Near-Field Spectroscopy of Cylindrical Phonon-Polariton Antennas.

Surface phonon polaritons (SPhPs) are hybrid light-matter states in which light strongly couples to lattice vibrations inside the Reststrahlen band of polar dielectrics at mid-infrared frequencies. Antennas supporting localized surface phonon polaritons (LSPhPs) easily outperform their plasmonic counterparts operating in the visible or near-infrared in terms of field enhancement and confinement thanks to the inherently slower phonon-phonon scattering processes governing SPhP decay. In particular, LSPhP antennas have attracted considerable interest for thermal management at the nanoscale, where the emission strongly diverts from the usual far-field blackbody radiation due to the presence of evanescent waves at the surface. However, far-field measurements cannot shed light on the behavior of antennas in the near-field region. To overcome this limitation, we employ scattering-scanning near-field optical microscopy (sSNOM) to unveil the spectral near-field response of 3C-SiC antenna arrays. We present a detailed description of the behavior of the antenna resonances by comparing far-field and near-field spectra and demonstrate the existence of a mode with no net dipole moment, absent in the far-field spectra, but of importance for applications that exploit the heightened electromagnetic near fields. Furthermore, we investigate the perturbation in the antenna response induced by the presence of the AFM tip, which can be further extended toward situations where for example strong IR emitters couple to LSPhP modes.

HWCVD a-Si:H interlayer slope waveguide coupler for multilayer silicon photonics platform.

We present interlayer slope waveguides, designed to guide light from one level to another in a multi-layer silicon photonics platform. The waveguide is fabricated from hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) film, deposited using hot-wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD) at a temperature of 230°C. The interlayer slope waveguide is comprises of a lower level input waveguide and an upper level output waveguide, connected by a waveguide on a slope, with vertical separation to isolate other crossing waveguides. Measured loss of 0.17 dB/slope was obtained for waveguide dimensions of 600 nm waveguide width (w) and 400 nm core thickness (h) at a wavelength of 1550 nm and for transverse electric (TE) mode polarization.

Complementary metal-oxide semiconductor compatible source of single photons at near-visible wavelengths: publisher's note.

This publisher's note corrects an error in the abstract in Opt. Lett.43, 855 (2018)OPLEDP0146-959210.1364/OL.43.000855.

Complementary metal-oxide semiconductor compatible source of single photons at near-visible wavelengths.

We demonstrate on-chip generation of correlated pairs of photons in the near-visible spectrum using a CMOS compatible plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition silicon nitride photonic device. Photons are generated via spontaneous four wave mixing enhanced by a ring resonator with high intrinsic quality Q-factor of 3,20,000, resulting in a generation rate of 950,000 pairsmW. The high brightness of this source offers the opportunity to expand photonic quantum technologies over a broad wavelength range and provides a path to develop fully integrated quantum chips working at room temperature.

Linear integrated optics in 3C silicon carbide.

The development of new photonic materials that combine diverse optical capabilities is needed to boost the integration of different quantum and classical components within the same chip. Amongst all candidates, the superior optical properties of cubic silicon carbide (3C SiC) could be merged with its crystalline point defects, enabling single photon generation, manipulation and light-matter interaction on a single device. The development of photonics devices in SiC has been limited by the presence of the silicon substrate, over which thin crystalline films are heteroepitaxially grown. By employing a novel approach in the material fabrication, we demonstrate grating couplers with coupling efficiency reaching -6 dB, sub-µm waveguides and high intrinsic quality factor (up to 24,000) ring resonators. These components are the basis for linear optical networks and essential for developing a wide range of photonics component for non-linear and quantum optics.

Strong and Coherent Coupling between Localized and Propagating Phonon Polaritons.

Following the recent observation of localized phonon polaritons in user-defined silicon carbide nanoresonators, here we demonstrate strong and coherent coupling between those localized modes and propagating phonon polaritons bound to the surface of the nanoresonator's substrate. In order to obtain phase matching, the nanoresonators have been fabricated to serve the double function of hosting the localized modes, while also acting as a grating for the propagating ones. The coherent coupling between long lived, optically accessible localized modes, and low-loss propagative ones, opens the way to the design and realization of phonon-polariton based coherent circuits.

Quantum walks of correlated photon pairs in two-dimensional waveguide arrays.

We demonstrate quantum walks of correlated photons in a two-dimensional network of directly laser written waveguides coupled in a "swiss cross" arrangement. The correlated detection events show high-visibility quantum interference and unique composite behavior: strong correlation and independence of the quantum walkers, between and within the planes of the cross. Violations of a classically defined inequality, for photons injected in the same plane and in orthogonal planes, reveal nonclassical behavior in a nonplanar structure.

Two-photon quantum interference in integrated multi-mode interference devices.

Multi-mode interference (MMI) devices fabricated in silicon oxynitride (SiON) with a refractive index contrast of 2.4% provide a highly compact and stable platform for multi-photon non-classical interference. MMI devices can introduce which-path information for photons propagating in the multi-mode section which can result in degradation of this non-classical interference. We theoretically derive the visibility of quantum interference of two photons injected in a MMI device and predict near unity visibility for compact SiON devices. We complement the theoretical results by experimentally demonstrating visibilities of up to 97.7% in 2×2 MMI devices without the requirement of narrow-band photons.

Polytype control of spin qubits in silicon carbide.

Crystal defects can confine isolated electronic spins and are promising candidates for solid-state quantum information. Alongside research focusing on nitrogen-vacancy centres in diamond, an alternative strategy seeks to identify new spin systems with an expanded set of technological capabilities, a materials-driven approach that could ultimately lead to 'designer' spins with tailored properties. Here we show that the 4H, 6H and 3C polytypes of SiC all host coherent and optically addressable defect spin states, including states in all three with room-temperature quantum coherence. The prevalence of this spin coherence shows that crystal polymorphism can be a degree of freedom for engineering spin qubits. Long spin coherence times allow us to use double electron-electron resonance to measure magnetic dipole interactions between spin ensembles in inequivalent lattice sites of the same crystal. Together with the distinct optical and spin transition energies of such inequivalent states, these interactions provide a route to dipole-coupled networks of separately addressable spins.

Observing fermionic statistics with photons in arbitrary processes.

Quantum mechanics defines two classes of particles-bosons and fermions-whose exchange statistics fundamentally dictate quantum dynamics. Here we develop a scheme that uses entanglement to directly observe the correlated detection statistics of any number of fermions in any physical process. This approach relies on sending each of the entangled particles through identical copies of the process and by controlling a single phase parameter in the entangled state, the correlated detection statistics can be continuously tuned between bosonic and fermionic statistics. We implement this scheme via two entangled photons shared across the polarisation modes of a single photonic chip to directly mimic the fermion, boson and intermediate behaviour of two-particles undergoing a continuous time quantum walk. The ability to simulate fermions with photons is likely to have applications for verifying boson scattering and for observing particle correlations in analogue simulation using any physical platform that can prepare the entangled state prescribed here.

Heralding two-photon and four-photon path entanglement on a chip.

Generating quantum entanglement is not only an important scientific endeavor, but will be essential to realizing quantum-enhanced technologies, in particular, quantum-enhanced measurements with precision beyond classical limits. We investigate the heralded generation of multiphoton entanglement for quantum metrology using a reconfigurable integrated waveguide device in which projective measurement of auxiliary photons heralds the generation of path-entangled states. We use four and six-photon inputs, to analyze the heralding process of two- and four-photon NOON states-a superposition of N photons in two paths, capable of enabling phase supersensitive measurements at the Heisenberg limit. Realistic devices will include imperfections; as part of the heralded state preparation, we demonstrate phase superresolution within our chip with a state that is more robust to photon loss.

Demonstration of unconditional one-way quantum computations for continuous variables.

One-way quantum computation is a very promising candidate to fulfill the capabilities of quantum information processing. Here we demonstrate an important set of unitary operations for continuous variables using a linear cluster state of four entangled optical modes. These operations are performed in a fully measurement-controlled and completely unconditional fashion. We implement three different levels of squeezing operations and a Fourier transformation, all of which are accessible by selecting the correct quadrature measurement angles of the homodyne detections. Though not sufficient, these linear transformations are necessary for universal quantum computation.

Multimode quantum interference of photons in multiport integrated devices.

Photonics is a leading approach in realizing future quantum technologies and recently, optical waveguide circuits on silicon chips have demonstrated high levels of miniaturization and performance. Multimode interference (MMI) devices promise a straightforward implementation of compact and robust multiport circuits. Here, we show quantum interference in a 2 × 2 MMI coupler with visibility of V=95.6 ± 0.9%. We further demonstrate the operation of a 4 × 4 port MMI device with photon pairs, which exhibits complex quantum interference behaviour. We have developed a new technique to fully characterize such multiport devices, which removes the need for phase-sensitive measurements and may find applications for a wide range of photonic devices. Our results show that MMI devices can operate in the quantum regime with high fidelity and promise substantial simplification and concatenation of photonic quantum circuits.

Quantum walks of correlated photons.

Quantum walks of correlated particles offer the possibility of studying large-scale quantum interference; simulating biological, chemical, and physical systems; and providing a route to universal quantum computation. We have demonstrated quantum walks of two identical photons in an array of 21 continuously evanescently coupled waveguides in a SiO(x)N(y) chip. We observed quantum correlations, violating a classical limit by 76 standard deviations, and found that the correlations depended critically on the input state of the quantum walk. These results present a powerful approach to achieving quantum walks with correlated particles to encode information in an exponentially larger state space.

Shor's quantum factoring algorithm on a photonic chip.

Shor's quantum factoring algorithm finds the prime factors of a large number exponentially faster than any other known method, a task that lies at the heart of modern information security, particularly on the Internet. This algorithm requires a quantum computer, a device that harnesses the massive parallelism afforded by quantum superposition and entanglement of quantum bits (or qubits). We report the demonstration of a compiled version of Shor's algorithm on an integrated waveguide silica-on-silicon chip that guides four single-photon qubits through the computation to factor 15.

Laser written waveguide photonic quantum circuits.

We report photonic quantum circuits created using an ultrafast laser processing technique that is rapid, requires no lithographic mask and can be used to create three-dimensional networks of waveguide devices. We have characterized directional couplers--the key functional elements of photonic quantum circuits--and found that they perform as well as lithographically produced waveguide devices. We further demonstrate high-performance interferometers and an important multi-photon quantum interference phenomenon for the first time in integrated optics. This direct-write approach will enable the rapid development of sophisticated quantum optical circuits and their scaling into three-dimensions.

Silica-on-silicon waveguide quantum circuits.

Quantum technologies based on photons will likely require an integrated optics architecture for improved performance, miniaturization, and scalability. We demonstrate high-fidelity silica-on-silicon integrated optical realizations of key quantum photonic circuits, including two-photon quantum interference with a visibility of 94.8 +/- 0.5%; a controlled-NOT gate with an average logical basis fidelity of 94.3 +/- 0.2%; and a path-entangled state of two photons with fidelity of >92%. These results show that it is possible to directly "write" sophisticated photonic quantum circuits onto a silicon chip, which will be of benefit to future quantum technologies based on photons, including information processing, communication, metrology, and lithography, as well as the fundamental science of quantum optics.

Theoretical and experimental study of the Suzuki-phase photonic crystal lattice by angle-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy.

A complete theoretical and experimental analysis of the photonic band structure for the Suzuki-phase lattice is presented. The band diagrams were calculated by two-dimensional plane wave expansion and three-dimensional guided-mode expansion methods. Angle resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy has been used to measure the emission of the photonic crystal structure realized in active InAsP/InP slabs. Photonic bands with a very low group velocity along an entire direction of the reciprocal lattice have been measured, which may have important applications on future photonic devices. The experimentally determined dispersion is in very good agreement with the calculated photonic bands. The presence of defect modes produced by microcavities in the Suzuki-phase lattice has also been established.