Chaos An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science
Semiconductor surface emitting lasers for photon pairs generation
Luc Vanbever, Evgueni Karpov, Krassimir P. Panajotov
Abstract
We study the feasibility of generating photon pairs in a resonant Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser (VCSEL) as a result of a third-order non-linear, four wave mixing interaction. We focus on degenerate four wave mixing in the spontaneous regime where two pump photons are annihilated to create a pair of signal and idler photons. Using the methods of quantum optics, we calculate the two-photon production rate, the spectrum of the generated photons, and the signal-idler cross-correlations. We highlight how the dispersion of the medium in the VCSEL cavity (a regular GaAs configuration) significantly diminishes the two-photon production rate. Based on our results, we enumerate the characteristics of a VCSEL that would be suitable for photon pair generation.