Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

Smart Photonic and Optoelectronic Integrated Circuits

Intermodal four-wave mixing for heralded single-photon sources in the MIR (Conference Presentation)

Stefano Signorini, Sara Piccione, Matteo Finazzer, Mher Ghulinyan, Martino Bernard, Georg Pucker, Lorenzo Pavesi

Published Mar 9, 2020• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Single photon sources by heralding time correlated photons are described. By intermodal four wave mixing (FWM) in a silicon photon circuit, we generate a herald photon at 1260 nm and the heralded one beyond 2 um, with a coincidence to accidental ratio larger than 50 and a single photon purity of 0.75. The discrete band intermodal phase matching does not require further filtering to improve the purity of the single photon. Moreover, the intermodal FWM exhibits high controllability of the signal/idler wavelengths, that can be generated far from the Raman and pump noise, with improved noise filtering.

DOI
10.1117/12.2543041

Related papers

Are on-chip heralded single photon sources possible by intermodal four wave mixing in silicon waveguides?

Stefano Signorini, Sara Piccione, Mher Ghulinyan +2 more

On-chip heralded single photon sources are of key importance in the development of chip-scale devices exploiting the quantum properties of light. Single photon states can be produced as single photons heralded from correlated photon pairs generated through spontaneous four wave mixing. On-chip heralded single photon sources based on spontaneous four wave mixing have been already demonstrated. However, the heralded and herald photons are usually generated with wavelengths very close to the pump one, limiting the pump rejection efficiency and the application to the mid infrared. Moreover, the common sources of heralded photons based on spontaneous four wave mixing require spectral post filtering to achieve high purity, limiting the brightness and the integration of these sources. A solution to these problems can be provided by intermodal four wave mixing. In this work, we demonstrate the generation of photon pairs through intermodal four wave mixing in silicon waveguides, measuring the coincidences between the idler at 1.281 μm and the signal at 1.952 μm. We then discuss the application of intermodal four wave mixing to on-chip heralded single photon sources.

Quantum Photonic Devices•Sep 11, 2018•4 citations

Towards MIR heralded photons via intermodal four wave mixing in silicon waveguides

Stefano Signorini, Sara Piccione, Giorgio Fontana +3 more

We generate correlated photons with 600 nm spectral distance via intermodal four wave mixing in silicon. We want to demonstrate on-silicon-chip heralded single photons, beyond 2 µm, without post spectral filtering.

Quantum Information and Measurement (QIM)•Jan 1, 2019•2 citations

A silicon source of heralded single photons at 2 μm

Stefano Signorini, Matteo Sanna, Sara Piccione +4 more

Mid-infrared integrated quantum photonics is a promising platform for applications in sensing and metrology. However, there are only a few examples of on-chip single-photon sources at these wavelengths. These have limited performances with respect to their C-band counterparts. In this work, we demonstrate a new approach to generate heralded single photons in the mid-infrared on a silicon chip. By using a standard C-band pump, the inter-modal spontaneous four-wave mixing enables the generation of the herald idler at 1259.7 nm and the heralded signal at 2015 nm. The idler photon is easily detected with a common infrared single-photon detector while the signal photon is upconverted to visible before its detection. In this way, we are able to operate a mid-infrared source without the need for mid-infrared detectors and laser sources. By measuring a heralded g(2) of 0.23 ± 0.08, we demonstrate the single-photon behavior of the source as well as the feasibility of multi-photon coincidence measurements beyond 2 μm with our setup. The source exhibits a high-intrinsic heralding efficiency of (59 ± 5)%, a maximum coincidence to accidental ratio of 40.4 ± 0.9, and a generation probability of 0.70±0.10W−2.

arXiv:2108.01031•APL Photonics•Dec 1, 2021•21 citations

Intermodal four-wave mixing in silicon waveguides

Stefano Signorini, Mattia Mancinelli, Massimo Borghi +4 more

In this work, we report the modeling and the experimental demonstration of intermodal spontaneous as well as stimulated four-wave mixing (FWM) in silicon waveguides.In intermodal FWM, the phase-matching condition is achieved by exploiting the different dispersion profiles of the optical modes in a multimode waveguide.Since both the energy and the wave vectors have to be conserved in the FWM process, this leads to a wide tunability of the generated photon wavelength, allowing us to achieve a large spectral conversion.We measured several waveguides that differ by their widths and demonstrate large signal generation spanning from the pump wavelength (1550 nm) down to 1202 nm.A suited setup evidences that the different waves propagated indeed on different order modes, which supports the modeling.Despite observing a reduced efficiency with respect to intramodal FWM due to the decreased modal overlap, we were able to show a maximum spectral distance between the signal and idler of 979.6 nm with a 1550 nm pump.Our measurements suggest the intermodal FWM is a viable means for large wavelength conversion and heralded photon sources.

Photonics Research•Jul 18, 2018•80 citations

Twin-photon generation in a silicon nitride microresonator

Franz Pacher, Haochen Yan, Alekhya Ghosh +8 more

Photonic chips with silicon nitride ($\mathrm{Si_3N_4}$) microring resonators are well established as heralded single-photon sources, but their operation as frequency-degenerate twin-photon sources has not previously been demonstrated. Here, we realise a twin-photon source at telecommunication wavelengths in a $\mathrm{Si_3N_4}$ ring microresonator via an inverse four-wave mixing (FWM) process, in which two photons from spectrally distinct pumps are converted into a pair of identical twin photons. The measurements show a maximum coincidence-to-accidental ratio (CAR) of $5.4\pm0.6$. In addition, the microresonator functions as a heralded single-photon source through pump-degenerate spontaneous four-wave mixing (SFWM), exhibiting a spectral purity of $P=0.67\pm0.05$ and a heralded anti-bunching of $g^{(2)}_h(0)=0.0042\pm0.0015$. Together, these results demonstrate both photon-generation schemes on a single integrated $\mathrm{Si_3N_4}$ platform, highlighting its potential for scalable, tailored quantum light generation.

physics.opticsCross-listedarXiv:2609.04171•Sep 4, 2026•0 citations

Heralded single-photon source based on intermodal four-wave mixing in a few-mode fiber

Erik Nicolai Christensen, Jesper B. Christensen, Søren M. M. Friis +3 more

We experimentally demonstrate a heralded single-photon source based on intermodal four-wave mixing in a step-index few-mode fiber, and measure a maximum coincidence-to-accidental ratio of 39, and a g(2)(0) of 0.13.

Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics•Jan 1, 2018•0 citations
Single photon sources by heralding time correlated photons are described. By intermodal four wave mixing (FWM) in a silicon photon circuit, we generate a herald photon at 1260 nm and the heralded one beyond 2 um, with a coincidence to accidental ratio larger than 50 and a single photon purity of 0.75. The discrete band intermodal phase matching does not require further filtering to improve the purity of the single photon. Moreover, the intermodal FWM exhibits high controllability of the signal/idler wavelengths, that can be generated far from the Raman and pump noise, with improved noise filtering.
On-chip heralded single photon sources are of key importance in the development of chip-scale devices exploiting the quantum properties of light. Single photon states can be produced as single photons heralded from correlated photon pairs generated through spontaneous four wave mixing. On-chip heralded single photon sources based on spontaneous four wave mixing have been already demonstrated. However, the heralded and herald photons are usually generated with wavelengths very close to the pump one, limiting the pump rejection efficiency and the application to the mid infrared. Moreover, the common sources of heralded photons based on spontaneous four wave mixing require spectral post filtering to achieve high purity, limiting the brightness and the integration of these sources. A solution to these problems can be provided by intermodal four wave mixing. In this work, we demonstrate the generation of photon pairs through intermodal four wave mixing in silicon waveguides, measuring the coincidences between the idler at 1.281 μm and the signal at 1.952 μm. We then discuss the application of intermodal four wave mixing to on-chip heralded single photon sources.
Mid-infrared integrated quantum photonics is a promising platform for applications in sensing and metrology. However, there are only a few examples of on-chip single-photon sources at these wavelengths. These have limited performances with respect to their C-band counterparts. In this work, we demonstrate a new approach to generate heralded single photons in the mid-infrared on a silicon chip. By using a standard C-band pump, the inter-modal spontaneous four-wave mixing enables the generation of the herald idler at 1259.7 nm and the heralded signal at 2015 nm. The idler photon is easily detected with a common infrared single-photon detector while the signal photon is upconverted to visible before its detection. In this way, we are able to operate a mid-infrared source without the need for mid-infrared detectors and laser sources. By measuring a heralded g(2) of 0.23 ± 0.08, we demonstrate the single-photon behavior of the source as well as the feasibility of multi-photon coincidence measurements beyond 2 μm with our setup. The source exhibits a high-intrinsic heralding efficiency of (59 ± 5)%, a maximum coincidence to accidental ratio of 40.4 ± 0.9, and a generation probability of 0.70±0.10W−2.
In this work, we report the modeling and the experimental demonstration of intermodal spontaneous as well as stimulated four-wave mixing (FWM) in silicon waveguides.In intermodal FWM, the phase-matching condition is achieved by exploiting the different dispersion profiles of the optical modes in a multimode waveguide.Since both the energy and the wave vectors have to be conserved in the FWM process, this leads to a wide tunability of the generated photon wavelength, allowing us to achieve a large spectral conversion.We measured several waveguides that differ by their widths and demonstrate large signal generation spanning from the pump wavelength (1550 nm) down to 1202 nm.A suited setup evidences that the different waves propagated indeed on different order modes, which supports the modeling.Despite observing a reduced efficiency with respect to intramodal FWM due to the decreased modal overlap, we were able to show a maximum spectral distance between the signal and idler of 979.6 nm with a 1550 nm pump.Our measurements suggest the intermodal FWM is a viable means for large wavelength conversion and heralded photon sources.
Photonic chips with silicon nitride (Si3N4\mathrm{Si_3N_4}Si3​N4​) microring resonators are well established as heralded single-photon sources, but their operation as frequency-degenerate twin-photon sources has not previously been demonstrated. Here, we realise a twin-photon source at telecommunication wavelengths in a Si3N4\mathrm{Si_3N_4}Si3​N4​ ring microresonator via an inverse four-wave mixing (FWM) process, in which two photons from spectrally distinct pumps are converted into a pair of identical twin photons. The measurements show a maximum coincidence-to-accidental ratio (CAR) of 5.4±0.65.4\pm0.65.4±0.6. In addition, the microresonator functions as a heralded single-photon source through pump-degenerate spontaneous four-wave mixing (SFWM), exhibiting a spectral purity of P=0.67±0.05P=0.67\pm0.05P=0.67±0.05 and a heralded anti-bunching of gh(2)(0)=0.0042±0.0015g^{(2)}_h(0)=0.0042\pm0.0015gh(2)​(0)=0.0042±0.0015. Together, these results demonstrate both photon-generation schemes on a single integrated Si3N4\mathrm{Si_3N_4}Si3​N4​ platform, highlighting its potential for scalable, tailored quantum light generation.