Photon-pair production at the nanoscale with hybrid nonlinear/plasmonic antennas

TL;DR

This paper introduces a formalism combining quantum and numerical methods to analyze photon pair generation in hybrid plasmonic-nonlinear nanoscale structures, demonstrating significant enhancement over traditional sources.

Contribution

It develops a new formalism for studying SPDC in hybrid plasmonic-nonlinear structures and shows a 1000-fold increase in photon pair production efficiency.

Findings

Hybrid structures boost photon pair production by 10^3 times.

Photon pair efficiency approaches state-of-the-art sources.

Quantitative evaluation aligns with experimental configurations.

Abstract

Integration of photon pairs nanosources is a major challenge for quantum technology. In this context, we develop a formalism for the investigation of Spontaneous Parametric Down Conversion in hybrid structures that combine plasmonic resonances and intrinsic nonlinearity. Using quantum and numerical approaches together, we quantitatively evaluate photon pair correlation measurements for realistic experimental configurations. Hybrid structures embedding a small nanocystal allow for a $10^{3}$ fold increase in pair production compared to the same nanocrystal alone and a photon pair production efficiency close to the best source to date.