Single atom photon pair source

Abstract

Sources of entangled photon pairs are a crucial ingredient for many applications in quantum information and communication. Of particular interest are narrow-band sources with bandwidths that are compatible with solid state systems such as atomic media for storage and manipulation of the photons. Here, we experimentally realize a source of energy-time entangled photon pairs where the photons pairs are generated by scattering light from a single two-level atom and separated from the coherently scattered light via a narrow-band filter. We verify the performance of our pair-source by measuring the second order correlation function of the atomic fluorescence and we observe that one can continuously tune the photon statistics of the atomic fluorescence from perfect photon anti-bunching to strong photon bunching expected for a photon pair source. Our experiment demonstrates a novel way to realize a photon pair source for photons with spectral bandwidths and resonance frequencies that are inherently compatible with atomic media.