Shaping single photons through multimode optical fibers using mechanical perturbations

Ronen Shekel, Ohad Lib, Rodrigo Gutiérrez-Cuevas, Sébastien M. Popoff, Alexander Ling, Yaron Bromberg

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Multimode optical fibers support low-loss transmission of multiple spatial modes, allowing for the transport of high-dimensional, spatially encoded information. In particular, encoding quantum information in the transverse shape of photons may boost the capacity of quantum channels while using existing infrastructure. However, when photons propagate through a multimode fiber, their transverse shape gets scrambled because of mode mixing and modal interference. This is usually corrected using free-space spatial light modulators, inhibiting a robust all-fiber operation. In this work, we demonstrate an all-fiber approach for controlling the shape of single photons and the spatial correlations between entangled photon pairs, using carefully controlled mechanical perturbations of the fiber. We optimize these perturbations to localize the spatial distribution of a single photon or the spatial correlations of photon pairs in a single spot, enhancing the signal in the optimized spot by over an order of magnitude. Using the same approach, we show a similar enhancement for coupling light from a multimode fiber into a single-mode fiber.

Original languageAmerican English
Article number096109
JournalAPL Photonics
Volume8
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Sep 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was supported by the Zuckerman STEM Leadership Program and the ISF-NRF Singapore joint research program (Grant No. 3538/20). O.L. acknowledges the support of the Clore Scholars Programme of the Clore Israel Foundation. S.M.P. and R.G.-C. acknowledge the support of the French Agence Nationale pour la Recherche (Grant No. ANR-20-CE24-0016 MUPHTA) and Labex WIFI (Grant Nos. ANR-10-LABX-24 and ANR-10-IDEX-0001-02 PSL*).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Author(s).

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