A Highly Efficient and Pure Few-Photon Source on Chip

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a highly efficient, pure, and on-chip multi-photon source using a micro-ring resonator on lithium niobate, achieving high purity, rate, and indistinguishability suitable for quantum optics applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel on-chip micro-ring resonator that produces highly pure, efficient, and indistinguishable few-photon states without filtering, advancing integrated quantum photonics.

Findings

Photon pairs produced at 27 MHz/μW with high efficiency.

Photon purity reaches 99% without filtering.

Heralded g^{(2)}(0) around 0.04 at 650 kHz rate.

Abstract

We report on multi-photon statistics of correlated twin beams produced in a periodic poled micro-ring resonator on thin-film lithium niobate. Owing to high cavity confinement and near perfect quasi-phase matching, the photons pairs are produced efficiently in single modes at rates reaching 27 MHz per $\mu$W pump power. By using a pump laser whose pulse width impedance matches with the cavity, those photons are further created in single longitudinal modes with purity reaching 99\%, without relying on later-on filtering. With a dual-channel photon-number resolving detection system, we obtain directly the joint detection probabilities of multi-photon states up to three photons, with high coincidence to accidental contrast for each. Used as a single photon source, it gives heralded $g_H^{(2)}(0)$ around 0.04 at a single photon rate of 650 kHz on chip. The findings of our research highlight the potential of this nanophotonic platform as a promising platform for generating non-classical, few-photon states with ideal indistinguishability, for fundamental quantum optics studies and information applications.