Tailored single photons: Optical control of photons as the key to new photonic quantum technologies

(Phys.org.news) Physicists from Paderborn University have developed a novel concept for optical control of photons.  Inside Quantum Technology summarizes here:

This technique may be the key to new photonic quantum technologies generating individual photons—tiny particles of light that make up electromagnetic radiation—with tailored properties, the controlled manipulation of which is of fundamental importance for photonic quantum technologies.
Professor Stefan Schumacher, a physicist from Paderborn who was also involved in the study, says that they “created a laser-controlled down-conversion process from an excited state of the semiconductor quantum emitter to a virtual intermediate state, which led to single photon emission.”
Zrenner believes that the findings mark an important step towards tailored single photon emission from a photonic quantum system based on quantum optical principles.

Sandra K. Helsel, Ph.D. has been researching and reporting on frontier technologies since 1990.  She has her Ph.D. from the University of Arizona.