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arXiv:2210.16505 · Optics Letters

Biphoton engineering using modal spatial overlap on-chip

Xiangyan Ding, Jing Ma, Liying Tan, Amr Saher Helmy, Dongpeng Kang

Published Oct 31, 2022• 1 citation
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Photon pairs generated by spontaneous parametric downconversion are essential for optical quantum information processing, in which the quality of biphoton states is crucial for the performance. To engineer the biphoton wave function (BWF) on-chip, the pump envelope function and the phase matching function are commonly adjusted, while the modal field overlap has been considered as a constant in the frequency range of interest. In this work, by using modal coupling in a system of coupled waveguides, we explore the modal field overlap as a new degree of freedom for biphoton engineering. We provide design examples for on-chip generations of polarization entangled photons and heralded single photons. This strategy can be applied to waveguides of different materials and structures, offering new possibilities for photonic quantum state engineering.

DOI
10.1364/ol.471346

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Photon pairs generated by spontaneous parametric downconversion are essential for optical quantum information processing, in which the quality of biphoton states is crucial for the performance. To engineer the biphoton wave function (BWF) on-chip, the pump envelope function and the phase matching function are commonly adjusted, while the modal field overlap has been considered as a constant in the frequency range of interest. In this work, by using modal coupling in a system of coupled waveguides, we explore the modal field overlap as a new degree of freedom for biphoton engineering. We provide design examples for on-chip generations of polarization entangled photons and heralded single photons. This strategy can be applied to waveguides of different materials and structures, offering new possibilities for photonic quantum state engineering.
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High-dimensional quantum entangled states are a highly desired resource for their extended possibilities in quantum information processing. In this paper, we introduce on-chip engineering of a variety of path-entangled states based on the simultaneous enabling of spontaneous parametric down-conversion and efficient coupling between waveguides in a quadratic coupled-waveguide system. By varying the properties of pump beams, the phase-matching conditions, and the coupling coefficients in a three-coupled-waveguide system, it is possible to generate the deterministic and robust three-path biphoton entangled states without any postprocessing, as well as to transform the output photons among different types of path entanglement. This integrated implementation of the entanglement source will become an important building block for practical applications of on-chip quantum technologies.
We demonstrate a chip-integrated semiconductor source that combines polarization and frequency entanglement, allowing the generation of entangled biphoton states in a hybrid degree of freedom without post-manipulation. Our AlGaAs device is based on type-II spontaneous parametric downconversion in a counterpropagating phase-matching scheme in which the modal birefringence lifts the degeneracy between the two possible nonlinear interactions. This allows the direct generation of polarization–frequency entangled photons at room temperature and telecom wavelength, and in two distinct spatial modes, offering enhanced flexibility for quantum information protocols. The state entanglement is quantified by a combined measurement of the joint spectrum and Hong–Ou–Mandel interference (raw visibility 70.1 % ± 1.1 % ) of the biphotons, allowing to reconstruct a restricted density matrix in the hybrid polarization–frequency space.
Hybrid photonic circuits, harnessing the complementary strengths of multiple materials, represent a key resource to enable compact, scalable platforms for quantum technologies. In particular, the availability of bright sources of tunable biphoton states is eagerly awaited to meet the variety of applications currently under development. In this work we demonstrate a heterogeneously integrated device that merges biphoton generation and on-chip quantum state engineering, combining an AlGaAs photon-pair source with a CMOS-compatible silicon-on-insulator (SOI) circuit. Photon pairs are generated in the C telecom band via spontaneous parametric down-conversion and transferred to the SOI chip through a multimode evanescent coupling scheme. This design achieves a pair generation rate above 106^{6}6 s−1^{-1}−1mW−1^{-1}−1 and a coincidence-to-accidental ratio up to 600. Crucially, the coupling design induces strong and predictable transformations of the biphoton joint spectral amplitude, enabling complex quantum state engineering entirely on-chip in a compact device compliant with electrical pumping.
We propose and analyze a generic technique to engineer the two-photon quantum state generated by spontaneous parametric downconversion (SPDC) in nonlinear photonic nanowires using any suitable material system. Through dispersion engineering in nanowires, the group velocity of each photon involved in the SPDC process can be tuned such that pure heralded single photons or maximally polarization entangled photons can be directly generated on a chip. Implementations in III–V semiconductor and ferroelectric waveguides demonstrate minimal frequency correlations with Schmidt numbers of ∼1 for heralded single photons, and maximal entanglement with concurrences of ∼1 for polarization entangled photons.