurement of the beat length of higher-order modes at a single wavelength. The higher-order fiber module is intended for group velocity dispersion compensation.

Quantum frequency translation by four-wave mixing in a fiber: low-conversion regime.

In this paper we consider frequency translation enabled by Bragg scattering, a four-wave mixing process. First we introduce the theoretical background of the Green function formalism and the Schmidt decomposition. Next the Green functions for the low-conversion regime are derived perturbatively in the frequency domain, using the methods developed for three-wave mixing, then transformed to the time domain. These results are also derived and verified using an alternative time-domain method, the results of which are more general. For the first time we include the effects of convecting pumps, a more realistic assumption, and show that separability and arbitrary reshaping is possible. This is confirmed numerically for Gaussian pumps as well as higher-order Hermite-Gaussian pumps.

Experimental methods and modeling techniques for description of cell population heterogeneity.

With the continuous development, in the last decades, of analytical techniques providing complex information at single cell level, the study of cell heterogeneity has been the focus of several research projects within analytical biotechnology. Nonetheless, the complex interplay between environmental changes and cellular responses is yet not fully understood, and the integration of this new knowledge into the strategies for design, operation and control of bioprocesses is far from being an established reality. Indeed, the impact of cell heterogeneity on productivity of large scale cultivations is acknowledged but seldom accounted for. In order to include population heterogeneity mechanisms in the development of novel bioprocess control strategies, a reliable mathematical description of such phenomena has to be developed. With this review, we search to summarize the potential of currently available methods for monitoring cell population heterogeneity as well as model frameworks suitable for describing dynamic heterogeneous cell populations. We will furthermore underline the highly important coordination between experimental and modeling efforts necessary to attain a reliable quantitative description of cell heterogeneity, which is a necessity if such models are to contribute to the development of improved control of bioprocesses.

Full and semi-analytic analyses of two-pump parametric amplification with pump depletion.

This paper solves the four coupled equations describing non-degenerate four-wave mixing, with the focus on amplifying a signal in a fiber optical parametric amplifier (FOPA). Based on the full analytic solution, a simple approximate solution describing the gain is developed. The advantage of this new approximation is that it includes the depletion of the pumps, which is lacking in the usual quasi-linearized approximation. With the proposed model it is thus simple to predict the gain of a FOPA, which we demonstrate with a highly nonlinear fiber to show that an undepleted FOPA can produce a flat gain spectrum with a bandwidth in the 100-nm range, centered on the zero-dispersion wavelength. When running the FOPA in depletion, this range can be slightly increased.

Self-pulsation threshold of Raman amplified Brillouin fiber cavities.

An implicit equation for the oscillation threshold of stimulated Brillouin scattering from Raman amplified signals in fibers with external feedback is derived under the assumption of no depletion. This is compared to numerical investigations of Raman amplification schemes showing good agreement for high reflectivities. For low reflectivities and high attenuation or long fibers, the assumption of no depletion is shown not to be valid. In these cases the effects of the depletion on the self-pulsation is examined.

730-nm optical parametric conversion from near- to short-wave infrared band.

A record 730 nm parametric conversion in silica fiber from the near-infrared to the short-wave infrared band is reported and analyzed. A parametric gain in excess of 30 dB was measured for a signal at 1300 nm (with corresponding idler at 2030 nm). This conversion was performed in a travelling single-pass one-pump parametric architecture and high efficiency is achieved by a combination of high peak power and a nonlinear fiber with a reduced fourth-order dispersion coefficient.

polarization sensitivity of the nonlinear amplifying loop mirror.

A detalled investigation of the coupled dynamlcs of the copropagatlng and counterpropagatlng polarlzation states in the optical loop fiber of a nonlinear amplifying loop mirror is performed Analysis of the dynamlcs yields evidence for the existence of a polarization-insensitive cofiguration of the device.

91-km attenuation-free transmission with low noise accumulation by use of distributed erbium-doped fiber.

Transparency of a 91-km distributed erbium-doped fiber is achieved with 0.46 mW/km of pump power at a signal power of -12 d Bm. The accumulation of amplif ier noise is measured to be smaller than the minimum noise accumulation that can be achieved in a 91-km link with two lumped amplifiers separated by 45 km.