Generation of frequency sidebands on single photons with indistinguishability from quantum dots

Abstract

Generation and manipulation of the quantum state of a single photon is at the heart of many quantum information protocols. There has been growing interest in using phase modulators as quantum optics devices that preserve coherence. In this Rapid Communication, we have used an electro-optic phase modulator to shape the state vector of single photons emitted by a quantum dot to generate new frequency components (modes) and explicitly demonstrate that the phase modulation process agrees with the theoretical prediction at a single-photon level. Through two-photon interference measurements we show that for an output consisting of three modes (the original mode and two sidebands), the indistinguishability of the mode engineered photon, measured through the second-order intensity correlation [g^2(0)] is preserved. This work demonstrates a robust means to generate a photonic qubit or more complex state (e.g., a qutrit) for quantum communication applications by encoding information in the sidebands without the loss of coherence.