Periodic waveguides for quantum communication

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Quantum information research will lead us into the next technological revolution by developing a new kind of computer and providing communication security guaranteed by the laws of nature. While it isn't clear yet what a quantum computer will be made of, there is no doubt that light will continue to be our main communication carrier. In going from classical optical communication to quantum optical communication many new building blocks need to be developed and this proposal focuses on novel sources of light particles - photons. Single photons or entangled pairs of photons are needed to perform quantum cryptography, the technique that allows two parties to communicate in perfect secrecy. Entangled photon pairs can be produced by nonlinear optical conversion. In bulk crystals, this process is very inefficient. Integrated optics promise to increase the yield dramatically and thus we are fabricating periodically structured semiconductor waveguides with the goal of producing highly efficient, tailored sources of entangled photon pairs. The conversion efficiency and spectral properties of the created photon pairs are highly dependent on the properties of the waveguides. A precisely tuneable near-infrared laser will allow us to measure the transmission of our waveguides as a function of wavelength and polarization. The primary objective of our research is to achieve high quality entanglement, which is directly related to the spectral properties of the photon pairs. A very sensitive spectrometer requested in this proposal will yield this important information. These state-of the-art tools will give Canada a leading edge in optical quantum information research.