Multiphoton quantum states play a critical role in emerging quantum technologies and greatly improve our fundamental understanding of the quantum world. Integrated photonics is well recognized as an attractive technology offering great promise for the generation of photonic quantum states with high-brightness, tunability, stability, and scalability. Herein, we demonstrate the generation of multiphoton quantum states using a single-silicon nanophotonic waveguide. The detected four-photon rate reaches 0.34 Hz even with a low-pump power of 600 μW. This multiphoton quantum state is also qualified with multiphoton quantum interference, as well as quantum state tomography. For the generated four-photon states, the quantum interference visibilities are greater than 95%, and the fidelity is 0.78 ± 0.02. Furthermore, such a multiphoton quantum source is fully compatible with the on-chip processes of quantum manipulation, as well as quantum detection, which is helpful for the realization of large-scale quantum photonic integrated circuits (QPICs) and shows great potential for research in the area of multiphoton quantum science.
Multiphoton quantum states play a critical role in emerging quantum technologies and greatly improve our fundamental understanding of the quantum world. Integrated photonics is well recognized as an attractive technology offering great promise for the generation of photonic quantum states with high-brightness, tunability, stability, and scalability. Herein, we demonstrate the generation of multiphoton quantum states using a single-silicon nanophotonic waveguide. The detected four-photon rate reaches 0.34 Hz even with a low-pump power of 600 μW. This multiphoton quantum state is also qualified with multiphoton quantum interference, as well as quantum state tomography. For the generated four-photon states, the quantum interference visibilities are greater than 95%, and the fidelity is 0.78 ± 0.02. Furthermore, such a multiphoton quantum source is fully compatible with the on-chip processes of quantum manipulation, as well as quantum detection, which is helpful for the realization of large-scale quantum photonic integrated circuits (QPICs) and shows great potential for research in the area of multiphoton quantum science.
Multiphoton entanglement plays a critical role in quantum information processing, and greatly improves our fundamental understanding of the quantum world. Despite tremendous efforts in either bulk media or fiber-based devices, nonlinear interactions in integrated circuits show great promise as an excellent platform for photon pair generation with its high brightness, stability and scalability \cite{Caspani2017}. Here, we demonstrate the generation of bi- and multiphoton polarization entangled qubits in a single silicon nanowire waveguide, and these qubits directly compatible with the dense wavelength division multiplexing in telecommunication system. Multiphoton interference and quantum state tomography were used to characterize the quality of the entangled states. Four-photon entanglement states among two frequency channels were ascertained with a fidelity of 0.78±0.02. Our work realizes the integrated multiphoton source in a relatively simple pattern and paves a way for the revolution of multiphoton quantum science.
Quantum information science aims to harness uniquely quantum mechanical properties to enhance measurement and information technologies, and to explore fundamental aspects of quantum physics. Of the various approaches to quantum computing [1], photons are particularly appealing for their low-noise properties and ease of manipulation at the single qubit level [2,3]. Encoding quantum information in photons is also an appealing approach to quantum communication, metrology (eg. [4]), measurement (eg. [5]) and other quantum technologies [6]. However, the implementation of optical quantum circuits with bulk optics has reached practical limits. We have developed an integrated waveguide approach to photonic quantum circuits for high performance, miniaturization and scalability [7]. Here we report high-fidelity silica-on-silicon integrated optical realizations of key quantum photonic circuits, including two-photon quantum interference and a controlled-NOT logic gate [8]. We have demonstrated controlled manipulation of up to four photons on-chip, including highfidelity single qubit operations, using a lithographically patterned resistive phase shifter [9]. We have used this architecture to implement a small-scale compiled version of Shor's quantum factoring algorithm [10], demonstrated heralded generation of tunable four photon entangled states from a six photon input [11], a reconfigurable two-qubit circuit [12], and combined waveguide photonic circuits with superconducting single photon detectors [13]. We describe complex quantum interference behavior in multi-mode interference devices with up to eight inputs and outputs [14], and quantum walks of correlated particles in arrays of coupled waveguides [15]. Finally, we give an overview of our recent work on fundamental aspects of quantum measurement [16,17] and diamond [18,19] and nonlinear [20,21] photon sources.
Silicon quantum photonics promises to take quantum optics to the large scale, where single photons carry the quantum information which can accelerate difficult computational problems, provide perfectly secure communication, or allow high-accuracy measurements. The silicon photonics platform offers miniature, high-yield, and high-performance photonics which are integrable with CMOS electronics and telecommunications-band optics. To date, only non-scalable photon-pair sources, based on spontaneous four-wave mixing (SFWM) in straight silicon waveguides have been shown to interfere [1]. Until now, single-photon experiments in silicon [2] have exclusively used an off-chip apparatus, such as a silica arrayed waveguide grating, to control and manipulate photon frequency. We present a silicon-on-insulator quantum photonic device (Fig. 1a) able to generate and analyse two maximally entangled qubits. We use this device to demonstrate high-visibility quantum interferencebetween resonant SFWM sources (analogous to [1]), phase-stable frequency-selection, and quantum state tomography. We varied the phase  to obtain the fringes shown in Fig. 1b, with a visibility of 96.8%. This high visibility indicates that the two microring sources are substantially identical. We setup the entangled state via the on-chip 17-dB extinction filters, and used quantum state tomography to analyse it (Fig. 1c). We measured a fidelity of 0.8. This is the first time an entangled state of photonic qubits has been both generated and analysed on-chip, and this generation has been done in a way which is scalable to larger photon number. These results represent a new step towards fully silicon-integrated quantum photonics.
Abstract Integrated photonics is becoming an ideal platform for generating two-photon entangled states with high brightness, high stability, and scalability. This high brightness and high quality of photon pair sources encourages researchers further to study and manipulate multiphoton entangled states. Here, we experimentally demonstrate frequency-degenerate four-photon entangled state generation based on a single silicon nanowire 1 cm in length. The polarization encoded entangled states are generated with the help of a Sagnac loop using additional optical elements. The states are analyzed using quantum interference and state tomography techniques. As an example, we show that the generated quantum states can be used to achieve phase super-resolution. Our work provides a method for preparing indistinguishable multi-photon entangled states and realizing quantum algorithms in a compact on-chip setting.
Quantum information science aims to harness uniquely quantum mechanical properties to enhance measurement and information technologies, and to explore fundamental aspects of quantum physics. Of the various approaches to quantum computing [1], photons are particularly appealing for their low-noise properties and ease of manipulation at the single qubit level [2]. Encoding quantum information in photons is also an appealing approach to quantum communication, metrology (eg. [3]), measurement (eg. [4]) and other quantum technologies [5]. However, the implementation of optical quantum circuits with bulk optics has reached practical limits. We have developed an integrated waveguide approach to photonic quantum circuits for high performance, miniaturisation and scalability [6]. Here we report high-fidelity silica-on-silicon integrated optical realisations of key quantum photonic circuits, including two-photon quantum interference and a controlled-NOT logic gate [7]. We have demonstrated controlled manipulation of up to four photons on-chip, including high-fidelity single qubit operations, using a lithographically patterned resistive phase shifter [8]. We have used this architecture to implement a small-scale compiled version of Shorʼs quantum factoring algorithm [9] and demonstrated heralded generation of tuneable four photon entangled states from a six photon input [10]. We have combined waveguide photonic circuits with superconducting single photon detectors [11]. We describe complex quantum interference behaviour in multi-mode interference devices with up to eight inputs and outputs [12], and quantum walks of correlated particles in arrays of coupled waveguides [13]. Finally, we give an overview of our recent work on fundamental aspects of quantum measurement [14,15] and single photon sources [16,17].
Quantum technologies based on photons will likely require an integrated optics architecture for improved performance, miniaturization, and scalability. We demonstrate high-fidelity silica-on-silicon integrated optical realizations of key quantum photonic circuits, including two-photon quantum interference with a visibility of 94.8 +/- 0.5%; a controlled-NOT gate with an average logical basis fidelity of 94.3 +/- 0.2%; and a path-entangled state of two photons with fidelity of >92%. These results show that it is possible to directly "write" sophisticated photonic quantum circuits onto a silicon chip, which will be of benefit to future quantum technologies based on photons, including information processing, communication, metrology, and lithography, as well as the fundamental science of quantum optics.