Acousto Optics – a Key Enabler for Realisation of the Quantum Technology Dream

19 Jan 2024

Photon Lines Ltd is a leading supplier to the photonics community in the UK and Ireland, offering a wide range of products including complete systems as complex as the latest super resolution microscopes, to state-of-the-art components such as microspectrometers and acousto optic devices. A topic that is dominating the efforts of the photonics research community around the world is Quantum Technology, and nowhere is more active in the field than the UK, where a significant number of university research departments and startup companies working in the field are located.

A major contributor to the successful development of quantum optics solutions is Photon Lines’ partner, AA Optoelectronic. AA’s product range includes both the acousto-optic (AO) frequency shifters, modulators and deflectors, as well as acousto optic drivers, all of which need to be optimised to their peak performance for such sensitive and precise applications to be successfully implemented.

Acousto optics is used to control the highly stable single frequency lasers that are used in many quantum systems, including allowing the user to shift that single frequency by precisely known amounts, in order to alter the quantum states of qubits, the units of quantum information. AO is also used to alter the phase, intensity and polarisation states of the beam in 10’s of nanoseconds, as well as to deflect the beam rapidly and precisely. Indeed, the ability to switch the photons from one polarizer to another to detect their polarisation states was key to the successful implementation of an experiment involving entangled photons, ultimately leading to a Nobel prize in Physics in 2022 to Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser and Anton Zeilinger "for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science”, see https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2022/summary

As these laboratory experiments are moving to prototype systems and beyond, there is a growing need for stable and accurate multiple output drivers, and AA have recently developed compact and user friendly 2, 4 and 8 output drivers which have been honed for the specific needs of the applications. In addition to the standard models shown, AA are soon to deliver rack mounted versions. All of these RF drivers are compatible with AA’s own and other manufacturers’ AO modulators, frequency shifters and acousto optic deflectors, and they are considered to be of high quality and impressive performance by current users. The multi output drivers are based on DDS (Direct Digital Synthesizers) which offer high frequency, accuracy and stability. Each DDS operates with a common clock reference so that they provide phase locked output signals when driven at the same frequency. The frequency and power are driven via USB/RS232 communications ports and external control signals allow use for fast AM control of the channels/outputs. Embedded power amplifiers offer up to 4 watts per output and the manufacturer AA will provide external power amplifiers for higher powers.

Want to know more?  Click here.