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International Conference on Transparent Optical Networks

Programmable Silicon Photonic Sources of Frequency Bin Entangled Qubits and Qudits

Massimo Borghi, Noemi Tagliavacche, Marco Clementi, Federico Andrea Sabattoli, Linda Gianini, Houssein El Dirani, Laurène Youssef, Nicola Bergamasco, Camille Petit-Étienne, E. Pargon, John E. Sipe, Marco Liscidini, Corrado Sciancalepore, Mattéo Galli, Daniele Bajoni

Published Jul 2, 2023• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Frequency bin encoding is becoming of widespread use in photonic quantum applications due to its strong noise resilience, the large information content that can be encoded per photon, and the inherent parallelism through which gates can be applied over multiple frequency modes. Ideally, sources of frequency bin qubits and qudits should be programmable, have high brightness, and have tightly spaced spectral modes to be useful for quantum algorithms. Here we present an integrated photonic device that simultaneously met all these requirement. We exploit the coherent generation of photon pairs over multiple ring resonators to overcome the trade-offs that hurdle single resonators. Harnessing the dense integration and phase stability of silicon photonics, we demonstrate a photon pair source of frequency bin qudits and qudits with simultaneously high brightness, fidelity, and purity.

DOI
10.1109/icton59386.2023.10207478

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Frequency bin encoding is becoming of widespread use in photonic quantum applications due to its strong noise resilience, the large information content that can be encoded per photon, and the inherent parallelism through which gates can be applied over multiple frequency modes. Ideally, sources of frequency bin qubits and qudits should be programmable, have high brightness, and have tightly spaced spectral modes to be useful for quantum algorithms. Here we present an integrated photonic device that simultaneously met all these requirement. We exploit the coherent generation of photon pairs over multiple ring resonators to overcome the trade-offs that hurdle single resonators. Harnessing the dense integration and phase stability of silicon photonics, we demonstrate a photon pair source of frequency bin qudits and qudits with simultaneously high brightness, fidelity, and purity.
Quantum optical microcombs in integrated ring resonators generate entangled photon pairs over many spectral modes, and allow the preparation of high dimensional qudit states. Ideally, those sources should be programmable and have a high generation rate, with comb lines tightly spaced for the implementation of efficient qudit gates based on electro-optic frequency mixing. While these requirements cannot all be satisfied by a single resonator device, for which there is a trade-off between high generation rate and tight bin spacing, a promising strategy is the use of multiple resonators, each generating photon pairs in specific frequency bins via spontaneous four-wave mixing. Based on this approach we present a programmable silicon photonics device for the generation of frequency bin entangled qudits, in which bin spacing, qudit dimension, and bipartite quantum state can be reconfigured on-chip. Using resonators with a radius of 22 microns, we achieve a high brightness (MHz/(mW)^2) per comb line with a bin spacing of 15 GHz, and fidelities above 85% with maximally entangled Bell states up to a Hilbert space dimension of sixteen. By individually addressing each spectral mode, we realize states that can not be generated on-chip using a single resonator. We measure the correlation matrices of maximally entangled two-qubit and two-qutrit states on a set of mutually unbiased bases, finding fidelities exceeding 98%, and indicating that the source can find application in high-dimensional secure communication protocols.
Quantum optical microcombs in integrated ring resonators generate entangled photon pairs over many spectral modes, and allow the preparation of high-dimensional qudit states. Ideally, those sources should be programmable and have a high generation rate, with comb lines tightly spaced for the implementation of efficient qudit gates based on electro-optic frequency mixing. While these requirements cannot all be satisfied by a single resonator device, for which there is a trade-off between the high generation rate and tight bin spacing, a promising strategy is the use of multiple resonators, each generating photon pairs in specific frequency bins via spontaneous four-wave mixing. Based on this approach we present a programmable silicon photonics device for the generation of frequency-bin-entangled qudits, in which bin spacing, qudit dimension, and the bipartite quantum state can be reconfigured on chip. Using resonators with a radius of $22\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{\ensuremath{\mu}}\mathrm{m}$, we achieve a high brightness [about MHz/(mW)2\mathrm{MHz}/(\mathrm{mW}{)}^{2}MHz/(mW)2] per comb line with a bin spacing of 15 GHz, and fidelities above 85% with maximally entangled Bell states up to a Hilbert space dimension of 16. By individually addressing each spectral mode, we realize states that cannot be generated on chip using a single resonator. We measure the correlation matrices of maximally entangled two-qubit and two-qutrit states on a set of mutually unbiased bases, finding fidelities exceeding 98%, and indicating that the source can find application in high-dimensional secure communication protocols.
Photonic qubits should be controllable on-chip and noise-tolerant when transmitted over optical networks for practical applications. Furthermore, qubit sources should be programmable and have high brightness to be useful for quantum algorithms and grant resilience to losses. However, widespread encoding schemes only combine at most two of these properties. Here, we overcome this hurdle by demonstrating a programmable silicon nano-photonic chip generating frequency-bin entangled photons, an encoding scheme compatible with long-range transmission over optical links. The emitted quantum states can be manipulated using existing telecommunication components, including active devices that can be integrated in silicon photonics. As a demonstration, we show our chip can be programmed to generate the four computational basis states, and the four maximally-entangled Bell states, of a two-qubits system. Our device combines all the key properties of on-chip state reconfigurability and dense integration, while ensuring high brightness, fidelity, and purity.
Frequency-bin encoding has recently emerged as a powerful approach for photonic quantum information processing, offering high dimensionality, gate-parallelization, and compatibility with existing telecommunication infrastructure. However, its scalable deployment has so far been hindered by the lack of an integrated platform capable of unifying quantum state generation, coherent frequency mixing, and programmable spectral control.\\ Here, we report the first fully integrated quantum frequency processor, monolithically integrating on the same silicon photonic chip a microresonator-based biphoton quantum frequency comb source, a pump-rejection filter, high-speed phase modulators, and a four-channel, line-by-line pulse shaper. We demonstrate key functionalities, such as tunable frequency beamsplitters with success probabilities exceeding 94%94\%94% and fidelities above 99.9%99.9\%99.9%, as well as the ability to synthesize more general single-qubit gates. Finally, we generate and coherently manipulate high-dimensional frequency-bin entangled states entirely on chip, showcasing control over two-photon quantum walks and performing the first on-chip frequency-bin quantum state tomography of a Bell-state with a fidelity of 95.7(3)%95.7(3)\%95.7(3)%. By integrating all key functional elements on the same 4×7 mm24\times7\,\textrm{mm}^24×7mm2 chip, with the possibility of scaling to a larger number of modes, our work marks an important step toward large-scale frequency-domain photonic processors for both classical and quantum applications.
We present a scalable and efficient approach for the generation of frequency-bin encoded qudit states in photonic integrated devices. We exploit a series of coherently pumped resonators, each generating photon pairs in specific frequency bins via spontaneous four-wave mixing. The generated state can be described as a coherent superposition of the states that would describe the pairs generated in each ring separately. As the frequency bin separation is not fixed by the resonator free spectral range, small resonators having large finesse and pair generation rates can be used.