Development of a Quantum Optical Setup for Single Photon Experiments

Following the work of E. Galvez (Colgate University), we constructed a quantum optical setup to control and detect single photons generated via Type-I spontaneous parametric down conversion using a barium-borate crystal. The photons were detected in coincidence using a Field Programmable Gate Array. The data acquisition and user interfaces to manipulate the photon counts were programmed in LabVIEW. We aligned a beam-splitter into our optical setup to measure the degree of second-order coherence of the Ga-N laser, a quantity used to investigate the existence of the photon. We aligned a Mach-Zhender interferometer into our optical setup to measure single photon interference and to perform the quantum eraser experiment.