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Journal of the Optical Society of America B

Generation of narrowband counterpropagating polarization-entangled photon pairs based on thin-film lithium niobate on insulator

Jia-Chen Duan, Ji-Ning Zhang, Yin-Jun Zhu, Changwei Sun, Yichen Liu, Ping Xu, Zhenda Xie, Yan-Xiao Gong, Shining N. Zhu

Published Jun 4, 2020• 21 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We propose a scheme for the generation of counterpropagating polarization-entangled photon pairs from a periodically poled lithium niobate on insulator waveguide. The waveguide is designed to enable a special dispersion relationship between the T M 00 and T E 00 modes that allows two concurrent counterpropagating quasi-phase-matching type-II spontaneous parametric downconversion processes with a single reciprocal wave vector. Due to the counterpropagating phase-matching geometry, the source has a narrow bandwidth in the order of several gigahertz. The compact source opens up a new method for integrated photonic technologies.

DOI
10.1364/josab.395108

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We propose a scheme for the generation of counterpropagating polarization-entangled photon pairs from a periodically poled lithium niobate on insulator waveguide. The waveguide is designed to enable a special dispersion relationship between the T M 00 and T E 00 modes that allows two concurrent counterpropagating quasi-phase-matching type-II spontaneous parametric downconversion processes with a single reciprocal wave vector. Due to the counterpropagating phase-matching geometry, the source has a narrow bandwidth in the order of several gigahertz. The compact source opens up a new method for integrated photonic technologies.
Abstract Broadband photon pairs are highly desirable for quantum metrology, quantum sensing, and quantum communication. Such sources are usually designed through type-0 phase-matching spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) that makes the photon pairs hard to separate in the frequency-degenerate case and thus limits their applications. In this paper, we design a broadband frequency-degenerate telecom-band photon pair source via the type-II SPDC in a dispersion-engineered thin-film lithium niobate waveguide, where the polarization modes of photon pairs are orthogonal and thus are easily separated deterministically. With a 5-mm-long waveguide, our design can achieve a bandwidth of 5.56 THz (44.8 nm), which is 8.6 times larger than that of the bulk lithium niobate, and the central wavelength can be flexibly adjusted. Our design is a promising approach towards high-quality integrated photon sources and may have wide applications in photonic quantum technologies.
Polarization-entangled photon pairs are essential sources for photonic quantum information processing. However, generating entangled photon pairs with large detuning via spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) often requires complex configurations to compensate for phase matching. Here, we propose a simple and efficient scheme to generate polarization-entangled photon pairs based on type-0 SPDC in a thin-film lithium niobate waveguide with a single poling period. By utilizing the strong dispersion engineering capabilities of thin-film waveguides, we can achieve both degenerate and highly detuned entangled photon pairs. Furthermore, we demonstrate on-chip temporal compensation using an integrated waveguide structure. Our approach offers a compact and scalable solution for integrated quantum photonic circuits.
We propose a scheme for the generation of counterpropagating polarization-entangled photon pairs from a dual-periodically-poled crystal. Compared with the usual forward-wave-type source, this source, in the backward-wave way, has a much narrower bandwidth. With a 2-cm-long bulk crystal, the bandwidths of the example sources are estimated to be 3.63.63.6 GHz, and the spectral brightnesses are more than 100 pairs///(s GHz mW). Two concurrent quasi-phase-matched spontaneous parametric down-conversion processes in a single crystal enable our source to be compact and stable. This scheme does not rely on any state projection and applies to both degenerate and nondegenerate cases, facilitating applications of the entangled photons.
In this paper, we address the issue of the generation of nondegenerate cross-polarization-entangled photon pairs using type-II periodically poled lithium niobate. We show that, by an appropriate engineering of the quasi-phase-matching grating, it is possible to simultaneously satisfy the conditions for two spontaneous parametric down-conversion processes, namely, ordinary pump photon down conversion to either extraordinary signal and ordinary idler paired photons or to ordinary signal and extraordinary idler paired photons. In contrast to single type-II phase matching, these two processes, when enabled together, can lead to the direct production of cross-polarization-entangled states for nondegenerate signal and idler wavelengths. Such a scheme should be of great interest in applications requiring polarization-entangled nondegenerate paired photons with, for instance, one of the entangled photons at an appropriate wavelength being used for local operation or for quantum storage in an atomic ensemble and the other one at the typical wavelength of 1550 nm for propagation through an optical fiber.
Abstract Spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC), especially in non-linear waveguides, serves as an important process to generate quantum states of light with desired properties. In this work, we report on a design of a strongly dispersive, singly poled thin film lithium niobate (TFLN) waveguide geometry which acts as a convertible source of photon pairs across telecom band with tunable spectral properties. Through our simulations, we demonstrate that by using this optimized waveguide geometry, two completely different yet desirable type II phase-matched SPDC processes are enabled using a single poling period. One process generates spectrally correlated non-degenerate photon pairs with one photon at 1310nm (telecom O band) and the other at 1550nm (telecom C band). The second SPDC process results in spectrally uncorrelated photon pairs in telecom C band at 1533nm and 1567nm respectively.We attribute this versatility of TFLN waveguide to its strong dispersion properties and make a comparative study with the existing weakly dispersive waveguide platforms.We believe that such a versatile source of photon pairs will serve as an important ingredient in various quantum optical tasks which require photons at different telecom bands and desired spectral properties.
on a coarse wavelength-division-multiplexing grid that spans 140 nm by using a 300-μm-long poled region in a thin-film periodically-poled lithium-niobate ridge waveguide bonded to silicon. The pairs are generated via spontaneous parametric downconversion pumped by a continuous-wave tunable laser source. The small mode area of the waveguide allows for efficient interaction in a short length of the waveguide and, as a result, permits photon-pair generation over a broad range of signal-idler wavelengths.