TY - JOUR
T1 - Improving single photon sources via linear optics and photodetection
AU - Berry, Domimic W.
AU - Scheel, Stefan
AU - Knight, Peter L.
AU - Sanders, Barry C.
PY - 2004/3
Y1 - 2004/3
N2 - Triggered single-photon sources produce the vacuum state with nonzero
probability, but produce a much smaller multiphoton component. It is
therefore reasonable to approximate the output of these photon sources
as a mixture of the vacuum and single-photon states with probabilities 1−p and p, respectively. Here we are concerned with increasing the efficiency p
by directing multiple copies of the single-photon-vacuum mixture into a
linear optical device and applying photodetection on some outputs. We
prove that it is impossible, under certain conditions, to increase p
via linear optics and conditional preparation based on photodetection.
We also establish a class of photodetection events for which p
can be improved, although with an added multiphoton component. In
addition we prove that it is not possible to obtain perfect
single-photon states via this method from imperfect (p<1) inputs.
AB - Triggered single-photon sources produce the vacuum state with nonzero
probability, but produce a much smaller multiphoton component. It is
therefore reasonable to approximate the output of these photon sources
as a mixture of the vacuum and single-photon states with probabilities 1−p and p, respectively. Here we are concerned with increasing the efficiency p
by directing multiple copies of the single-photon-vacuum mixture into a
linear optical device and applying photodetection on some outputs. We
prove that it is impossible, under certain conditions, to increase p
via linear optics and conditional preparation based on photodetection.
We also establish a class of photodetection events for which p
can be improved, although with an added multiphoton component. In
addition we prove that it is not possible to obtain perfect
single-photon states via this method from imperfect (p<1) inputs.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33645240109&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevA.69.031806
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevA.69.031806
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:2542431430
SN - 1050-2947
VL - 69
SP - 1
EP - 4
JO - Physical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
JF - Physical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
IS - 3
M1 - 031806
ER -