TY - JOUR T1 - On-demand indistinguishable single photons from an efficient and pure source based on a Rydberg ensemble Y1 - 2020 A1 - Dalia P. Ornelas-Huerta A1 - Alexander N. Craddock A1 - Elizabeth A. Goldschmidt A1 - Andrew J. Hachtel A1 - Yidan Wang A1 - P. Bienias A1 - Alexey V. Gorshkov A1 - Steve L. Rolston A1 - James V. Porto AB -

Single photons coupled to atomic systems have shown to be a promising platform for developing quantum technologies. Yet a bright on-demand, highly pure and highly indistinguishable single-photon source compatible with atomic platforms is lacking. In this work, we demonstrate such a source based on a strongly interacting Rydberg system. The large optical nonlinearities in a blockaded Rydberg ensemble convert coherent light into a single-collective excitation that can be coherently retrieved as a quantum field. We observe a single-transverse-mode efficiency up to 0.18(2), g(2)=2.0(1.5)×10−4, and indistinguishability of 0.982(7), making this system promising for scalable quantum information applications. Accounting for losses, we infer a generation probability up to 0.40(4). Furthermore, we investigate the effects of contaminant Rydberg excitations on the source efficiency. Finally, we introduce metrics to benchmark the performance of on-demand single-photon sources. 

UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2003.02202 ER -