We present an experimental demonstration of the generation of two-mode squeezed vacuum states on a normal-dispersion thin-film silicon nitride photonic integrated chip, achieving a maximum squeezing level of 1.4 dB and an anti-squeezing level of 8.2 dB.
Squeezed light is a fundamental resource for a broad spectrum of quantum technologies, including precision metrology, secure communication, and quantum simulation and computing. The integration of squeezed-light sources with photonic circuits presents a transformative approach—not only offering compactness, stability, and scalability, but also enabling seamless high-fidelity on-chip generation, manipulation, and processing of quantum states without being hampered by inter-component quantum decoherence arising from loss and noise. In this work, we report the experimental generation of a two-mode squeezed vacuum state on a thin-film silicon-nitride photonic integrated circuit with normal group velocity dispersion of 6.3×105 fs2/m. Quadrature squeezing of −2.1 dB±0.09 dB and anti-squeezing of 7.1 dB±0.04 dB are directly measured. To fully understand the dynamics of the quantum process, a comprehensive theoretical model is developed to capture the squeezing performance, showing excellent agreement with experimental results. Our findings highlight the potential of the thin-film silicon nitride platform that capitalizes on fully foundry-compatible fabrication technologies to advance robust, large-scale, and manufacturing-ready quantum information processing systems.
We report our work on the development of an on-chip squeezer for the generation of single-mode squeezed vacuum (SQV) light. The integrated squeezer is resonator-based, made up of two coupled Si3N4micro-ring resonators (MRR). Such structure, often coined as photonic ring molecules, is designed to suppress the unwanted nonlinear processes which can cause excess noises to contaminate the single-mode squeezed light generated via degenerate four-wave mixing (DG-FWM). Through such an integrated Si3N4squeezer, we generated SQV light showing a directly measured squeezing (anti-squeezing) level of −0.67 dB (2 dB), corresponding to an on-chip squeezing (anti-squeezing) level of −3.36 dB (5 dB).
Integration of quantum optical technique on-chip is crucial for large scale applications of quantum technology, which were proven in a free space environment to be superior to the corresponding classical technology. Squeezed states of light can be used for enhancing the sensitivity of quantum sensors and for fault-tolerant quantum computing. Although chip-based squeezed light generation has advanced significantly, practical impact remains limited because coupling losses between the chip and off-chip detectors destroy delicate quantum correlations, restricting the amount of observed squeezing. Here, we overcome this limitation by implementing the idea of on-chip quantum measurement with the aid of a parametric amplifier and applying it to the squeezed state generated by a silicon nitride (SiN) microring resonator. In our scheme, two matched SiN micro-rings are sequentially constructed. The first ring generates a squeezed state, whereas the second ring acts as a high-gain parametric amplifier (PA) that measures the squeezed state before the light experiences significant off-chip loss. This architecture is inherently loss-tolerant: the amplifier elevates the quantum noise well above the vacuum level, making the measurement insensitive to downstream losses. We directly observe a quantum noise reduction of 4.6 dB from the first ring, despite a chip-to-fiber coupling loss exceeding 5 dB. This work also demonstrates the first monolithic SU(1,1) interferometer with an estimated 5 dB signal-to-noise enhancement compared to traditional linear interferometers, and thus establishes a practical pathway for chip-based quantum sensors.
Squeezed light constitutes a key resource for quantum optical technologies including quantum sensing, computing, communication and metrology. For many applications the generation of squeezed light typically requires at least two nonlinear optical stages involving careful phase and frequency matching to achieve the required mixing of squeezed and coherent light. In our work, we introduce an on-chip system that simplifies the generation of coherent-squeezed light, utilizing only a single squeezing stage. We achieve this by pumping a silicon nitride (Si3N4) microring resonator to produce single-mode squeezed light through four-wave mixing at the same frequency as the pump mode, leveraging the inherent χ(3)-nonlinearity of the Si3N4 resonator. Our on-chip system demonstrates a squeezing of -4.7 dB with a clear perspective towards -10 dB squeezing. We also provide a theoretical model that describes the straightforward yet robust generation of single-mode squeezing at the injection locking point of the ring resonator. In fact, we show that a design with a normal dispersion can be used for robust generation of bright squeezed light without the need for careful suppression of unwanted nonlinear processes. Overall, our findings highlight an approach which drastically simplifies the generation of coherent-squeezed light in photonic integrated circuits.
Quantum squeezed states of light can enhance measurement sensitivity beyond classical limits and enable quantum information processing, but scalable low-loss sources remain challenging. We demonstrate continuous-wave quantum squeezing on a chip, achieving 18 dB of squeezing and 20 dB of anti-squeezing at 1570 nm in a 1.6-cm traveling-wave adaptively poled thin-film lithium niobate waveguide. A distributed model independently determines facet losses, phase noise, and nonlinear interaction strength without prior assumptions, enabling rigorous inference of on-chip performance. We estimate a 95% confidence interval of [-18.96, -17.25] dB squeezing and [19.96, 21.35] dB anti-squeezing. These values represent the highest squeezing reported for any integrated photonic platform and the first assumption-free statistical validation of integrated squeezing performance. Our results establish thin-film lithium niobate as a high-performance, scalable platform for continuous-variable quantum sensing, communications, and photonic computing.
Squeezed-light generation in photonic integrated circuits (PICs) is essential for scalable continuous-variable (CV) quantum information processing. By suppressing quantum fluctuations below the shot-noise limit, squeezed states enable quantum-enhanced sensing and serve as a standard resource for CV quantum information processing. While chip-level squeezed-light sources have been demonstrated, extending this capability to the wafer level with reproducible strong squeezing to bolster large-scale quantum-enhanced sensing and information processing has been hindered by squeezed light's extreme susceptibility to device imperfections. Here, we report wafer-scale fabrication, generation, and characterization of two-mode squeezed-vacuum states on a fully complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible silicon nitride (Si3N4) PIC platform. Across a 4-inch wafer, 8 dies yield 2.9-3.1 dB directly measured quadrature squeezing with <0.2 dB variation, demonstrating excellent uniformity. This performance is enabled by co-integrating ultralow-loss, strongly overcoupled high-Q microresonators, cascaded pump-rejection filters, and low-loss inverse-tapered edge couplers. The measurements agree with a first-principles theoretical model parameterized solely by independently extracted device parameters and experimental settings. The measured squeezing level can be further improved by enhancing the efficiencies of off-chip detection and chip-to-fiber coupling. These results establish a reproducible, wafer-scale route to nonclassical-light generation in integrated photonics and lay the groundwork for scalable CV processors, multiplexed entanglement sources, and quantum-enhanced sensing.