June 2020
Spotlight Summary by Ross Challinor and Peter Mosley
Prospects for photon-pair generation using silicon microring resonators with two photon absorption and free carrier absorption
Single photon sources are the subject of intense development efforts towards applications in photonic quantum technologies. One common method of heralding single photons with well-defined characteristics is through spontaneous photon pair generation by parametric down conversion or four-wave mixing mediated by optical nonlinearity. Silicon waveguides and micro-resonators are of particular interest due to their compatibility with CMOS fabrication processes and commensurate capacity for miniaturisation in photonic integrated circuits.
However, the advantages of silicon comes with compromises. For example, photon-pair generation rates can saturate and even fall when increasing pump laser power due to two photon absorption of the pump field and associated free carrier dispersion and absorption effects. In contrast, the modelling presented in this paper suggests that for the case of stimulated four-wave mixing in a silicon micro-ring resonator these unwanted effects can offset the power-dependent shift away from perfect phase matching that occurs as a result of nonlinear phase modulation, thus maintaining the pair generation rate at high pump powers. This implies that such devices would be effective over a wide, continuous range of input pump powers without the need for precise tuning of the pump parameters, provided appropriate thermal compensation is applied. The authors also present a thorough numerical investigation into the generation and noise rates of such devices over a large range of coupling strengths, input powers and geometries.
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However, the advantages of silicon comes with compromises. For example, photon-pair generation rates can saturate and even fall when increasing pump laser power due to two photon absorption of the pump field and associated free carrier dispersion and absorption effects. In contrast, the modelling presented in this paper suggests that for the case of stimulated four-wave mixing in a silicon micro-ring resonator these unwanted effects can offset the power-dependent shift away from perfect phase matching that occurs as a result of nonlinear phase modulation, thus maintaining the pair generation rate at high pump powers. This implies that such devices would be effective over a wide, continuous range of input pump powers without the need for precise tuning of the pump parameters, provided appropriate thermal compensation is applied. The authors also present a thorough numerical investigation into the generation and noise rates of such devices over a large range of coupling strengths, input powers and geometries.
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Article Information
Prospects for photon-pair generation using silicon microring resonators with two photon absorption and free carrier absorption
Chaoxuan Ma and Shayan Mookherjea
OSA Continuum 3(5) 1138-1153 (2020) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF