Sparrow Quantum, in collaboration with Ruhr University Bochum, has developed a deterministic source capable of delivering over 500 million usable photons per second in a single-mode fiber. This was reported by The Quantum Insider, citing the company’s press release.
According to Sparrow Quantum, the system operates at a frequency of 1 GHz and achieves fiber coupling efficiency above 50%. The company also highlighted the high purity of single photons and their indistinguishability without spectral filtering. Sparrow Quantum claims this is the highest published rate of single photon flow.
The flow exceeds 100 pW of optical power, measurable with a standard optical power meter. The company believes the development is suitable for metrology, serving as a photon flow standard and a tool for calibrating single-photon detectors.
After being split into 10 channels via space-time demultiplexing, the source reportedly delivers tens of millions of photons per second per channel. Sparrow Quantum asserts this is sufficient for practical experiments with 10 photons and interference of approximately 10–20 particles. Potential applications include quantum computing, networking, communications, and metrology.
Juan Carlos Loredo, Sparrow Quantum’s Vice President of Innovation, stated that the new photon flow level removes some limitations for multi-photon experiments. Company founder Peter Lodahl identified scalable generation and control of entanglement in larger photonic quantum systems as the next major challenge.
In August, an international team of scientists achieved quantum entanglement from sunlight.
