Nonlinear Photonics for Quantum State Generation and Processing

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General audience abstract:Controlling the nonlinear interaction of light with matter is critical for future technologies based on quantum science. For example, such interactions can lead to the generation of single photons through photon-pair generation or through transferring quantum states from one wavelength regime to another as is realized through quantum sum frequency generation. A long-standing goal has been to make these interactions so strong that they can be induced by single photons. While impressive, proof-of-principle demonstrations of single-photon interactions have been realized with ultracold atoms and with microwaves, many critical advances are needed to realize systems based on light that can be scaled to useful solid-state devices that can operate at room-temperature. In this research effort, the PI will investigate theoretically and experimentally new types of light-matter interactions using second-order and third-order nonlinear optical processes in chip-scale photonic structures to advance photonics for quantum science. Such structures enable tight confinement of light in all three dimensions, which can potentially produce interactions that are exquisitely sensitive down to the single-photon level. The proposed research will have impact on both fundamental and applied aspects of quantum information science including, for example, the ability to detect precisely the number of photons in a light beam. Such technology could find extensive applications in quantum computation, quantum metrology, and quantum communications. The graduate students supported by this funding will develop a foundation for understanding how light interacts with matter at the photon scale and will acquire the experimental skills necessary for characterizing such interactions. In addition, one or two undergraduates per year will work in the PI’s laboratory on projects related to this research effort and gain their first taste of performing research in optical physics.Technical audience abstract:In this project, the PI will explore theoretically and experimentally new nonlinear optical phenomena using second-order and third-order processes in chip-scale structures to advance photonics for quantum information applications. Such structures will be designed to produce tight confinement of light in all three dimensions while engineering the dispersion to enhance specific nonlinear optical processes. These aspects will be strongly leveraged to enable processes such as photon-triplet generation and parametric down conversion and sum-frequency conversion with single photons. In addition, the group will exploit cascaded second-order nonlinearities within microresonators to perform quantum non-demolition measurements that allow for photon-number-resolved detection of more than a thousand photons. Lastly, the group will create coupled squeezed-state generators on a photonic chip that will enable continuous-variable quantum teleportation and cluster-state generation. The proposed research will have impact on both fundamental and applied aspects of nonlinear optics with single photons and more broadly on quantum science.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.