A chip-based array of near-identical, pure, heralded single photon sources

TL;DR

This paper presents a chip-based array of over eighteen nearly identical, high-purity heralded single photon sources using silica chip technology, enabling advanced quantum optics experiments and large-scale photonic networks.

Contribution

It introduces a novel, scalable array of high-quality single photon sources on a chip, overcoming previous limitations in large quantum photonic networks.

Findings

Demonstrated over eighteen identical single photon sources on a silica chip.

Verified source quality with heralded Hong-Ou-Mandel experiments.

Extended Hong-Ou-Mandel interference to three photons, mapping interference landscape.

Abstract

Interference between independent single photons is perhaps the most fundamental interaction in quantum optics. It has become increasingly important as a tool for optical quantum information science, as one of the rudimentary quantum operations, together with photon detection, for generating entanglement between non-interacting particles. Despite this, demonstrations of large-scale photonic networks involving more than two independent sources of quantum light have been limited due to the difficulty in constructing large arrays of high-quality single photon sources. Here, we solve the key challenge, reporting a novel array of more than eighteen near-identical, low-loss, high-purity, heralded single photon sources achieved using spontaneous four-wave mixing (SFWM) on a silica chip. We verify source quality through a series of heralded Hong-Ou-Mandel experiments, and further report the experimental three-photon extension of the entire Hong-Ou-Mandel interference curves, which map out the interference landscape between three independent single photon sources for the first time.