Efficient microwave to optical photon conversion: An electro-optical realization

Rueda A, Sedlmeir F, Collodo M, Vogl U, Stiller B, Schunk G, Strekalov DV, Marquardt C, Fink JM, Painter O, Leuchs G, Schwefel HGL (2016)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2016

Journal

Book Volume: 3

Pages Range: 597-604

Article Number: 259508

Journal Issue: 6

DOI: 10.1364/OPTICA.3.000597

Abstract

Linking classical microwave electrical circuits to the optical telecommunication band is at the core of modern communication. Future quantum information networks will require coherent microwave-to-optical conversion to link electronic quantum processors and memories via low-loss optical telecommunication networks. Efficient conversion can be achieved with electro-optical modulators operating at the single microwave photon level. In the standard electro-optic modulation scheme, this is impossible because both up- and down-converted sidebands are necessarily present. Here, we demonstrate true single-sideband up- or down-conversion in a triply resonant whispering gallery mode resonator by explicitly addressing modes with asymmetric free spectral range. Compared to previous experiments, we show a 3 orders of magnitude improvement of the electro-optical conversion efficiency, reaching 0.1% photon number conversion for a 10 GHz microwave tone at 0.42 mW of optical pump power. The presented scheme is fully compatible with existing superconducting 3D circuit quantum electrodynamics technology and can be used for nonclassical state conversion and communication. Our conversion bandwidth is larger than 1 MHz and is not fundamentally limited.

Authors with CRIS profile

Involved external institutions

University of Otago New Zealand (NZ) Max-Planck-Institut für die Physik des Lichts (MPL) / Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light Germany (DE) California Institute of Technology (Caltech) United States (USA) (US)

How to cite

APA:

Rueda, A., Sedlmeir, F., Collodo, M., Vogl, U., Stiller, B., Schunk, G.,... Schwefel, H.G.L. (2016). Efficient microwave to optical photon conversion: An electro-optical realization. Optica, 3(6), 597-604. https://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OPTICA.3.000597

MLA:

Rueda, Alfredo, et al. "Efficient microwave to optical photon conversion: An electro-optical realization." Optica 3.6 (2016): 597-604.

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