Two-photon interference in the telecom C-band after frequency conversion of photons from remote quantum emitters

Efficient fiber-based long-distance quantum communication via quantum repeaters relies on deterministic single-photon sources at telecom wavelengths, with the potential to exploit the existing world-wide infrastructures. For upscaling the experimental complexity in quantum networking, two-photon interference (TPI) of remote non-classical emitters in the low-loss telecom bands is of utmost importance. With respect to TPI of distinct emitters, several experiments have been conducted, e.g., using trapped atoms [Beugnon2006], ions [Maunz2007], NV-centers [Bernien2012, Sipahigil2012], SiV-centers [Sipahigil2014], organic molecules [Lettow2010] and semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) [Patel2010, Flagg2010, He2013b, Gold2014, Giesz2015, Thoma2017, Reindl2017, Zopf2017]; however, the spectral range was far from the highly desirable telecom C-band. Here, we report on TPI at 1550 nm between down-converted single photons from remote QDs [Michler2017Book], demonstrating quantum frequency conversion [Zaske2012, Ates2012, Kambs2016] as precise and stable mechanism to erase the frequency difference between independent emitters. On resonance, a TPI-visibility of (29+-3)% has been observed, being only limited by spectral diffusion processes of the individual QDs [Robinson2000, Kuhlmann2015]. Up to 2-km of additional fiber channel has been introduced in both or individual signal paths with no influence on TPI-visibility, proving negligible photon wave-packet distortion. The present experiment is conducted within a local fiber network covering several rooms between two floors of the building. Our studies pave the way to establish long-distance entanglement distribution between remote solid-state emitters including interfaces with various quantum hybrid systems [DeGreve2012,Maring2017,Bock2017,Maring2018].