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Laser & Photonics Review

Induced Photon Correlations Through the Overlap of Two Four‐Wave Mixing Processes in Integrated Cavities

Yanbing Young Zhang, Michael Kues, Piotr Roztocki, Christian Reimer, Bennet Fischer, Benjamin MacLellan, Arstan Bisianov, Ulf Peschel, Brent E. Little, Sai T. Chu, David Moss, Lucia Caspani, Roberto Morandotti

Published Jul 20, 2020• 223 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract Induced photon correlations are directly demonstrated by exploring two coupled nonlinear processes in an integrated device. Using orthogonally polarized modes within an integrated microring cavity, phase matching of two different nonlinear four‐wave mixing processes is achieved simultaneously, wherein both processes share one target frequency mode, while their other frequency modes differ. The overlap of these modes leads to the coupling of both nonlinear processes, producing photon correlations. The nature of this process is confirmed by means of time‐ and power‐dependent photon correlation measurements. These findings are relevant to the fundamental understanding of spontaneous parametric effects as well as single‐photon‐induced processes, and their effect on optical quantum state generation and control.

DOI
10.1002/lpor.202000128

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Abstract Induced photon correlations are directly demonstrated by exploring two coupled nonlinear processes in an integrated device. Using orthogonally polarized modes within an integrated microring cavity, phase matching of two different nonlinear four‐wave mixing processes is achieved simultaneously, wherein both processes share one target frequency mode, while their other frequency modes differ. The overlap of these modes leads to the coupling of both nonlinear processes, producing photon correlations. The nature of this process is confirmed by means of time‐ and power‐dependent photon correlation measurements. These findings are relevant to the fundamental understanding of spontaneous parametric effects as well as single‐photon‐induced processes, and their effect on optical quantum state generation and control.
Quantum correlations, where two or more parties exhibit strong correlations in a particular degree of freedom are important resources for fundamental science [1], such as the exploration of non-locality and entanglement, as well as non-classical technologies including quantum computation, quantum key distribution and quantum metrology. One typical way to generate correlated photon pairs is to use the spontaneous four-wave mixing process, with demonstrations on various platforms [2]. So far, single-photon stimulated four-wave mixing (FWM) has been demonstrated in optical fibers [3]. Here we show induced correlation by single photon seeded FWM through exploiting the orthogonal polarization modes in an integrated ring resonator [4]. We allow two different four-wave mixing processes to occur simultaneously with the same signal frequency mode but different idler frequency modes (see Fig.1(a)). The single-photon induced FWM process, named here seeded FWM, was created through the link of type-0 SFWM and type-2 SFWM. In the type-0 process, two excitation photons from the same field are converted into two new photons, signal and idler, with the same polarization as the pump field. While in the type-2 FWM, two annihilated photons, each one from a different polarized pump field, namely TE and TM, generate an orthogonal-polarized photon pair. More importantly, spatial and temporal overlapping of two processes and their sharing of one common resonance lead to correlation between the other two signal photons, one from each process. For example, an idler photon created in type-0 FWM seeds the type-2 FWM process or vice versa, i.e. the TM idler photon in Fig. 1, induces correlation between the signal TM and TE photons. This is proven by the observation of a clear coincidence peak for both signal photons in Fig.1(b). Furthermore, we confirmed our observation via power-dependent correlation measurements (see Fig.1 (c)). We summarized the true coincidence count (C) and its coincidence to accidental ratio (CAR) when only the TE pump power is increased while maintaining the TM mode pump power (black squares), and both pump powers are increased with a constant ratio (blue dots). We found that the seeded FWM scales with the square of both pump powers (C ∝ PjePtm) and that the CAR reach its maxima of 1.5 at the available pump power, indicating thermal statistics. Our findings are relevant to the fundamental understanding of spontaneous parametric effects as well as single-photon induced processes and single photon cloning.
In this talk, the physics of microring resonators is discussed in the classical and quantum regimes, in the context of the exploitation of chi-3 effects in these cavities as done by our group. Through the implementation of a novel microring pumping scheme and a quantum reinterpretation of the frequency comb, we present an integrated platform for the generation of quantum optical states spread over multiple optical modes. The scheme allows for highly stable and potentially fullyintegrable quantum light sources. Following the demonstration of a multiplexed heralded photon source, the scheme also enabled the first demonstration of a new nonlinear process on the integrated platform (type II spontaneous four-wave mixing) allowing the first direct generation of polarization-diverse photon pairs, where the first time two ring modes can be pumped in a stable configuration.
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Four-wave mixing (FWM) can be either stimulated or occur spontaneously. The first process is intrinsically much stronger and well understood through classical nonlinear optics. The latter, also known as parametric fluorescence, can be explained only in the framework of a quantum theory of light. We experimentally demonstrated that, in a microring resonator, there is a simple relation between the efficiencies of these two processes that is independent of the nonlinearity and ring size. In particular, we have shown the average power generated by parametric fluorescence can be immediately estimated from a classical FWM experiment. These results suggest that classical nonlinear characterization of a photonic integrated structure can provide accurate information on its nonlinear quantum properties.