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Integrated Source of Spectrally Filtered Correlated Photons for Large-Scale Quantum Photonic Systems

Davide Grassani, Angelica Simbula, Mihir Pant, Mattéo Galli, Tom W. Baehr-Jones, Michael J. Hochberg, Daniele Bajoni, Christophe Galland, Nicholas C. Harris, Dirk Englund

Published Sep 1, 2014• 73 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

We demonstrate the generation of quantum-correlated photon pairs combined with the spectral filtering of the pump field by more than 95 dB on a single silicon chip using electrically tunable ring resonators and passive Bragg reflectors. Moreover, we perform the demultiplexing and routing of signal and idler photons after transferring them via an optical fiber to a second identical chip. Nonclassical two-photon temporal correlations with a coincidence-to-accidental ratio of 50 are measured without further off-chip filtering. Our system, fabricated with high yield and reproducibility in a CMOS-compatible process, paves the way toward large-scale quantum photonic circuits by allowing sources and detectors of single photons to be integrated on the same chip.

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On chip source of photon pairs with integrated pump filtering and signal/idler demultiplexing

Nicholas C. Harris, Davide Grassani, Angelica Simbula +7 more

Considerable research work is being devoted to the integration of quantum optical components on a silicon chip [1]. Many results have been achieved on the generation of quantum states of light in silicon photonic devices, but all the sources demonstrated so far need off-chip filtering stages to clean the generated photons before detection. This necessity for off-chip components hinders usability in a completely integrated platform. In this work [2] we demonstrate for the first time on-chip generation of photon pairs via a silicon microring resonator fully integrated with spectral filters for the pump on the same chip. The sample, shown in Fig. 1 a, is a reconfigurable silicon photonic integrated circuit based on Bragg reflectors and tunable ring resonators. The combination of these devices results in pump rejection by more than 95 dB in a single chip, reducing the pump intensity to less than the flux of the photon pairs generated by spontaneous four wave mixing (Fig 1 b).

Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics•Jan 1, 2015•0 citations

Fully passive monolithic silicon quantum photonic circuit for entangled photon-pair generation

David E. Medina, Paul J. Robin, Romain Dalidet +8 more

Integrated quantum photonic circuits are a key enabling technology for the scalability of quantum information systems. Among the available platforms, silicon photonics offers an unrivalled capability for the large-scale integration of photonic components within compact footprints. However, the strong index contrast that enables ultra-compact silicon devices also makes them highly sensitive to fabrication imperfections. As circuit complexity increases, active tuning is generally required to maintain spectral alignment among the different components, leading to significant power consumption that ultimately limit scalability. Here, we demonstrate a fully integrated silicon quantum photon-pair source operating without active tuning of any component. The circuit combines photon-pair generation in a micro-ring resonator, pump rejection using Bragg filters, and signal/idler demultiplexing through modal add-drop filters with building blocks engineered to minimize sensitivity to fabrication variations. The resulting circuit achieves excellent experimental quantum performance. Coincidence rates up to 4000 counts s^-1 with coincidence-to-accidental ratios as high as 100 are obtained across the generated spectrum, while separate two-photon interference measurements yield raw visibilities exceeding 93% for individually selected ITU wavelength-channel pairs. By eliminating the need for active spectral tuning while maintaining high quantum performance, this work addresses a major bottleneck in the scaling of complex silicon quantum photonic circuits.

physics.opticsCross-listedarXiv:2609.29420•Sep 25, 2026•0 citations

A compact, integrated silicon device for the generation of spectrally filtered, pair-correlated photons

Momchil Minkov, Vincenzo Savona

Abstract The third-order nonlinearity of silicon gives rise to a spontaneous four-wave mixing process in which correlated photon pairs are generated. Sources based on this effect can be used for quantum computation and cryptography, and can in principle be integrated with standard CMOS fabrication technology and components. However, one of the major challenges is the on-chip demultiplexing of the photons, and in particular the filtering of the pump power, which is many orders of magnitude larger than that of the signal and idler photons. Here, we propose a photonic crystal coupled-cavity system designed so that the coupling of the pump mode to the output channel is strictly zero due to symmetry. We further analyze this effect in the presence of fabrication disorder and find that, even then, a pump suppression of close to 40 dB can be achieved in state-of-the-art systems. Due to the small mode volumes and high quality factors, our system is also expected to have a generation efficiency much higher than in standard micro-ring systems. Those two considerations make a strong case for the integration of our proposed design in future on-chip quantum technologies.

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Wavelength-multiplexed heralded single photon source on a chip

Lucia Caspani, Christian Reimer, Matteo Clerici +9 more

Integrated sources of single and entangled photons are currently one of the main topics in the field of integrated quantum optics [1]. Sources at telecom wavelength and compatible with the electronic \nintegrate circuit technology (CMOS) are particularly interesting for their compatibility with the existing fiber network and industrial fabrication processes [2]. As for classical communication, wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM,i.e. the possibility of simultaneously transmitting on the same channel different signals each encoded in a different frequency) could in principle be exploited also for quantum communication for increasing the transmission bit-rate. However, to date only few approaches have been proposed for generating wavelength multiplexing photon pairs in integrated platforms [3,4]. Moreover, until now no integrated photon source managed to achieve at the same time practical requirements such as narrow linewidths (required for quantum memories), compatibility with CMOS technology, multichannel emission, and stable long-term operation [5]. This is due to the fact that narrow linewidths are typically achieved with structures fundamentally incompatible with large-scale integration, while CMOS-compatible devices fail to achieve the high Q-factor required for exhibiting narrow linewidths. Here we report an integrated photon pair source based on a CMOS -compatible micro-ring resonator generating multiple, simultaneous, and independent photon pairs at different wavelengths distributed in a frequency comb, compatible with standard wavelength division multiplexing channels (DWDM, 200 GHz separation) and quantum memories (140 MHz linewidth), covering the full telecommunication band (L+C). We exploit a self-locked pumping scheme allowing an intrinsically stable operation even at the very low pump power levels typically used for photon pair generation. By enclosing the microring in an active external cavity[see Fig. 1(a)], the pump laser includes the microring itself, thus resulting in a passive self-locked pumping mechanism leading to several days of stable operation (compared to only few tens of minutes for standard schemes without active stabilization) [5]. The signal/idler photons are then separated according to their wavelength using a standard commercial DWDM filter, and then characterized by coincidence detection. Clear coincidence peaks [see Fig. 1(b)], with Coincidence to Accidental Ratios higher than 10, are obtained when selecting conjugate frequencies (while no coincidences are observed for non-conjugate signal/idler pair). Finally, Fig. 3(c) reports the measured heralded autocorrelation function, g (2)h, featured by a dip as low as 0.14<0.5, indicating the suitability of our device as heralded single photon source.\n

•Jan 1, 2015•0 citations

Tunable Source of Quantum-Correlated Photons with Integrated Pump Rejection in a Silicon CMOS Platform

Josep M. Fargas Cabanillas, Danielius Kramnik, Anirudh Ramesh +4 more

A wavelength-tunable, silicon photon-pair source based on spontaneous four-wave mixing, integrated with a pump rejection filter in a single, flip-chip packaged CMOS chip, is demonstrated with a coincidence-to-accidentals ratio of 9.1 with no off-chip pump filtering.

Frontiers in Optics•Jan 1, 2021•6 citations

Integrated Photon-Pair Generation and ~112 dB Pump Rejection Filters for Silicon Quantum Photonics

Rakesh Ranjan Kumar, Xinru Wu, Yaojing Zhang +1 more

We demonstrate on-chip quanhrm-correlated photons and rejection of pump photons by ~112 dB using filters on two silicon-on-insulator photonic integrated circuits. The photon pairs had coincidence-to-accidental ratio (CAR) of 155 at 0.2 mW pump power.

Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics•Jan 1, 2020•0 citations
We demonstrate the generation of quantum-correlated photon pairs combined with the spectral filtering of the pump field by more than 95 dB on a single silicon chip using electrically tunable ring resonators and passive Bragg reflectors. Moreover, we perform the demultiplexing and routing of signal and idler photons after transferring them via an optical fiber to a second identical chip. Nonclassical two-photon temporal correlations with a coincidence-to-accidental ratio of 50 are measured without further off-chip filtering. Our system, fabricated with high yield and reproducibility in a CMOS-compatible process, paves the way toward large-scale quantum photonic circuits by allowing sources and detectors of single photons to be integrated on the same chip.
Considerable research work is being devoted to the integration of quantum optical components on a silicon chip [1]. Many results have been achieved on the generation of quantum states of light in silicon photonic devices, but all the sources demonstrated so far need off-chip filtering stages to clean the generated photons before detection. This necessity for off-chip components hinders usability in a completely integrated platform. In this work [2] we demonstrate for the first time on-chip generation of photon pairs via a silicon microring resonator fully integrated with spectral filters for the pump on the same chip. The sample, shown in Fig. 1 a, is a reconfigurable silicon photonic integrated circuit based on Bragg reflectors and tunable ring resonators. The combination of these devices results in pump rejection by more than 95 dB in a single chip, reducing the pump intensity to less than the flux of the photon pairs generated by spontaneous four wave mixing (Fig 1 b).
Integrated quantum photonic circuits are a key enabling technology for the scalability of quantum information systems. Among the available platforms, silicon photonics offers an unrivalled capability for the large-scale integration of photonic components within compact footprints. However, the strong index contrast that enables ultra-compact silicon devices also makes them highly sensitive to fabrication imperfections. As circuit complexity increases, active tuning is generally required to maintain spectral alignment among the different components, leading to significant power consumption that ultimately limit scalability. Here, we demonstrate a fully integrated silicon quantum photon-pair source operating without active tuning of any component. The circuit combines photon-pair generation in a micro-ring resonator, pump rejection using Bragg filters, and signal/idler demultiplexing through modal add-drop filters with building blocks engineered to minimize sensitivity to fabrication variations. The resulting circuit achieves excellent experimental quantum performance. Coincidence rates up to 4000 counts s^-1 with coincidence-to-accidental ratios as high as 100 are obtained across the generated spectrum, while separate two-photon interference measurements yield raw visibilities exceeding 93% for individually selected ITU wavelength-channel pairs. By eliminating the need for active spectral tuning while maintaining high quantum performance, this work addresses a major bottleneck in the scaling of complex silicon quantum photonic circuits.
Abstract The third-order nonlinearity of silicon gives rise to a spontaneous four-wave mixing process in which correlated photon pairs are generated. Sources based on this effect can be used for quantum computation and cryptography, and can in principle be integrated with standard CMOS fabrication technology and components. However, one of the major challenges is the on-chip demultiplexing of the photons, and in particular the filtering of the pump power, which is many orders of magnitude larger than that of the signal and idler photons. Here, we propose a photonic crystal coupled-cavity system designed so that the coupling of the pump mode to the output channel is strictly zero due to symmetry. We further analyze this effect in the presence of fabrication disorder and find that, even then, a pump suppression of close to 40 dB can be achieved in state-of-the-art systems. Due to the small mode volumes and high quality factors, our system is also expected to have a generation efficiency much higher than in standard micro-ring systems. Those two considerations make a strong case for the integration of our proposed design in future on-chip quantum technologies.
Integrated sources of single and entangled photons are currently one of the main topics in the field of integrated quantum optics [1]. Sources at telecom wavelength and compatible with the electronic \nintegrate circuit technology (CMOS) are particularly interesting for their compatibility with the existing fiber network and industrial fabrication processes [2]. As for classical communication, wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM,i.e. the possibility of simultaneously transmitting on the same channel different signals each encoded in a different frequency) could in principle be exploited also for quantum communication for increasing the transmission bit-rate. However, to date only few approaches have been proposed for generating wavelength multiplexing photon pairs in integrated platforms [3,4]. Moreover, until now no integrated photon source managed to achieve at the same time practical requirements such as narrow linewidths (required for quantum memories), compatibility with CMOS technology, multichannel emission, and stable long-term operation [5]. This is due to the fact that narrow linewidths are typically achieved with structures fundamentally incompatible with large-scale integration, while CMOS-compatible devices fail to achieve the high Q-factor required for exhibiting narrow linewidths. Here we report an integrated photon pair source based on a CMOS -compatible micro-ring resonator generating multiple, simultaneous, and independent photon pairs at different wavelengths distributed in a frequency comb, compatible with standard wavelength division multiplexing channels (DWDM, 200 GHz separation) and quantum memories (140 MHz linewidth), covering the full telecommunication band (L+C). We exploit a self-locked pumping scheme allowing an intrinsically stable operation even at the very low pump power levels typically used for photon pair generation. By enclosing the microring in an active external cavity[see Fig. 1(a)], the pump laser includes the microring itself, thus resulting in a passive self-locked pumping mechanism leading to several days of stable operation (compared to only few tens of minutes for standard schemes without active stabilization) [5]. The signal/idler photons are then separated according to their wavelength using a standard commercial DWDM filter, and then characterized by coincidence detection. Clear coincidence peaks [see Fig. 1(b)], with Coincidence to Accidental Ratios higher than 10, are obtained when selecting conjugate frequencies (while no coincidences are observed for non-conjugate signal/idler pair). Finally, Fig. 3(c) reports the measured heralded autocorrelation function, g (2)h, featured by a dip as low as 0.14<0.5, indicating the suitability of our device as heralded single photon source.\n