Shaping single photons and biphotons by inherent losses

Inherent loss is always to be avoided in generating single photons or biphotons, but interestingly it provides opportunities for manipulating the photon wave packet. In this paper we show how inherent loss in parametric down-conversion can be employed to tailor the wave packets of single photons and biphotons. As an example, we propose a scheme to realize a single photon in a single cycle using inherent loss. Our work has potential applications in quantum communication, quantum computation, and quantum interface.