Tunable quantum interference using a topological source of indistinguishable photon pairs

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a topological photonic system that generates indistinguishable photon pairs with tunable spectral and temporal correlations, advancing scalable quantum light sources for quantum information processing.

Contribution

It introduces a topological array of ring resonators enabling dynamic tuning of photon correlations, a significant improvement over single-component sources.

Findings

Tunable spectral and temporal correlations via pump frequency adjustment.

Generation of energy-time entangled photon pairs.

Protection against fabrication disorders in the topological system.

Abstract

Sources of quantum light, in particular correlated photon pairs that are indistinguishable in all degrees of freedom, are the fundamental resource that enables continuous-variable quantum computation and paradigms such as Gaussian boson sampling. Nanophotonic systems offer a scalable platform for implementing sources of indistinguishable correlated photon pairs. However, such sources have so far relied on the use of a single component, such as a single waveguide or a ring resonator, which offers limited ability to tune the spectral and temporal correlations between photons. Here, we demonstrate the use of a topological photonic system comprising a two-dimensional array of ring resonators to generate indistinguishable photon pairs with dynamically tunable spectral and temporal correlations. Specifically, we realize dual-pump spontaneous four-wave mixing in this array of silicon ring resonators that exhibits topological edge states. We show that the linear dispersion of the edge states over a broad bandwidth allows us to tune the correlations, and therefore, quantum interference between photons by simply tuning the two pump frequencies in the edge band. Furthermore, we demonstrate energy-time entanglement between generated photons. We also show that our topological source is inherently protected against fabrication disorders. Our results pave the way for scalable and tunable sources of squeezed light that are indispensable for quantum information processing using continuous variables.