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arXiv:1806.08702 · Journal of the Optical Society of America B

Photon-pair production at the nanoscale with hybrid nonlinear/plasmonic antennas

Guillaume Laurent, Sandy Mathew, Nicolas Chauvet, Gilles Nogues, Aurélien Drezet, Guillaume Bachelier

Published Jun 23, 2023• 1 citation
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Reducing a nonlinear photon pair source to the nanoscale entails drastic reduction in efficiency and thus requires better tools for its evaluation and optimization. In this context, we develop a formalism for the investigation of spontaneous parametric downconversion in hybrid plasmonic structures that combine plasmonic resonances and intrinsic nonlinearity of a nonlinear medium. Combining quantum and numerical approaches, we quantitatively evaluate photon pair correlation for a realistic experimental configuration. We thereby show that hybrid structures embedding a nanocrystal and plasmonic antennas allow for a 10 5 -fold increase in pair production rate in comparison with a single nanocrystal, thus displaying an efficiency close to the best nanoscale sources to date.

DOI
10.1364/josab.492038

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Reducing a nonlinear photon pair source to the nanoscale entails drastic reduction in efficiency and thus requires better tools for its evaluation and optimization. In this context, we develop a formalism for the investigation of spontaneous parametric downconversion in hybrid plasmonic structures that combine plasmonic resonances and intrinsic nonlinearity of a nonlinear medium. Combining quantum and numerical approaches, we quantitatively evaluate photon pair correlation for a realistic experimental configuration. We thereby show that hybrid structures embedding a nanocrystal and plasmonic antennas allow for a 10 5 -fold increase in pair production rate in comparison with a single nanocrystal, thus displaying an efficiency close to the best nanoscale sources to date.
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) crystal to realize a new scalable, ultrathin, and efficient SPDC source. By coinciding fundamental and higher order resonances of the metasurface with the generated signal and idler frequencies, respectively, the electric field in the nonlinear media is significantly boosted. This leads to a substantial enhancement in the SPDC process which, subsequently, by using the quantum-classical correspondence principle, translates to very high photon-pair generation rates. The emitted radiation is highly directional and perpendicular to the metasurface in contrast to relevant dielectric structures. The incorporation of circular polarized excitation further increases the photon-pair generation efficiency. The presented work will lead to the design of new efficient ultrathin SPDC single-photon nanophotonic sources working at room temperature that are expected to be critical components in free-space quantum optical communications. In a more general context, our findings can have various applications in the emerging field of quantum plasmonics.
Single-photon and correlated two-photon sources are important elements for optical information systems. Nonlinear downconversion light sources are robust and stable emitters of single photons and entangled photon pairs. However, the rate of downconverted light emission, dictated by the properties of low-symmetry nonlinear crystals, is typically very small, leading to significant constrains in device design and integration. In this paper, we show that the principles for spontaneous emission control (i.e. Purcell effect) of isolated emitters in nanoscale structures, such as metamaterials, can be generalized to describe the enhancement of nonlinear light generation processes such as parametric down conversion. We develop a novel theoretical framework for quantum nonlinear emission in a general anisotropic, dispersive and lossy media. We further find that spontaneous parametric downconversion in media with hyperbolic dispersion is broadband and phase-mismatch-free. We predict a 1000-fold enhancement of the downconverted emission rate with up to 105 photon pairs per second in experimentally realistic nanostructures. Our theoretical formalism and approach to Purcell enhancement of nonlinear optical processes, provides a framework for description of quantum nonlinear optical phenomena in complex nanophotonic structures.
Spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) in subwavelength nanostructures is a promising source of quantum light, owing to its multifunctionality and ability to generate complex quantum states. Nevertheless, the mechanisms governing photon-pair generation in such systems remain only partially understood. In particular, experimental investigations of key emission properties in individual resonators, such as directionality and spectral distribution, are still lacking, and predictive theoretical frameworks have not yet been experimentally validated. Here, we report the first measurement of the directional and spectral distributions of photon pairs generated via SPDC in a nanostructured resonator. Both distributions exhibit resonant behaviour, which we describe using an extended quasi-normal-mode theory. This comparison is enabled by photon-pair count rates of up to 0.45 Hz/mW -- to our knowledge, the highest reported for a nanostructured resonator. Our results provide new physical insight into nanoscale SPDC and represent an important step toward designing of efficient miniaturized quantum light sources.
Spontaneous Parametric Down-Conversion (SPDC) is a quantum optical process where a photon spontaneously splits into a pair of lower energy entangled single-photons. Here, we demonstrate that the quantum effect of SPDC can be substantially boosted at room temperature by utilizing nonlinear plasmonic metasurfaces. The presented plasmonic metasurface design is composed of silver nanostripes grown on a bulk lithium niobate (LiNbO3) crystal terminated by a silver substrate. The quantum-classical correspondence principle is used to compute the SPDC entangled photon pair generation rate by the classical sum frequency generation (SFG) nonlinear optical process. The generated signal and idler frequencies are matched to the metasurface fundamental and higher order resonances leading to substantially boosted SFG efficiency and, consequently, significantly enhanced SPDC generation rate. The quantum SPDC process is at the heart of many quantum optical emerging apparatuses, since efficient single-photon generation at room temperature is required in a plethora of applications in quantum communications, cryptography, and sensing.