Kerr nonlinearity, self-injection locking and correlation in a microresonator

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the nonlinear generation of correlated optical harmonics using Kerr microresonators and self-injection locked lasers, addressing photon separation and entanglement preservation for quantum technologies.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method combining Kerr nonlinearity and self-injection locking in microresonators to generate and spatially separate correlated optical harmonics.

Findings

Successful generation of correlated optical harmonics via non-degenerate four-wave mixing.

Effective phase matching achieved with self-injection locked lasers.

Experimental validation with integrated semiconductor lasers and whispering gallery mode resonator.

Abstract

Production of entangled photon pairs is important in secure communication systems, quantum computing, and fundamental physics experiments. Achieving efficient generation of such photon pairs with low-loss parametric oscillators is a key objective in advancing integrated quantum technologies. However, spatially separating the generated photons while preserving their entanglement represents a significant technical challenge. In this work, we demonstrate nonlinear generation of correlated optical harmonics based on non-degenerate four-wave mixing with an optimally pumped optical microcavity with Kerr nonlinearity. The phase matching of the process is achieved with self-injection locked lasers producing parametric oscillation while locked to two different modes of the microresonator. This condition is reminiscent of slow-light technique developed for coherent atomic systems. The experimental design, utilizing counterpropagating light from two self-injection locked lasers, also effectively addresses the challenge of spatial separation of the generated harmonics. We validate the theoretical predictions using two self-injection locked semiconductor lasers integrated with a crystalline whispering gallery mode resonator with optimized spectral structure.