Nonlinear Photonics for Quantum State Generation and Processing

控制光与物质的非线性相互作用对于基于量子科学的未来技术至关重要。例如，这种相互作用可以通过光子对生成或通过将量子态从一个波长范围转移到另一个波长范围而导致单光子的生成，如通过量子和频生成所实现的。一个长期的目标是使这些相互作用如此强烈，以至于它们可以由单光子引起。虽然已经用超冷原子和微波实现了单光子相互作用的令人印象深刻的原理证明，但需要许多关键的进展来实现基于光的系统，这些系统可以扩展到可以在室温下工作的有用的固态设备。在这项研究工作中，PI将在理论和实验上研究新型的光-物质相互作用，在芯片级光子结构中使用二阶和三阶非线性光学过程，以推进量子科学的光子学。这种结构能够在所有三个维度上严格限制光，这可能会产生对单光子水平非常敏感的相互作用。拟议的研究将对量子信息科学的基础和应用方面产生影响，例如，精确检测光束中光子数量的能力。这种技术可以在量子计算、量子计量学和量子通信中找到广泛的应用。由这笔资金支持的研究生将为理解光如何在光子尺度上与物质相互作用奠定基础，并将获得表征这种相互作用所需的实验技能。此外，每年有1 - 2名本科生将在PI实验室从事与该研究相关的项目，并获得他们在光学物理方面的第一次尝试。技术观众摘要：在该项目中，PI将从理论和实验上探索新的非线性光学现象，使用芯片级结构中的二阶和三阶过程来推进光子学在量子信息应用中的应用。这种结构将被设计成在所有三个维度上产生光的紧密限制，同时设计色散以增强特定的非线性光学过程。这些方面将被有力地利用，以实现诸如光子三重态生成和参数下转换以及利用单光子的和频转换的过程。此外，该小组将利用微谐振器内的级联二阶非线性来执行量子非破坏测量，从而允许对一千多个光子进行光子数分辨检测。最后，该小组将在光子芯片上创建耦合压缩态发生器，这将使连续变量量子隐形传态和团簇态产生成为可能。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.