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ACS Photonics

Photon-Pair Generation in a Heterogeneous Nanophotonic Chip

Mingwei Jin, Neil MacFarlane, Zhaohui Ma, Yong Meng Sua, Mark A. Foster, Yu‐Ping Huang, Amy C. Foster

Published Jun 2, 2023• 7 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Integrated silicon photonics has played an important role in advancing the applications of quantum information and quantum science. However, it is challenging to integrate all components with state-of-the-art performance using only a homogeneous platform. Here, by combining high nonlinearity and low losses in a heterogeneous silicon platform, we efficiently generate high-quality photon pairs through spontaneous four-wave mixing in a hydrogenated amorphous silicon waveguide and route them off-chip through a low-loss silicon nitride waveguide. A record high coincidence-to-accidental ratio value of 1632.6 (±260.4) is achieved in this heterogeneous design with a photon pair generation rate of 1.94 MHz. We also showcase a wide range of multichannel photon sources with a coincidence-to-accidental ratio consistently around 200. Lastly, we measure heralded single-photons with the lowest g H (2) (0) of 0.1085 ± 0.0014. Our results demonstrate the heterogeneous silicon platform as an ideal platform for the efficient generation of photon pairs and off-chip routing with low losses. It also paves the way for a future hybrid photonic integrated circuit by collecting distinct features from different materials.

DOI
10.1021/acsphotonics.3c00394

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Integrated silicon photonics has played an important role in advancing the applications of quantum information and quantum science. However, it is challenging to integrate all components with state-of-the-art performance using only a homogeneous platform. Here, by combining high nonlinearity and low losses in a heterogeneous silicon platform, we efficiently generate high-quality photon pairs through spontaneous four-wave mixing in a hydrogenated amorphous silicon waveguide and route them off-chip through a low-loss silicon nitride waveguide. A record high coincidence-to-accidental ratio value of 1632.6 (±260.4) is achieved in this heterogeneous design with a photon pair generation rate of 1.94 MHz. We also showcase a wide range of multichannel photon sources with a coincidence-to-accidental ratio consistently around 200. Lastly, we measure heralded single-photons with the lowest g H (2) (0) of 0.1085 ± 0.0014. Our results demonstrate the heterogeneous silicon platform as an ideal platform for the efficient generation of photon pairs and off-chip routing with low losses. It also paves the way for a future hybrid photonic integrated circuit by collecting distinct features from different materials.
Integrated Silicon photonics has played an important role in advancing the applications of quantum information and quantum science. However, due to different material properties, it is challenging to integrate all components with excellent performance based on homogeneous material. Here, by combining high nonlinearity and low losses in a heterogeneous silicon platform, we efficiently generate high-quality photon pairs through spontaneous four-wave mixing in hydrogenated amorphous silicon waveguide and route them off-chip through low loss silicon nitride waveguide. A record high coincidence- to- accidental rate value of 1632.6 (±\pm± 260.4) is achieved in this heterogeneous design with a photon pair generation rate of 1.94 MHz. We also showcase a wide range of multi-channel photon sources with coincidence- to- accidental rate consistently at 200. Lastly, we measure heralded single-photons with a lowest gH(2)(0)g^{(2)}_H(0)gH(2)​(0) of 0.1085 ±\pm± 0.0014. Our results demonstrate the heterogeneous silicon platform as an ideal platform for efficient generation of photon pairs and routing them off-chip with low losses. It also paves a way for the future hybrid photonic integrated circuit by collecting distinct features from different materials.
We report a comprehensive characterization of photon-pair generation by spontaneous four-wave mixing in a partially deuterated amorphous silicon (a-Si:D) waveguide for C-band heralded single-photon generation. In a 3.3-mm-long strip waveguide pumped with a continuous-wave laser at telecom wavelengths, we measure an on-chip pair-generation rate of 3.1 × 10 6 pairs/s, a maximum coincidence-to-accidental ratio of 66, and a heralded second-order correlation g H (2) (0)=0.058±0.002, with these values obtained at different pump powers. We also demonstrate, to the best of our knowledge, the first observation of time-energy entanglement from an amorphous silicon waveguide, with a Franson interference visibility of 77±5%. The power scaling of the singles and accidental coincidences indicates a significant noise contribution that currently limits the source performance. Our results identify a-Si:D as a promising nonlinear platform for bright, integrated photon-pair sources and future hybrid quantum photonic circuits.
We demonstrate the generation of correlated photon pairs by using a hybrid integrated quantum photonic platform, where the dual-layer platform consists of a high-index doped silica glass (HDSG) layer to accommodate low-loss linear components and an SiN-based layer to accommodate the photon source. Leveraging the low-loss fiber coupling to the HDSG waveguide and the high nonlinearity of the SiN waveguide, we experimentally realize integrated source of photon pairs with high heralding efficiency. The directly measured photon pair rate is up to 87 KHz (corresponding to 1.74 × 10−3 pairs per pulse) when the coincidence-to-accidental ratio is greater than 10. The raw heralding efficiency can reach 18%. If the filtering loss is excluded, the heralding efficiency can further reach 29%.
Hybrid photonic circuits, harnessing the complementary strengths of multiple materials, represent a key resource to enable compact, scalable platforms for quantum technologies. In particular, the availability of bright sources of tunable biphoton states is eagerly awaited to meet the variety of applications currently under development. In this work we demonstrate a heterogeneously integrated device that merges biphoton generation and on-chip quantum state engineering, combining an AlGaAs photon-pair source with a CMOS-compatible silicon-on-insulator (SOI) circuit. Photon pairs are generated in the C telecom band via spontaneous parametric down-conversion and transferred to the SOI chip through a multimode evanescent coupling scheme. This design achieves a pair generation rate above 106^{6}6 s−1^{-1}−1mW−1^{-1}−1 and a coincidence-to-accidental ratio up to 600. Crucially, the coupling design induces strong and predictable transformations of the biphoton joint spectral amplitude, enabling complex quantum state engineering entirely on-chip in a compact device compliant with electrical pumping.