Abstract
.We experimentally study the generation of correlated pairs of photons through four-wave mixing (FWM) in embedded silicon waveguides. The waveguides, which are designed to exhibit anomalous group-velocity dispersion at wavelengths near 1555 nm, allow phase matched FWM and thus efficient pair-wise generation of non-degenerate signal and idler photons. Photon counting measurements yield a coincidence-to-accidental ratio (CAR) of around 25 for a signal (idler) photon production rate of about 0.05 per pulse. We characterize the variation in CAR as a function of pump power and pump-to-sideband wavelength detuning. These measurements represent a first step towards the development of tools for quantum information processing which are based on CMOS-compatible, silicon-on-insulator technology.
Highlights
In recent years, scientists have begun to find situations where quantum-mechanically rich systems provide unique solutions to modern technological problems
We describe a first step towards practical Quantum information processing (QIP) devices based on silicon optical waveguide technology
This paper introduces an optical switch formed from a silicon ring microresonator, where the performance implies a free-carrier recombination lifetime of about 450 ps
Summary
Scientists have begun to find situations where quantum-mechanically rich systems provide unique solutions to modern technological problems. Quantum information processing using phase-matched FWM in Si waveguides was suggested in [6] and an explicit model for creating quantum-correlated photon pairs has been recently presented [7]. Similar four-wave mixing (FWM) in optical fibers has been used to generate pairs of photons [8,9,10,11,12,13] exhibiting polarization and time-bin entanglement [14, 15], which are useful for quantum communications applications. In the previous work on generating correlated and entangled photons using FWM in optical fibers [8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16] spontaneous Raman scattering (SRS) is the principal fundamental source of noise [16]. Carriers excited into the valence band can be further excited to a continuum of higher energy levels through excited state absorption which represents a loss process for the FWM photons
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