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Near-ideal spontaneous photon sources in silicon quantum photonics
S Paesani1, M Borghi1,2, S Signorini3
1Quantum Engineering Technology Labs, H. H. Wills Physics Laboratory and Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS81FD, UK.
Nature Communications
|May 20, 2020
Summary
We developed on-chip single photon sources for quantum computing that are highly indistinguishable, pure, and efficient. Fabricated in silicon, these sources meet critical demands for scalable quantum information processing.
Area of Science:
- Quantum Information Science
- Integrated Photonics
- Quantum Computing
Background:
- Integrated photonics offers a promising platform for quantum information processing.
- Existing photonic quantum computing architectures require high-quality single photon sources.
- Key challenges include achieving high indistinguishability, purity, efficiency, and manufacturability simultaneously.
Purpose of the Study:
- To demonstrate on-chip single photon sources that meet the stringent requirements for photonic quantum computing.
- To overcome the elusiveness of photon sources with high indistinguishability, purity, near-deterministic emission, and mass-manufacturability.
Main Methods:
- Fabrication of on-chip photon sources using mature silicon processes.
- Implementation of a dual-mode pump-delayed excitation scheme.
- Engineering spectrally pure photon pairs via inter-modal spontaneous four-wave mixing in multi-mode waveguides.
Main Results:
- Simultaneous measurement of spectral purity (0.9904 ± 0.0006) and mutual indistinguishability (0.987 ± 0.002).
- Achieved >90% intrinsic heralding efficiency for the photon sources.
- Demonstrated on-chip quantum interference visibility of 0.96 ± 0.02 between heralded photons from different sources.
Conclusions:
- The demonstrated on-chip photon sources simultaneously fulfill critical requirements for quantum information processing.
- Silicon-based fabrication and advanced excitation schemes enable high-performance, manufacturable quantum light sources.
- These advancements pave the way for scalable and robust photonic quantum computing architectures.
