An extremely low-noise heralded single-photon source: A breakthrough for quantum technologies

Low noise single-photon sources are a critical element for quantum technologies. We present a heralded single-photon source with an extremely low level of residual background photons, by implementing low-jitter detectors and electronics and a fast custom-made pulse generator controlling an optical shutter (a LiNbO3 waveguide optical switch) on the output of the source. This source has a second-order autocorrelation g((2))(0) = 0.005(7), and an output noise factor (defined as the ratio of the number of noise photons to total photons at the source output channel) of 0.25(1)%. These are the best performance characteristics reported to date. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4768288]