Quantum frequency conversion to telecom of single photons from a nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond

Abstract

We report on the conversion to telecom wavelength of single photons emitted by a nitrogen-vacancy (NV) defect in diamond. By means of difference frequency generation, we convert spin-selective photons at 637 nm, associated with the coherent NV zero-phonon-line, to the target wavelength of 1588 nm in the L-telecom band. The successful conversion is evidenced by time-resolved detection revealing a telecom photon lifetime identical to that of the original 637 nm photon. Furthermore, we show by second-order correlation measurements that the single-photon statistics are preserved. The overall efficiency of this one-step conversion reaches 17\% in our current setup, along with a signal-to-noise ratio of $\approx$7 despite the low probability $(< 10^{-3})$ of an incident 637 nm photon. This result shows the potential for efficient telecom photon - NV center interfaces and marks an important step towards future long-range entanglement-based quantum networks.