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Optics Letters

Manipulation of the spontaneous parametric down-conversion process in space and frequency domains via wavefront shaping

Yajun Peng, Yanqi Qiao, Tong Xiang, Xianfeng Chen

Published Aug 10, 2018• 14 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) source of entangled-photon pairs is important for applications in the quantum information process and quantum communication, but suffers from scattering by sample defect and air impurity. Here, we proposed an alternative scheme to manipulate the scattered SPDC process, where only a spatial light modulator was used to control the incident wavefront. The scheme was experimentally tested and also applied on the manipulation of photon pairs through the SPDC process with spectral control. This work proved the feasibility of manipulating nonlinear signals at quantum level with feedback-based wavefront shaping and also indicated applications in long-distance quantum key distribution, quantum communications, and quantum imaging, especially in complex environments.

DOI
10.1364/ol.43.003985

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The spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) source of entangled-photon pairs is important for applications in the quantum information process and quantum communication, but suffers from scattering by sample defect and air impurity. Here, we proposed an alternative scheme to manipulate the scattered SPDC process, where only a spatial light modulator was used to control the incident wavefront. The scheme was experimentally tested and also applied on the manipulation of photon pairs through the SPDC process with spectral control. This work proved the feasibility of manipulating nonlinear signals at quantum level with feedback-based wavefront shaping and also indicated applications in long-distance quantum key distribution, quantum communications, and quantum imaging, especially in complex environments.
Photon-pair correlations in spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC) processes are ubiquitous in quantum photonics. In this work, we engineer these correlations by imaging arbitrarily chosen objects in the second order correlations of spatially-entangled photon pairs produced by type-I SPDC in a non-linear crystal. Our approach is effective with both amplitude and phase objects, even when the beam intensity is spatially shaped. Additionally, we show that it is resistant to scattering by applying wavefront shaping techniques. We also find that certain phase patterns can refocus through the scattering medium exclusively with photon pairs, and not with classical coherent light. Consequently, the transmission of an image through the scattering medium is only possible if it is correlation encoded; coherent light alone cannot reconstruct the image. Our approach enables the transmission of complex, high-dimensional information using quantum correlations of photons, offering significant potential for advancing quantum communication and imaging protocols.
In the process of Spontaneous Parametric Down Conversion (SPDC), a pump photon spontaneously splits inside a quadratic nonlinear crystal to signal and idler photons. By spatially modulating the nonlinear coefficient, we form a bulk nonlinear metamaterial that can shape the first and second order correlations of the down-converted signal and idler photons in either the spatial domain or the spectral domains. These degrees of freedom span a multi-dimensional Hilbert space, which is beneficial for quantum information applications. Recently, we have designed and fabricated, using electric field poling, bulk nonlinear metamaterials in KTiOPO4, for generating spatially entangled signal-idler pairs. This includes a bi-photon Bell state in the Hermite-Gauss basis, or a state with 3 dominant pairs of coincidences, approximating a bi-photon qutrit. As for the spectral domain, we generated a variety of quantum states: high purity frequency uncorrelated states, frequency-bin Bell states and frequency entangled bi-photon qudit states. By increasing the pump power, we reach the regime of bright squeezed vacuum sources, enabling the generation of a square cluster state in the frequency domain.
We present theoretical and experimental advances on photon-pair generation through spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) in nonlinear nanostructures and metasurfaces, underpinning quantum entanglement engineering at sub-wavelength scale for photon shaping with tailored polarization and spatial correlations. We derive explicit theoretical expressions for the measurable photon counts and quantum correlations, incorporating material dispersion and absorption characteristics [Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 123901 (2016)], and demonstrate experimentally the generation of quantum heralded photon pairs from a single AlGaAs nanodisk [Optica 6, 1416 (2019)]. We further reveal the opportunities to enhance the generation rate through high-Q resonances including bound states in the continuum [doi:10.1117/12.2539888 (2019)]. We also outline the applications of metasurfaces for the manipulation and measurement of multi-photon quantum states for free-space quantum imaging and communications.
The ability to generate quantum entangled photon pairs through spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC) is playing a pivotal role in many applications in quantum technologies, including quantum communications, quantum computation, and quantum imaging. Metasurfaces, two-dimensional arrays of nanostructures with subwavelength thickness, have recently shown extraordinary capability in manipulating classical and quantum states of light and realizing miniaturized SPDC sources. Whereas previous studies have primarily focused on periodic metasurfaces, we uncover the potential of spatially modulated nanopatterns for further SPDC enhancement and state engineering. Specifically, we propose a nonlinear metasurface featuring a lateral guided-mode cavity formed by two distributed Bragg reflectors. With the quasi-normal mode theory, we predict an SPDC rate up to 157 Hz/mW, which represents about 30 times rate enhancement when compared to the metasurface without a cavity. Furthermore, the cavity supports a continuous set of high-Q resonances across a broad bandwidth, allowing the all-optical tuning of the photon-pair emission directions transverse to the cavity by controlling the pump wavelength, which can find applications in quantum imaging.
Spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) is one of the most important sources for entangled or correlated photon pairs, which are the foundation of the emerging fields of quantum-optical imaging and spectroscopy. Using periodically poled materials as an SPDC-source allows broad emission spectra in widely tunable wavelength ranges in an efficient and walk-off-free process. For applications that employ nonlinear interference setups, maximum interferometric contrast is only achieved when signal and idler modes are overlapped precisely in the second crystal. Thus, accurate knowledge of the spectral-angular characteristic of SPDC is crucial for designing such devices.