Cross-polarized photon-pair generation and bi-chromatically pumped optical parametric oscillation on a chip

Nonlinear optical processes are one of the most important tools in modern optics with a broad spectrum of applications in, for example, frequency conversion, spectroscopy, signal processing and quantum optics. For practical and ultimately widespread implementation, on-chip devices compatible with electronic integrated circuit technology offer great advantages in terms of low cost, small footprint, high performance and low energy consumption. While many on-chip key components have been realized, to date polarization has not been fully exploited as a degree of freedom for integrated nonlinear devices. In particular, frequency conversion based on orthogonally polarized beams has not yet been demonstrated on chip. Here we show frequency mixing between orthogonal polarization modes in a compact integrated microring resonator and demonstrate a bi-chromatically pumped optical parametric oscillator. Operating the device above and below threshold, we directly generate orthogonally polarized beams, as well as photon pairs, respectively, that can find applications, for example, in optical communication and quantum optics

Experimental Quantum Hamiltonian Learning

Efficiently characterising quantum systems, verifying operations of quantum devices and validating underpinning physical models, are central challenges for the development of quantum technologies and for our continued understanding of foundational physics. Machine-learning enhanced by quantum simulators has been proposed as a route to improve the computational cost of performing these studies. Here we interface two different quantum systems through a classical channel - a silicon-photonics quantum simulator and an electron spin in a diamond nitrogen-vacancy centre - and use the former to learn the latter's Hamiltonian via Bayesian inference. We learn the salient Hamiltonian parameter with an uncertainty of approximately $10^{-5}$. Furthermore, an observed saturation in the learning algorithm suggests deficiencies in the underlying Hamiltonian model, which we exploit to further improve the model itself. We go on to implement an interactive version of the protocol and experimentally show its ability to characterise the operation of the quantum photonic device. This work demonstrates powerful new quantum-enhanced techniques for investigating foundational physical models and characterising quantum technologies

Optical source of individual pairs of colour-conjugated photons

We theoretically demonstrate that Kerr nonlinearity in optical circuits can lead to both resonant four-wave mixing and photon blockade, which can be used for high-yield generation of high-fidelity individual photon pairs with conjugated frequencies. We propose an optical circuit, which, in the optimal pulsed-drive regime, would produce photon pairs at the rate up to 5 × 105  s−1 (0.5 pairs per pulse) with g(2)(0)<10–2g(2)(0)<10−2 for one of the conjugated frequencies. We show that such a scheme can be utilised to generate colour-entangled photons

On-chip quantum interference between silicon photon-pair sources

Large-scale integrated quantum photonic technologies will require the on-chip integration of identical photon sources with reconfigurable waveguide circuits. Relatively complex quantum circuits have already been demonstrated, but few studies acknowledge the pressing need to integrate photon sources and waveguide circuits together on-chip. A key step towards such large-scale quantum technologies is the integration of just two individual photon sources within a waveguide circuit, and the demonstration of high-visibility quantum interference between them. Here, we report a silicon-on-insulator device combining two four-wave mixing sources, in an interferometer with a reconfigurable phase shifter. We configure the device to create and manipulate two-colour (non-degenerate) or same-colour (degenerate), path-entangled or path-unentangled photon pairs. We observe up to 100.0+/-0.4% visibility quantum interference on-chip, and up to 95+/-4% off-chip. Our device removes the need for external photon sources, provides a path to increasing the complexity of quantum photonic circuits, and is a first step towards fully-integrated quantum technologies

Large-scale silicon quantum photonics implementing arbitrary two-qubit processing

Photonics is a promising platform for implementing universal quantum information processing. Its main challenges include precise control of massive circuits of linear optical components and effective implementation of entangling operations on photons. By using large-scale silicon photonic circuits to implement an extension of the linear combination of quantum operators scheme, we realize a fully programmable two-qubit quantum processor, enabling universal two-qubit quantum information processing in optics. The quantum processor is fabricated with mature CMOS-compatible processing and comprises more than 200 photonic components. We programmed the device to implement 98 different two-qubit unitary operations ( with an average quantum process fidelity of 93.2 +/- 4.5%), a two-qubit quantum approximate optimization algorithm, and efficient simulation of Szegedy directed quantum walks. This fosters further use of the linear-combination architecture with silicon photonics for future photonic quantum processors

Multi-photon absorption limits to heralded single photon sources

This work was supported in part by the Centre of Excellence (CUDOS, project number CE110001018), Laureate Fellowship (FL120100029) and Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DE120102069, DE130101148, and DE120100226) programs of the Australian Research Council (ARC), EPSRC UK Silicon Photonics (Grant reference EP/F001428/1), EU FP7 GOSPEL project (grant no. 219299), and EU FP7 COPERNICUS (grant no. 249012).Single photons are of paramount importance to future quantum technologies, including quantum communication and computation. Nonlinear photonic devices using parametric processes offer a straightforward route to generating photons, however additional nonlinear processes may come into play and interfere with these sources. Here we analyse spontaneous four-wave mixing (SFWM) sources in the presence of multi-photon processes. We conduct experiments in silicon and gallium indium phosphide photonic crystal waveguides which display inherently different nonlinear absorption processes, namely two-photon (TPA) and three-photon absorption (ThPA), respectively. We develop a novel model capturing these diverse effects which is in excellent quantitative agreement with measurements of brightness, coincidence-to-accidental ratio (CAR) and second-order correlation function g((2))(0), showing that TPA imposes an intrinsic limit on heralded single photon sources. We build on these observations to devise a new metric, the quantum utility (QMU), enabling further optimisation of single photon sources.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe