Monolithic Source of Photon Pairs

Abstract

The creation of monolithically integratable sources of single and entangled photons is a top research priority with formidable challenges: The production, manipulation, and measurement of the photons should all occur in the same material platform, thereby fostering stability and scalability. Here we demonstrate efficient photon pair production in a semiconductor platform, gallium arsenide. Our results show type-I spontaneous parametric down-conversion of laser light from a 2.2 mm long Bragg-reflection waveguide, and we estimate its internal pair production efficiency to be 2.0×10(-8) (pairs/pump photon). This is the first time that significant pair production has been demonstrated in a structure that can be electrically self-pumped and which can form the basis for passive optical circuitry, bringing us markedly closer to complete integration of quantum optical technologies.

Integrated frequency comb source of heralded single photons

“…On the other hand, quantum logic ports and circuits for quantum computing algorithms have been demonstrated in integrated photonic chips [1,2]. It is foreseeable that on-chip sources of single and entangled photons at telecom wavelengths will represent a key enabling technology for quantum communication and computing [3], thus motivating an intense research activity [4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. Among the different approaches proposed so far, microcavities [11] are a very promising solution because of the field enhancement that they provide (for example the pair production rate for a χ (3) triply resonant cavity scales as the sixth power of the cavity enhancement factor [12]).…”

Multifrequency sources of quantum correlated photon pairs on-chip: a path toward integrated Quantum Frequency Combs

“…On the one hand, photonic chips able to realize the logic ports required for quantum computing have been recently demonstrated [11,12]. On the other hand, an intense research activity has been dedicated to implement on chip sources of single and entangled photons [6,7,[13][14][15][16][17]. A detailed review on the genesis and evolution of integrated quantum optics can be found in [18].…”

“…In this last case, the relevant property of the two photons is that they are generated exactly at the same time, and thus can be exploited for heralding the presence of one single photon on the idler beam upon detection of a photon in the signal beam. While SPDC is nowadays a common tool in many quantum optical labs for generating quantum states of light, it typically relies on bulky setups and large efforts have been dedicated in the past years for reducing the footprint of these systems [6][7][8]. Following a trend typical for classical optics, the first step has been the generation of quantum states in optical fibers.…”

Pulsed-squeezed-light generation in a waveguide with second-subharmonic generation and periodic corrugation

“…Also nonlinear waveguides, for which strong spatial localization of optical fields in the transverse plane is characteristic, profit from enhancement of the effective nonlinearity. This enhancement has been widely exploited when generating photon pairs in classical [15][16][17], multi- * Electronic address: perinaj@prfnw.upol.cz layer [18], Bragg-reflection [19,20] and photonic-wire [21] waveguides. Effective nonlinearity in a waveguide can also be increased by the use of mode coupling through evanescent waves with fields in a neighboring waveguide.…”