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arXiv:2209.12641 · Physical Review Applied

Superspontaneous Four-Wave Mixing in an Array of Silicon Microresonators

Massimo Borghi, Federico Andrea Sabattoli, Houssein El Dirani, Laurène Youssef, Camille Petit-Étienne, E. Pargon, John E. Sipe, Amideddin Mataji‐Kojouri, Marco Liscidini, Corrado Sciancalepore, Mattéo Galli, Daniele Bajoni

Published Sep 2, 2022• 7 citations

Abstract

Composite optical systems can show compelling collective dynamics. For instance, the cooperative decay of quantum emitters into a common radiation mode can lead to super-radiance, where the emission rate of the ensemble is larger than the sum of the rates of the individual emitters. Here, we report experimental evidence of super spontaneous four-wave mixing, an analogous effect for the generation of photon pairs in a parametric nonlinear process on an integrated photonic device. We study this phenomenon in an array of microring resonators on a silicon photonic chip coupled to bus waveguides. We measure a cooperative pair-generation rate that always exceeds the incoherent sum of the rates of the individual resonators. We investigate the physical mechanisms underlying this collective behavior, clarify the impact of loss, and address the aspects of fundamental and technological relevance of our results.

DOI: 10.1103/physrevapplied.18.034007

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Four-wave mixing can be stimulated or occur spontaneously: the latter effect, also known as parametric fluorescence, can be explained only in the framework of a quantum theory of light, and it is at the basis of many protocols to generate nonclassical states of the electromagnetic field. In this work we report on our experimental study of spontaneous four wave mixing in microring resonators and photonic crystal molecules integrated on a silicon on insulator platform. We find that both structures are able to generate signal and idler beams in the telecom band, at rates of millions of photons per second, under sub-mW pumping. By comparing the experiments on the two structures we find that the photonic molecule is an order of magnitude more efficient than the ring resonator, due to the reduced mode volume of the individual resonators.

Photonic integrated circuits represent a promising platform for applying quantum information science to areas such as quantum computation, quantum communication, and quantum metrology. While the linear optical approach has greatly contributed to this field, it is often possible to improve the functionality and scalability by making use of nonlinear processes. One interesting phenomenon is the interference between two nonlinear optical processes, where the interference occurs by removing the information as to which of two processes have occurred. In this Letter, we demonstrate a nonlinear interferometer in the pair-photon generation regime by using spontaneous four-wave mixing in an integrated silicon photonic chip. We observe a nonlinear interference in the production rate of photon pairs generated from two different four-wave mixing waveguides. We obtain an interference visibility of 96.8%. This work shows the possibility of integrating and controlling nonlinear-optical-interference components for silicon quantum photonics.