EAGER: Collaborative Research: Electrically Pumped Monolithic Bi-photon emitters

集成光子系统有望为量子技术提供可扩展和强大的平台，包括安全量子通信、量子成像和量子传感。一个实用的量子光子系统应该将纠缠光子的源与光子电路的其余部分单片集成。这种源必须是紧凑的、单片的和电泵的。现有的解决方案体积庞大，需要外部激光泵浦，这使得许多实际应用遥不可及。在原有电泵浦半导体激光异质结构的基础上，提出了一种新型的明亮紧凑的单片纠缠光子源。我们打算建立理论模型，制定详细的设计概念，并证明在光谱的中红外区域有效地产生光子对。拟议的合作努力将使利用光的量子特性的新一类应用成为可能。这两个pi将把研究成果纳入研究生和本科课程，并继续向高中学生和物理教师推广。他们将继续致力于招募代表性不足的学生进入STEM职业。拟议的量子技术研究将为未来的科学家和工程师做好准备，并促进将下一次量子革命的发现应用到现代技术中。技术：利用III-V型半导体的强二阶非线性特性，利用腔自发参数下转换（SPDC）产生纠缠光子态，利用波导和其他光子集成电路元件进行相位匹配和量子信息处理操作。实际应用需要将泵浦激光器和中红外光子对的SPDC源集成在一起，这是我们提出的主要目标。我们将开发一种新型的激光异质结构，它可以产生高功率和窄线宽的泵浦，同时实现激光光到光子对的有效参量下转换。在标准单芯激光波导中，由于正常色散，SPDC过程的相位匹配条件几乎不可能实现。原始的耦合波导设计将用于实现腔内SPDC有效产生相关光子对所需的模态相位匹配。泵浦光子将包含一个非对称超模，其有效折射率降低，克服了正常色散-这是所提出设计的关键功能。ii型腔内SPDC将产生相关的TE和TM极化对信号和空闲光子。对所提出的单片量子光子结构中非经典光态的产生、传播和探测的理论描述将得到发展。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

Integrated photonic systems hold promise to provide a scalable and robust platform for quantum technologies including secure quantum communications, quantum imaging, and quantum sensing. A practical quantum photonic system should monolithically integrate the sources of entangled photons with the rest of the photonic circuitry. Such sources have to be compact, monolithic and electrically pumped. The existing solutions are bulky and require external laser pumping, which puts many practical applications out of reach. We propose a new type of bright compact monolithic source of entangled photons based on the original electrically pumped semiconductor laser heterostructure. We intend to develop the theoretical model, formulate the detailed design concept, and demonstrate efficient generation of photon pairs in the mid-infrared region of spectra. The proposed collaborative efforts will enable a new class of the applications harnessing quantum properties of light. The two PIs will incorporate research results into graduate and undergraduate classes and their ongoing outreach effort to high school students and physics teachers. They will continue their commitment to recruiting under-represented students into STEM careers. The proposed quantum technology research will prepare future scientists and engineers and facilitate implementation of the discoveries of the next quantum revolution into modern technologies.Technical:Strong second order nonlinearity of III-V semiconductors can be used for production of the entangled photon states by means of cavity spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC) where the waveguides and other photonic integrated circuit components can be utilized to facilitate phase matching and perform quantum information processing operations. The monolithic integration of the pump laser and SPDC source of mid-infrared photon pairs is needed for practical applications and is the primary goal of our proposal. We will develop new class of laser heterostructures which can yield high power and narrow linewidth pumps and simultaneously enable efficient parametric down conversion of laser light into photon pairs. In standard single core laser waveguides the phase matching conditions for SPDC process are virtually impossible to achieve because of normal dispersion. The original coupled-waveguide design will be used to achieve modal phase matching required for efficient generation of the correlated photon pairs by intra-cavity SPDC. The pump photons will comprise an asymmetric super-mode with a reduced effective refractive index overcoming normal dispersion – a key enabling feature of the proposed design. The type-II intracavity SPDC will produce correlated TE and TM polarized pairs of signal and idler photons. Theoretical description of the generation, propagation, and detection of the non-classical light states in the proposed monolithic quantum photonic structure will be developed.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.