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arXiv:2210.16387 · Physical Review A

Integrated photon-pair source with monolithic piezoelectric frequency tunability

Tiff Brydges, Arslan Sajid Raja, A. Gelmini, Grigoriy Lihachev, A. Petitjean, Anat Siddharth, Hao Tian, Rui Ning Wang, Sunil Ashok Bhave, Hugo Zbinden, Tobias Jan Kippenberg, Rob Thew

Published May 3, 2023• 7 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

This work demonstrates the capabilities of an entangled photon-pair source at telecom wavelengths, based on a photonic integrated ${\mathrm{Si}}_{3}{\mathrm{N}}_{4}$ microresonator with monolithically integrated piezoelectric frequency tuning. Previously, frequency tuning of photon pairs generated by microresonators has only been demonstrated using thermal control, however these have limited actuation bandwidth and are not compatible with cryogenic environments. Here, the frequency-tunable photon-pair generation capabilities of a ${\mathrm{Si}}_{3}{\mathrm{N}}_{4}$ microresonator with a monolithically integrated aluminium nitride layer are shown. Fast-frequency locking of the microresonator to an external laser is demonstrated, with a resulting locking bandwidth orders of magnitude larger than reported previously using thermal locking. These abilities will have direct application in future schemes which interface such sources with quantum memories based on, e.g., trapped-ion or rare-earth-ion schemes.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.107.052602

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This work demonstrates the capabilities of an entangled photon-pair source at telecom wavelengths, based on a photonic integrated Si3N4{\mathrm{Si}}_{3}{\mathrm{N}}_{4}Si3​N4​ microresonator with monolithically integrated piezoelectric frequency tuning. Previously, frequency tuning of photon pairs generated by microresonators has only been demonstrated using thermal control, however these have limited actuation bandwidth and are not compatible with cryogenic environments. Here, the frequency-tunable photon-pair generation capabilities of a Si3N4{\mathrm{Si}}_{3}{\mathrm{N}}_{4}Si3​N4​ microresonator with a monolithically integrated aluminium nitride layer are shown. Fast-frequency locking of the microresonator to an external laser is demonstrated, with a resulting locking bandwidth orders of magnitude larger than reported previously using thermal locking. These abilities will have direct application in future schemes which interface such sources with quantum memories based on, e.g., trapped-ion or rare-earth-ion schemes.
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Correlated photon-pair sources are key components for quantum computing, networking, and sensing applications. Integrated photonics has enabled chip-scale sources using nonlinear processes, producing high-rate entanglement with sub-100 microwatt power at telecom wavelengths. Many quantum systems operate in the visible or near-infrared ranges, necessitating broadband visible-telecom entangled-pair sources for connecting remote systems via entanglement swapping and teleportation. This study evaluates broadband entanglement generation through spontaneous four-wave mixing in various nonlinear integrated photonic materials, including silicon nitride, lithium niobate, aluminum gallium arsenide, indium gallium phosphide, and gallium nitride. We demonstrate how geometric dispersion engineering facilitates phase-matching for each platform and reveals unexpected results, such as robust designs to fabrication variations and a Type-1 cross-polarized phase-matching condition for III-V materials that expands the operational bandwidth. With experimentally attainable parameters, integrated photonic microresonators with optimized designs can achieve pair generation rates greater than ~1 THz/mW2^22.
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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.