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arXiv:2607.15461

Generation and detection of squeezed light on a single silicon photonic chip

Oliver M. Green, Bethany Puzio, Rowan A. Hoggarth, Rachel N. Clark, Edward C. R. Deacon, Alex S. Clark, Jonathan C. F. Matthews, Giacomo Ferranti

quant-phSubmitted Jul 16, 2026• Announced Jul 20, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

The ability to generate and detect quantum states of light on a single integrated photonic device is essential to scale quantum photonics into useful quantum technologies. Integrating the required capabilities into complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor compatible monolithic chips can reduce cost and unlock new functionality through miniaturisation. In this work we demonstrate a single silicon-on-insulator photonic integrated circuit for the monolithic generation and detection of quantum light on a commercially available platform that operates entirely at room temperature. Specifically, we leverage spontaneous four-wave mixing in silicon waveguides to produce squeezed light which is subsequently detected by photodiodes operating in a pulsed homodyne detector configuration on the same chip as the source. We directly measure $0.25(1)$ dB of squeezing, including contributions from waveguide propagation loss and detection inefficiency, and include a detailed analysis of the impact of nonlinear loss on the squeezing levels achievable using this platform.

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The ability to generate and detect quantum states of light on a single integrated photonic device is essential to scale quantum photonics into useful quantum technologies. Integrating the required capabilities into complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor compatible monolithic chips can reduce cost and unlock new functionality through miniaturisation. In this work we demonstrate a single silicon-on-insulator photonic integrated circuit for the monolithic generation and detection of quantum light on a commercially available platform that operates entirely at room temperature. Specifically, we leverage spontaneous four-wave mixing in silicon waveguides to produce squeezed light which is subsequently detected by photodiodes operating in a pulsed homodyne detector configuration on the same chip as the source. We directly measure 0.25(1)0.25(1)0.25(1) dB of squeezing, including contributions from waveguide propagation loss and detection inefficiency, and include a detailed analysis of the impact of nonlinear loss on the squeezing levels achievable using this platform.
Photonic quantum technology can be enhanced by monolithic fabrication of both the underpinning quantum hardware and the corresponding electronics for classical readout and control. Together, this enables miniaturisation and mass-manufacture of small quantum devices---such as quantum communication nodes, quantum sensors and sources of randomness---and promises the precision and scale of fabrication required to assemble useful quantum computers. Here we combine CMOS compatible silicon and germanium-on-silicon nano-photonics with silicon-germanium integrated amplification electronics to improve performance of on-chip homodyne detection of quantum light. We observe a 3 dB bandwidth of 1.7 GHz, shot-noise limited performance beyond 9 GHz and minaturise the required footprint to 0.84 mm. We use the device to observe quantum squeezed light, from 100 MHz to 9 GHz, generated in a lithium niobate waveguide. This demonstrates that an all-integrated approach yields faster homodyne detectors for quantum technology than has been achieved to-date and opens the way to full-stack integration of photonic quantum devices.
The capability of realizing quantum photonics implementations on-chip will have a strong impact on several aspects of quantum computation and information processing. The implementation of large scale integrated quantum photonic technologies requires on-chip reconfigurable waveguide circuits as well as single-photon sources and detectors. Many successes have been made in recent years to demonstrate complex quantum circuits in many material platforms. Among all these platforms, the Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) platform is outstanding as it is well developed for classical applications and therefore deploys a high component density, mature fabrication techniques and compatibility with the telecom regime and the complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology. However, the lack of on-demand non-classical light sources, directly incorporated in silicon chips, forces the use of nonlinear processes to generate non-classical light states: the probabilistic nature of the emission process sets a limit in the maximally achievable experimental complexity. The use of on-demand sources will have a strong impact on the device’s scalability.
Squeezed-light generation in photonic integrated circuits (PICs) is essential for scalable continuous-variable (CV) quantum information processing. By suppressing quantum fluctuations below the shot-noise limit, squeezed states enable quantum-enhanced sensing and serve as a standard resource for CV quantum information processing. While chip-level squeezed-light sources have been demonstrated, extending this capability to the wafer level with reproducible strong squeezing to bolster large-scale quantum-enhanced sensing and information processing has been hindered by squeezed light's extreme susceptibility to device imperfections. Here, we report wafer-scale fabrication, generation, and characterization of two-mode squeezed-vacuum states on a fully complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible silicon nitride (Si3_33​N4_44​) PIC platform. Across a 4-inch wafer, 8 dies yield 2.9-3.1 dB directly measured quadrature squeezing with <0.2< 0.2<0.2 dB variation, demonstrating excellent uniformity. This performance is enabled by co-integrating ultralow-loss, strongly overcoupled high-QQQ microresonators, cascaded pump-rejection filters, and low-loss inverse-tapered edge couplers. The measurements agree with a first-principles theoretical model parameterized solely by independently extracted device parameters and experimental settings. The measured squeezing level can be further improved by enhancing the efficiencies of off-chip detection and chip-to-fiber coupling. These results establish a reproducible, wafer-scale route to nonclassical-light generation in integrated photonics and lay the groundwork for scalable CV processors, multiplexed entanglement sources, and quantum-enhanced sensing.
Single photons are the smallest indivisible quanta of light, canonically described by quantum mechanics. By carefully controlling the interaction of single photons, exquisite non-classical phenomena can be observed. Mature photonic chip technology has recently emerged as an ideal platform for quantum information processing using single photons. However, generating single photons efficiently on-chip remains a fundamental challenge. One solution is to harness the intrinsic nonlinearity available in certain photonic materials for nonlinear photon generation directly in on-chip waveguides themselves. This work examines nonlinear photon generation in two key material platforms. The first is chalcogenide glass. Chalcogenide, while highly nonlinear, is amorphous and thus has broadband Raman noise. In this study the Raman noise is characterised at the single-photon level to find an intrinsic minima, which is then targeted for low-noise photon generation using an engineered waveguide. The second platform is silicon. As silicon is complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) fabrication compatible, it is congruent with mass production. Thus, in this study, photon-pair generation is first shown in a compact photonic crystal, before combining two monolithic sources using active multiplexing. This thesis presents significant progress towards a key goal of the field – on- demand photon generation in a fully integrated photonic quantum processor.
Squeezed light constitutes a key resource for quantum optical technologies including quantum sensing, computing, communication and metrology. For many applications the generation of squeezed light typically requires at least two nonlinear optical stages involving careful phase and frequency matching to achieve the required mixing of squeezed and coherent light. In our work, we introduce an on-chip system that simplifies the generation of coherent-squeezed light, utilizing only a single squeezing stage. We achieve this by pumping a silicon nitride (Si3N4\mathrm{Si_3N_4}Si3​N4​) microring resonator to produce single-mode squeezed light through four-wave mixing at the same frequency as the pump mode, leveraging the inherent χ(3)χ^{(3)}χ(3)-nonlinearity of the Si3N4\mathrm{Si_3N_4}Si3​N4​ resonator. Our on-chip system demonstrates a squeezing of -4.7 dB with a clear perspective towards -10 dB squeezing. We also provide a theoretical model that describes the straightforward yet robust generation of single-mode squeezing at the injection locking point of the ring resonator. In fact, we show that a design with a normal dispersion can be used for robust generation of bright squeezed light without the need for careful suppression of unwanted nonlinear processes. Overall, our findings highlight an approach which drastically simplifies the generation of coherent-squeezed light in photonic integrated circuits.
Chip-scale integrated photonic circuits provide an attractive platform for the implementation of many quantum photonic technologies ranging from precise metrology to secure communication and quantum computation. In particular, silicon photonic platforms support micron-scale nonlinear optical sources of non-classical light which can be mass manufactured using the robust fabrication processes pioneered by the CMOS microelectronics industry. Integration of these quantum photonic sources with high-performance classical photonic devices on the same chip is required for truly scalable quantum information technologies. Integrated nonlinear resonators are investigated as sources of quantum mechanically correlated photon pair sources. An all-order dispersion engineering method is presented as a robust design synthesis for micoring sources. In addition, a novel concept of coupled mode dispersion compensation is proposed and demonstrated, providing significantly improved performance characteristics of resonant four-wave mixing sources. Next a photon pair source is demonstrated in a commercial CMOS microelectronics process opening the door to future integration of quantum photonics with electronic logic and control circuits. Classical nonlinear optical measurements of stimulated four-wave mixing are used for the first time to accurately predict the quantum correlations from the same device operating in the photon pair regime. Next the first demonstration of fully on-chip pump rejection is demonstrated with over 95 dB pump extinction improving the figures of merit from previous demonstrations by multiple orders of magnitude, including losses, detected pair rates and size. Finally, proposals for introducing novel degrees of freedom provided by an integrated platform are presented for further improving the performance of both photon pair and classical nonlinear optical sources.