Hue- Manatee: temporal and spectral multiplexing for super high-efficiency photon sources

单光子是未来量子技术产业的主力，是高保真量子计算、量子通信、量子成像和某些类型的量子传感的基本组成部分。然而，到目前为止，市场上还没有真正的高质量、高效率、难以区分的单光子源。由于许多原因，目前市场上的单光子源并不理想。包括ORCA目前的光源在内，所有这些光源的效率都在1-15%之间，远远不能满足“按需”的要求（在大多数时间里，单光子应该存在的空间都是“空白”的）。已经证明的最有效的来源是复杂的自由空间实验，其效率达到30%以上，然而，这些还远远不适合可靠的产品。量子点光源可以达到15%的效率，但是由于光子从一个光子漂移到另一个光子，或者从一个光源漂移到另一个光源的特性，量子点光源是不稳定的。所有这些特性都降低了质量，也就是光子之间相互作用的保真度，并使它们在用于量子计算和通信时的性能从根本上变差（例如，限制了光子量子计算机可以扩展的距离）。在这个项目中，ORCA之前的Innovate UK项目“Manatee”中的时间复用技术将与全新的频谱复用技术一起实施。总之，这两种技术将结合在一个原型产品具有无与伦比的性能和效率。

Single photons are the workhorse of the future quantum technology industry, being a fundamental component to high fidelity quantum computing, quantum communications, quantum imaging and some types of quantum sensing. However, to date, no truly single photon sources of high quality, high efficiency, indistinguishable exists on the market. Current single photon sources on the market are not ideal for many reasons. All, including ORCA's current source, are very far from being 'on demand' with efficiencies between 1-15% (firing 'blanks' for most of the time, with spaces where the single photons should be). The most efficient sources that have been demonstrated are complex free space experiments, which achieve efficiencies of 30%+, however, these are far from being suitable for a reliable product. Quantum dot sources can achieve efficiencies of 15%, but are unstable, due to the properties of the photons drifting from one photon to another, or from one source to another.All of these properties diminish the quality, also known as the fidelity of interactions between photons, and make them fundamentally poorer in performance when used for quantum computing and communications (for example, limiting how far photonic quantum computers can be scaled up).In this project, temporal multiplexing techniques from ORCA's previous Innovate UK project 'Manatee' will be implemented alongside a completely new spectrally multiplexing technique. Together, the two techniques will be combined in a prototype product with unparalleled performance and efficiency.