Discrete Frequency Entangled Photon Pair Generation Based on Silicon Micro-ring Cavities

Abstract

In this paper, we propose and demonstrate a scheme to generate discrete frequency entangled photon pairs based on a silicon micro-ring resonator. The resonator is placed in a Sagnac fiber loop. Stimulated by two pump lights at two different resonance wavelengths of the resonator, photon pairs at another two resonance wavelengths are generated along two opposite directions in the fiber loop, by the nondegenerate spontaneous four wave mixing in the resonator. Their states are superposed and interfered at the output ports of the fiber loop to generate frequency entangled photon pairs. On the other hand, since the pump lights come from two continuous wave lasers, energy-time entanglement is an intrinsic property of the generated photon pairs. The entanglements on frequency and energy-time are demonstrated experimentally by the experiments of spatial quantum beating and Franson-type interference, respectively, showing that the silicon micro-ring resonators are ideal candidates to realize complex photonic quant...