2025/04/16 by Kate L. Fenwick, Fenwick, Kate L., Frédéric Bouchard +17 · 1 citation
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #Optics (physics.optics) #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #Quantum optics and atomic interactions
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2504.12376
openalex publication_date 2025/04/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
A crucial component of photonic quantum information processing platforms is the ability to modulate, route, convert, and switch quantum states of light noiselessly with low insertion loss. For instance, a high-speed, low-loss optical switch is crucial for scaling quantum photonic systems that rely on measurement-based feed-forward approaches. Such a device will also ideally be capable of operating on photon-number states, which can act as non-Gaussian resources. Here, we demonstrate ultrafast all-optical switching of heralded photon-number states, of up to 6 photons, using the optical Kerr effect in a single-mode fiber. A local birefringence is created by a high-intensity pump pulse at a center wavelength of 1030 nm which overlaps temporally with the 1550 nm photons in the fiber. A switching efficiency of >99 % is reached with a resolution of 2.3 ps, an insertion loss of 2.27±0.08 dB, and a signal-to-noise ratio of 32,000.