No Arabic abstract
Integrated optical devices may replace bulk crystal or fiber based assemblies with a more compact and controllable photon pair and heralded single photon source and generate quantum light at telecommunications wavelengths. Here, we propose that a periodic waveguide consisting of a sequence of optical resonators may outperform conventional waveguides or single resonators and generate more than 1 Giga-pairs per second from a sub-millimeter-long room-temperature silicon device, pumped with only about 10 milliwatts of optical power. Furthermore, the spectral properties of such devices provide novel opportunities of wavelength-division multiplexed chip-scale quantum light sources.
We demonstrate continuous tuning of the squeezing level generated in a double-ring optical parametric oscillator by externally controlling the coupling condition using electrically controlled integrated microheaters. We accomplish this by utilizing the avoided crossing exhibited by a pair of coupled silicon nitride microring resonators. We directly detect a change in the squeezing level from 0.5 dB in the undercoupled regime to 2 dB in the overcoupled regime, which corresponds to a change in the generated on-chip squeezing factor from 0.9 dB to 3.9 dB. Such wide tunability in the squeezing level can be harnessed for on-chip quantum enhanced sensing protocols which require an optimal degree of squeezing.
Implementing large instances of quantum algorithms requires the processing of many quantum information carriers in a hardware platform that supports the integration of different components. While established semiconductor fabrication processes can integrate many photonic components, the generation and algorithmic processing of many photons has been a bottleneck in integrated photonics. Here we report the on-chip generation and processing of quantum states of light with up to eight photons in quantum sampling algorithms. Switching between different optical pumping regimes, we implement the Scattershot, Gaussian and standard boson sampling protocols in the same silicon chip, which integrates linear and nonlinear photonic circuitry. We use these results to benchmark a quantum algorithm for calculating molecular vibronic spectra. Our techniques can be readily scaled for the on-chip implementation of specialised quantum algorithms with tens of photons, pointing the way to efficiency advantages over conventional computers.
We demonstrate the generation and demultiplexing of quantum correlated photons on a monolithic photonic chip composed of silicon and silica-based waveguides. Photon pairs generated in a nonlinear silicon waveguide are successfully separated into two optical channels of an arrayed-waveguide grating fabricated on a silica-based waveguide platform.
Entanglement is a counterintuitive feature of quantum physics that is at the heart of quantum technology. High-dimensional quantum states offer unique advantages in various quantum information tasks. Integrated photonic chips have recently emerged as a leading platform for the generation, manipulation and detection of entangled photons. Here, we report a silicon photonic chip that uses novel interferometric resonance-enhanced photon-pair sources, spectral demultiplexers and high-dimensional reconfigurable circuitries to generate, manipulate and analyse path-entangled three-dimensional qutrit states. By minimizing on-chip electrical and thermal cross-talk, we obtain high-quality quantum interference with visibilities above 96.5% and a maximumly entangled qutrit state with a fidelity of 95.5%. We further explore the fundamental properties of entangled qutrits to test quantum nonlocality and contextuality, and to implement quantum simulations of graphs and high-precision optical phase measurements. Our work paves the path for the development of multiphoton high-dimensional quantum technologies.
A deterministic source of coherent single photons is an enabling device of quantum-information processing for quantum simulators, and ultimately a full-fledged quantum internet. Quantum dots (QDs) in nanophotonic structures have been employed as excellent sources of single photons, and planar waveguides are well suited for scaling up to multiple photons and emitters exploring near-unity photon-emitter coupling and advanced active on-chip functionalities. An ideal single-photon source requires suppressing noise and decoherence, which notably has been demonstrated in electrically-contacted heterostructures. It remains a challenge to implement deterministic resonant excitation of the QD required for generating coherent single photons, since residual light from the excitation laser should be suppressed without compromising source efficiency and scalability. Here, we present the design and realization of a novel planar nanophotonic device that enables deterministic pulsed resonant excitation of QDs through the waveguide. Through nanostructure engineering, the excitation light and collected photons are guided in two orthogonal waveguide modes enabling deterministic operation. We demonstrate a coherent single-photon source that simultaneously achieves high-purity ($g^{(2)}(0)$ = 0.020 $pm$ 0.005), high-indistinguishability ($V$ = 96 $pm$ 2 %), and $>$80 % coupling efficiency into the waveguide. The novel `plug-and-play coherent single-photon source could be operated unmanned for several days and will find immediate applications, e.g., for constructing heralded multi-photon entanglement sources for photonic quantum computing or sensing.