Nobuyuki Matsuda

A monolithically integrated polarization entangled photon pair source on a silicon chip

Integrated photonic circuits are one of the most promising platforms for large-scale photonic quantum information systems due to their small physical size and stable interferometers with near-perfect lateral-mode overlaps. Since many quantum information protocols are based on qubits defined by the polarization of photons, we must develop integrated building blocks to generate, manipulate, and measure the polarization-encoded quantum state on a chip. The generation unit is particularly important. Here we show the first integrated polarization-entangled photon pair source on a chip. We have implemented the source as a simple and stable silicon-on-insulator photonic circuit that generates an entangled state with 91 ± 2% fidelity. The source is equipped with versatile interfaces for silica-on-silicon or other types of waveguide platforms that accommodate the polarization manipulation and projection devices as well as pump light sources. Therefore, we are ready for the full-scale implementation of photonic quantum information systems on a chip.

Slow light enhanced optical nonlinearity in a silicon photonic crystal coupled-resonator optical waveguide

We demonstrate highly enhanced optical nonlinearity in a coupled-resonator optical waveguide (CROW) in a four-wave mixing experiment. Using a CROW consisting of 200 coupled resonators based on width-modulated photonic crystal nanocavities in a line defect, we obtained an effective nonlinear constant exceeding 10,000 /W/m, thanks to slow light propagation combined with a strong spatial confinement of light achieved by the wavelength-sized cavities.

An on-chip coupled resonator optical waveguide single-photon buffer

Integrated quantum optical circuits are now seen as one of the most promising approaches with which to realize single-photon quantum information processing. Many of the core elements for such circuits have been realized, including sources, gates and detectors. However, a significant missing function necessary for photonic quantum information processing on-chip is a buffer, where single photons are stored for a short period of time to facilitate circuit synchronization. Here we report an on-chip single-photon buffer based on coupled resonator optical waveguides (CROW) consisting of 400 high-Q photonic crystal line-defect nanocavities. By using the CROW, a pulsed single photon is successfully buffered for 150 ps with 50-ps tunability while maintaining its non-classical properties. Furthermore, we show that our buffer preserves entanglement by storing and retrieving one photon from a time-bin entangled state. This is a significant step towards an all-optical integrated quantum information processor.

Slow light enhanced correlated photon pair generation in photonic-crystal coupled-resonator optical waveguides

We demonstrate the generation of quantum-correlated photon pairs from a Si photonic-crystal coupled-resonator optical waveguide. A slow-light supermode realized by the collective resonance of high-Q and small-mode-volume photonic-crystal cavities successfully enhanced the efficiency of the spontaneous four-wave mixing process. The generation rate of photon pairs was improved by two orders of magnitude compared with that of a photonic-crystal line defect waveguide without a slow-light effect.

Entangled photons from on-chip slow light.

We report the first entanglement generation experiment using an on-chip slow light device. With highly efficient spontaneous four-wave mixing enhanced by the slow light effect in a coupled resonator optical waveguide based on a silicon photonic crystal, we generated 1.5-μm-band high-dimensional time-bin entangled photon pairs. We undertook two-photon interference experiments and observed the coincidence fringes with visibilities >74%. The present result enables us to realize an on-chip entanglement source with a very small footprint, which is an essential function for quantum information processing based on integrated quantum photonics.

All-optical phase modulations in a silicon wire waveguide at ultralow light levels

Cross-phase modulation(XPM) in a silicon wire waveguide at 1.55 μ m telecom band was studied down to ultralow light levels. In the low-power regime, we found that free-carrier dispersion as well as the optical Kerr effect contributes to the XPM. Possible mechanisms of the low-power XPM are discussed.

On-chip generation and demultiplexing of quantum correlated photons using a silicon-silica monolithic photonic integration platform.

We demonstrate the generation and demultiplexing of quantum correlated photons on a monolithic photonic chip composed of silicon and silica-based waveguides. Photon pairs generated in a nonlinear silicon waveguide are successfully separated into two optical channels of an arrayed-waveguide grating fabricated on a silica-based waveguide platform.

High-visibility nonclassical interference between pure heralded single photons and weak coherent photons

We present an experiment of nonclassical interference between an intrinsically pure heralded single-photon state and a weak coherent state. Our experiment demonstrates that, without the use of bandpass filters, spectrally pure single photons can have high-visibility (89.4{+-}0.5%) interference with photons from a weak coherent field. Our scheme lays the groundwork for future experiments requiring quantum interference between photons in nonclassical states and those in coherent states.

Lossless all-optical phase gate using a polarization-division Sagnac interferometer applicable to a waveguide-type Kerr medium

We propose an apparatus that realizes direct observation of nonlinear phase shifts induced by cross-phase modulation. The apparatus is based on a polarization-division Sagnac interferometer incorporating Faraday rotators, which, in principle, enables phase robustness, flexibility, and lossless operation. Here, we present the measurement of nonlinear phase shifts in a photonic crystal fiber, demonstrating the advantage of our system in its application to waveguide-type Kerr media. This apparatus is applicable to lossless all-optical phase gates and switches.

Octave-spanning supercontinuum generation at telecommunications wavelengths in a precisely dispersion- and length-controlled silicon-wire waveguide with a double taper structure

We demonstrate on-chip octave-spanning supercontinuum (SC) generation with a Si-wire waveguide (SWG). We precisely controlled the SWG width so that the group velocity becomes flat over a wide wavelength range. By adjusting the SWG length, we could reduce the optical losses due to two-photon absorption and pulse propagation. In addition, for efficient coupling between the laser pulse and waveguide, we fabricated a two-step inverse taper at both ends of the SWG. Using a 600-nm-wide SWG, we were able to generate a broadband SC spectrum at wavelengths from 1060 to 2200 nm at a −40 dB level with only 50-pJ laser energy from an Er-doped fiber laser oscillator. We found that we can generate an on-chip broadband SC spectrum with an SWG with a length even as small as 1.7 mm.