Generation of polarization entangled photon pairs using silicon wire waveguide

Area of Science:

• Quantum Optics
• Integrated Photonics
• Materials Science

Background:

• Quantum entanglement is a fundamental resource for quantum information processing.
• Generating entangled photon pairs efficiently and reliably is crucial for advancing quantum technologies.
• Silicon photonics offers a scalable platform for integrated quantum optical devices.

Purpose of the Study:

• To experimentally demonstrate the generation of polarization-entangled photon pairs.
• To utilize spontaneous four-wave mixing in a silicon waveguide for entanglement generation.
• To achieve high-visibility entanglement at telecommunication wavelengths.

Main Methods:

• Employed a nano-scale silicon wire waveguide integrated into a fiber loop.
• Utilized spontaneous four-wave mixing (SFWM) as the nonlinear optical process.
• Characterized the generated photon pairs using two-photon interference measurements.

Main Results:

• Successfully generated polarization-entangled photon pairs.
• Achieved entanglement in the 1.5-micrometer band, compatible with existing fiber infrastructure.
• Demonstrated high two-photon interference visibilities exceeding 83%.

Conclusions:

• Silicon waveguides are a viable platform for generating high-quality polarization entanglement.
• The achieved results pave the way for integrated quantum photonic devices.
• This work contributes to the development of practical quantum communication and computing systems.