Generation of broadband polarization-orthogonal photon pairs via the dispersion-engineered thin-film lithium niobate waveguide

Broadband photon pairs are highly desirable for quantum metrology,quantum sensing,and quantum communication.Such sources are usually designed through type-0 phase-matching spontaneous parametric down-conversion(SPDC)that makes the photon pairs hard to separate in the frequency-degenerate case and thus limits their applications.In this paper,we design a broadband frequency-degenerate telecom-band photon pair source via the type-II SPDC in a dispersion-engineered thin-film lithium niobate waveguide,where the polarization modes of photon pairs are orthogonal and thus are easily separated deterministically.With a 5-mm-long waveguide,our design can achieve a bandwidth of 5.56 THz(44.8 nm),which is 8.6 times larger than that of the bulk lithium niobate,and the central wavelength can be flexibly adjusted.Our design is a promising approach towards high-quality integrated photon sources and may have wide applications in photonic quantum technologies.

Effect of thickness variations of lithium niobate on insulator waveguide on the frequency spectrum of spontaneous parametric down-conversion

We study the effect of waveguide thickness variations on the frequency spectrum of spontaneous parametric downconversion in the periodically-poled lithium niobate on insulator(LNOI)waveguide.We analyze several variation models and our simulation results show that thickness variations in several nanometers can induce distinct effects on the central peak of the spectrum,such as narrowing,broadening,and splitting.We also prove that the effects of positive and negative variations can be canceled and thus lead to a variation-robust feature and an ultra-broad bandwidth.Our study may promote the development of on-chip photon sources in the LNOI platform,as well as opens up a way to engineer photon frequency state.

Quantum photonic network on chip

We provide an overview of quantum photonic network on chip. We begin from the discussion of the pros and cons of several material platforms for engineering quantum photonic chips. Then we introduce and analyze the basic building blocks and functional units of quantum photonic integrated circuits. In the main part of this review, we focus on the generation and manipulation of quantum states of light on chip and are particularly interested in some applications of advanced integrated circuits with different functionalities for quantum information processing, including quantum communication, quantum computing, and quantum simulation. We emphasize that developing fully integrated quantum photonic chip which contains sources of quantum light, integrate circuits, modulators, quantum storage, and detectors are promising approaches for future quantum photonic technologies. Recent achievements in the large scale photonic chips for linear optical computing are also included. Finally, we illustrate the challenges toward high performance quantum information processing devices and conclude with promising perspectives in this field.

Widely tunable single-photon source with high spectral-purity from telecom wavelength to mid-infrared wavelength based on MgO:PPLN

By utilizing the extended phase-matching(EPM)method,we investigate the generation of single photons with high spectral-purity in a magnesium-doped periodically-poled lithium niobate(MgO:PPLN)crystal via the spontaneous parametric down-conversion(SPDC)process.By adjusting the temperature and pump wavelength,the wavelength of the single photons can be tuned from telecom to mid-infrared(MIR)wavelengths,for which the spectral-purity can be above 0.95 with high transmission filters.In experiments,we engineer a MgO:PPLN with poling period of 20.35µm which emits the EPM photon pair centered at 1496.6 nm and 1644.0 nm and carry out the joint spectral intensity(JSI)and Glauber’s second-order self-correlation measurements to characterize the spectral purity.The results are in good agreement with the numerical simulations.Our work may provide a valuable approach for the generation of spectrally pure single photons at a wide range of wavelengths which is competent for various photonic quantum technologies.

Broadband Sheet Parametric Oscillator for x^((2)) Optical Frequency Comb Generation via Cavity Phase Matching

We demonstrate a broadband optical parametric oscillation,using a sheet cavity,via cavity phase-matching.A21.2 THz broad comb-like spectrum is achieved,with a uniform line spacing of 133.0 GHz,despite a relatively large dispersion of 275.4 fs^(2)/mm around 1064 nm.With 22.6% high slope efficiency,and 14.9 kW peak power handling,this sheet optical parametric oscillator can be further developed for x^((2)) comb.

High-speed free-space optical communication using standard fiber communication components without optical amplification

Free-space optical communication(FSO)can achieve fast,secure,and license-free communication without physical cables,providing a cost-effective,energy-efficient,and flexible solution when fiber connection is unavailable.To achieve FSO on demand,portable FSO devices are essential for flexible and fast deployment,where the key is achieving compact structure and plug-and-play operation.Here,we develop a miniaturized FSO system and realize 9.16 Gbps FSO in a 1 km link,using commercial single-mode-fibercoupled optical transceiver modules without optical amplification.Fully automatic four-stage acquisition,pointing,and tracking systems are developed,which control the tracking error within 3μrad,resulting in an average link loss of 13.7 dB.It is the key for removing optical amplification;hence FSO is achieved with direct use of commercial transceiver modules in a bidirectional way.Each FSO device is within an overall size of 45 cm×40 cm×35 cm,and 9.5 kg weight,with power consumption of∼10 W.The optical link up to 4 km is tested with average loss of 18 dB,limited by the foggy test environment.With better weather conditions and optical amplification,longer FSO can be expected.Such a portable and automatic FSO system will produce massive applications of field-deployable high-speed wireless communication in the future.

Plasmonic polarization generator in well-routed beaming

As one of the recent advances of optics and photonics,plasmonics has enabled unprecedented optical designs.Having a vectorial configuration of surface plasmon field,metallic nanostructures offer efficient solutions in polarization control with a very limited sample thickness.Many compact polarization devices have been realized using such metallic nanostructures.However,in most of these devices,the functions were usually simple and limited to a few polarization states.Here,we demonstrated a plasmonic polarization generator that can reconfigure an input polarization to all types of polarization states simultaneously.The plasmonic polarization generator is based on the interference of the in-plane(longitudinal)field of the surface plasmons that gives rise to versatile near-field polarization states on a metal surface,which have seldom been considered in previous studies.With a well-designed nanohole array,the in-plane field of SPPs with proper polarization states and phases can be selectively scattered out to the desired light beams.A manifestation of eight focusing beams with well-routed polarizations was experimentally demonstrated.Our design offers a new route to achieve the full control of optical polarizations and possibly advance the development in photonic information processing.

2 μm optical frequency comb generation via optical parametric oscillation from a lithium niobate optical superlattice box resonator

Optical parametric oscillators(OPOs) can downconvert the pump laser to longer wavelengths with octave separation via χ^((2)), which is widely used for laser wavelength extension including mid-infrared(MIR) generation.Such a process can be integrated in monolithic resonators, being compact and low in threshold. In this work, we show that the monolithic χ^((2))mini-OPO can also be used for optical frequency comb generation around 2096 nm and enters the boundary of MIR range. A new geometry called an optical superlattice box resonator is developed for this realization with near-material-limited quality factor of 4.0 × 10^(7). Only a continuous-wave near-infrared pump laser is required, with OPO threshold of 80 mW and output power up to 340 mW. Revival temporal profiles are measured at a detectable repetition frequency of 1.426 GHz, and narrow beat note linewidth of less than 10 Hz shows high comb coherence. These results are in good agreement with our simulation for a stable comb generation. Such an OPO-based comb source is useful for carbon dioxide sensing or the mine prospect applications and can be generalized to longer MIR wavelengths for general gas spectroscopy.

Effect of dimension variation for second-harmonic generation in lithium niobate on insulator waveguide[Invited]

We study the effect of dimension variation for second-harmonic generation(SHG) in lithium niobate on insulator(LNOI)waveguides. Non-trivial SHG profiles in both type-0 and type-I quasi-phase matching are observed during the wavelength tuning of the fundamental light. Theoretical modeling shows that the SHG profile and efficiency can be greatly affected by the waveguide cross-section dimension variations, especially the thickness variations. In particular, our analysis shows that a thickness variation of tens of nanometers is in good agreement with the experimental results. Such investigations could be used to evaluate fabrication performance of LNOI-based nonlinear optical devices.

Narrowband photonic quantum entanglement with counterpropagating domain engineering

Narrowband photonic entanglement is a crucial resource for long-distance quantum communication and quantum information processing,including quantum memories.We demonstrate the first polarization entanglement with 7.1 GHz inherent bandwidth by counterpropagating domain engineering,which is also confirmed by Hong–Ou–Mandel interference with 155-ps base-to-base dip width and(97.1±0.59)%high visibility.The entanglement is harnessed with 18.5-standard-deviations Bell inequality violation,and further characterized with state tomography of(95.71±0.61)%fidelity.Such narrowband entanglement sets a cornerstone for practical quantum information applications.

Realization of a source-device-independent quantum random number generator secured by nonlocal dispersion cancellation

Quantum random number generators(QRNGs)can provide genuine randomness by exploiting the intrinsic probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics,which play important roles in many applications.However,the true randomness acquisition could be subjected to attacks from untrusted devices involved or their deviations from the theoretical modeling in real-life implementation.We propose and experimentally demonstrate a source-device-independent QRNG,which enables one to access true random bits with an untrusted source device.The random bits are generated by measuring the arrival time of either photon of the time–energy entangled photon pairs produced from spontaneous parametric downconversion,where the entanglement is testified through the observation of nonlocal dispersion cancellation.In experiment,we extract a generation rate of 4 Mbps by a modified entropic uncertainty relation,which can be improved to gigabits per second by using advanced single-photon detectors.Our approach provides a promising candidate for QRNGs with no characterization or error-prone source devices in practice.