Manipulation of Single-Photon Wave Packets Via Kerr-Nonlinear Refractive Index Fronts

Light manipulation in waveguides has proven to be an important technology in the classical and quantum regimes. The frequency conversion in the quantum domain was proposed to change the photon's frequency distribution without affecting photons statistics [1] and is important for quantum networks, as well as creating superposition in frequency-encoded states [2]. Scalable quantum networks need noiseless conversion. A common approach for noiseless frequency conversion is electro-optical phase-shift-induced sideband creation. However, the magnitude of the frequency shift in this technology is rather restricted, limiting their processing bandwidth to sub-THz levels [2]. This necessitates a thorough design of the nonlinear interaction to utilize a deterministic approach to reshape single photons. Here, we demonstrate the use of Kerr-nonlinear refractive index fronts [3], [4] to optically manipulate the frequency of a single-photon wave packet.