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arXiv:2108.03528 · Physical Review A

Generation of entangled photons via parametric down-conversion in semiconductor lasers and integrated quantum photonic systems

Mikhail D. Tokman, Yongrui Wang, Qianfan Chen, Leon Shterengas, Alexey A. Belyanin

Published Mar 14, 2022• 7 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We propose and design a high-brightness, ultracompact electrically pumped GaSb-based laser source of entangled photons generated by mode-matched intracavity parametric down-conversion of lasing modes. To describe the nonlinear mixing in highly dispersive and dissipative waveguides, we develop a nonperturbative quantum theory of parametric down-conversion of waveguide modes which takes into account the effects of modal dispersion, group and phase mismatch, propagation, dissipation, and coupling to noisy reservoirs. We extend our theory to the regime of quantized pump fields with an approach based on the propagation equation for the state vector which solves the nonperturbative boundary-value problem of the parametric decay of a quantized single-photon pump mode and can be generalized to include the effects of dissipation and noise. Our formalism is applicable to a wide variety of three-wave mixing propagation problems. It provides convenient analytic expressions for interpreting experimental results and predicting the performance of monolithic quantum photonic systems.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.105.033707

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We develop a nonperturbative formulation based on the Green's function quantization method that can describe spontaneous parametric down-conversion in the high-gain regime in nonlinear optical structures with arbitrary amount of loss and dispersion. This formalism opens the way for description and design of arbitrary complex and/or open nanostructured nonlinear optical systems in quantum technology applications, such as squeezed-light generation, nonlinearity-based quantum sensing, and hybrid quantum systems mediated by nonlinear interactions. As an example case, we numerically investigate the scenario of integrated quantum spectroscopy with undetected photons, in the high-gain regime, and uncover novel gain-dependent effects in the performance of the system.
We propose and analyze the performance of a technique to generate mode and polarization hyperentangled photons in monolithic semiconductor waveguides using two concurrent type-II spontaneous parametric downconversion (SPDC) processes.These two SPDC processes are achieved by waveguide engineering which allows for simultaneous modal phase matching with the pump beam in a higher-order mode.Paired photons generated in each process are cross polarized and guided by different guiding mechanisms, which produces entanglement in both polarization and spatial mode.Theoretical analysis shows that the output quantum state has a high quality of hyperentanglement by spectral filtering with a bandwidth of a few nanometers, while off-chip compensation is not needed.This technique offers a path to realize an electrically pumped hyperentangled photon source.
Quantum repeaters—fundamental building blocks for long-distance quantum communication—are based on the interaction between photons and quantum memories. The photons must fulfil stringent requirements on central frequency, spectral bandwidth and purity in order for this interaction to be efficient. We present a design scheme for monolithically integrated resonant photon-pair sources based on parametric down-conversion in nonlinear waveguides, which facilitate the generation of such photons. We investigate the impact of different design parameters on the performance of our source. The generated photon spectral bandwidths can be varied between several tens of MHz up to around 1 GHz, facilitating an efficient coupling to different memories. The central frequency of the generated photons can be coarsely tuned by adjusting the pump frequency, poling period and sample temperature, and we identify stability requirements on the pump laser and sample temperature that can be readily fulfilled with off-the-shelf components. We find that our source is capable of generating high-purity photons over a wide range of photon bandwidths. Finally, the PDC emission can be frequency fine-tuned over several GHz by simultaneously adjusting the sample temperature and pump frequency. We conclude our study with demonstrating the adaptability of our source to different quantum memories.