High‐Resolution Single Photon Level Storage of Telecom Light Based on Thin Film Lithium Niobate Photonics

Abstract

AbstractThis study presents an experimental analysis of high‐resolution single photon buffers based on low‐loss thin film lithium niobate (TFLN) photonic devices operating at room temperature. While dynamically controlling writing and reading operations within picosecond timescales poses a challenge, the devices are capable of resolving 102.8 ± 4.6 ps time step with ‐0.89 dB loss per round‐trip and 197.7 ± 6.6 ps time steps with ‐1.29 dB loss per round‐trip, respectively. These results imply that the devices are at the cutting edge of on‐chip technology, performing in the current state of the art at the single photon level. Both of the single photon buffers do not introduce any detrimental effects and provide a high signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR). The room‐temperature, low‐loss, and voltage‐controlled TFLN buffers combine scalable architecture with relatively high buffering capacity in the sub‐nanosecond regime and are expected to unlock many novel photonics applications such as temporally multiplexed single photon sources.