International Conference on Transparent Optical Networks

High-resolution measurement of energy correlations of photon pairs generated in silicon ring resonators

Marco Liscidini, Davide Grassani, Angelica Simbula, Mattéo Galli, Stefano Pirotta, Tom W. Baehr-Jones, Michael J. Hochberg, Nicholas C. Harris, Christophe Galland, John E. Sipe, Daniele Bajoni

Published Jul 1, 2015• 0 citations

Publisher

Abstract

Silicon micro-ring resonators have been demonstrated to be potential “on- chip” efficient sources of time-energy entangled photons. In these devices, photon pairs are generated by spontaneous four-wave-mixing (SFWM), an elastic scattering event involving two pump photons that results in the generation of an idler and a signal photon. The mass production of such integrated devices for quantum optic experiment requires the implementation of fast and reliable techniques to monitor the emitted two-photon state as well as the device performances. In this work we show that the joint spectral density of photon pairs that would be generated by SFWM in a silicon ring resonator can be measured with unprecedented resolution and speed, improving of several orders of magnitudes the results of traditional approaches based on coincidence measurements.

DOI: 10.1109/icton.2015.7193639

Related papers

Energy correlations of photon pairs generated by a silicon microring resonator probed by Stimulated Four Wave Mixing

Davide Grassani, Angelica Simbula, Stefano Pirotta +8 more

Compact silicon integrated devices, such as micro-ring resonators, have recently been demonstrated as efficient sources of quantum correlated photon pairs. The mass production of integrated devices demands the implementation of fast and reliable techniques to monitor the device performances. In the case of time-energy correlations, this is particularly challenging, as it requires high spectral resolution that is not currently achievable in coincidence measurements. Here we reconstruct the joint spectral density of photons pairs generated by spontaneous four-wave mixing in a silicon ring resonator by studying the corresponding stimulated process, namely stimulated four wave mixing. We show that this approach, featuring high spectral resolution and short measurement times, allows one to discriminate between nearly-uncorrelated and highly-correlated photon pairs.

arXiv:1602.04962Scientific ReportsApr 1, 201655 citations

Measurement of Energy Correlations of Photon Pairs Generated in Silicon Ring Resonators

Davide Grassani, Angelica Simbula, Mattéo Galli +8 more

With unprecedented resolution we measure the joint spectral density of photon pairs that would be generated by spontaneous four-wave-mixing in a silicon ring resonator, and show how the quantum correlations can be tailored.

Jan 1, 20150 citations

Ultra-low power generation of twin photons in a compact silicon ring resonator

Stefano Azzini, Davide Grassani, Michael John Strain +6 more

We demonstrate efficient generation of correlated photon pairs by spontaneous four wave mixing in a 5 μm radius silicon ring resonator in the telecom band around 1550 nm. By optically pumping our device with a 200 μW continuous wave laser, we obtain a pair generation rate of 0.2 MHz and demonstrate photon time correlations with a coincidence-to-accidental ratio as high as 250. The results are in good agreement with theoretical predictions and show the potential of silicon micro-ring resonators as room temperature sources for integrated quantum optics applications.

arXiv:1209.2099Optics ExpressSep 24, 2012224 citations

Uncorrelated photon pair generation from an integrated silicon nitride resonator measured by time-resolved coincidence detection

Massimo Borghi, Paula L. Pagano, Marco Liscidini +2 more

We measure the joint temporal intensity of signal and idler photon pairs generated by spontaneous four-wave mixing in a silicon nitride microresonator by time-resolved coincidence detection. This technique can be applied to any high- Q optical cavity whose photon lifetime exceeds the duration of the pump pulse. We tailor the temporal correlation of photon pairs by using a resonant interferometric coupler, a device that allows us to independently tune the quality factors of the pump and signal and idler resonances. Temporal post-selection is used to accurately measure the temporal emission of the device, demonstrating a purity of 98.67(1)%.

arXiv:2406.12476Optics LettersJun 20, 202414 citations

High-spectral-purity photon generation from a dual-interferometer-coupled silicon microring

Yingwen Liu, Chao Wu, Xiaowen Gu +8 more

We experimentally demonstrate a high-spectral-purity photon source by designing a dual-Mach–Zehnder-interferometer-coupled silicon ring resonator, wherein the linewidths of pump and signal (idler) resonances can be engineered independently. A high spectral purity of 95 % ± 1.5 % is obtained via a time-integrated g ( 2 ) correlation measurement, which exceeds the theoretical 93% bound of a traditional ring’s spontaneous four-wave-mixing photon source. This source also possesses high performance in other metrics including a measured coincidence of 9599 pairs/s and a preparation heralding efficiency of 52.4% at a relatively low pump power of 61 µW as well as high drop-to-through suppression of 20.2 dB. By overcoming the trade-off between spectral purity and brightness in the post-filtering way, such a method guarantees bright pure photons and will pave the way for development of on-chip quantum information processing with improved operation fidelity and efficiency.

Optics LettersDec 16, 201967 citations

Generation of entangled photon pairs from a silicon bichromatic photonic crystal cavity

Andrea Barone, Marco Clementi, Thanavorn Poempool +6 more

Integrated quantum photonics leverages the on-chip generation of nonclassical states of light to realize key functionalities of quantum devices. Typically, the generation of such nonclassical states relies on whispering gallery mode resonators, such as integrated optical micro-rings, which enhance the efficiency of the underlying spontaneous nonlinear processes. While these kinds of resonators excel in maximizing either the temporal confinement or the spatial overlap between different resonant modes, they are usually associated with large mode volumes, imposing an intrinsic limitation on the efficiency and footprint of the device. Here, we engineer a source of time-energy entangled photon pairs based on a silicon photonic crystal cavity, implemented in a fully CMOS-compatible platform. In this device, resonantly enhanced spontaneous four-wave mixing converts pump photon pairs into signal/idler photon pairs under the energy-conserving condition in the telecommunication C-band. The design of the resonator is based on an effective bichromatic confinement potential, allowing it to achieve up to nine close-to-equally spaced modes in frequency, while preserving small mode volumes, and the whole chip, including grating couplers and access waveguides, is fabricated in a single run on a silicon-on-insulator platform. Besides demonstrating efficient photon pair generation, we also implement a Franson-type interference experiment, demonstrating entanglement between signal and idler photons with a Bell inequality violation exceeding five standard deviations. The high generation efficiency combined with the small device footprint in a CMOS-compatible integrated structure opens a pathway toward the implementation of compact quantum light sources in all-silicon photonic platforms.

APL PhotonicsJan 1, 20246 citations