August 2021
Spotlight Summary by Mian Zhang
Photon conversion in thin-film lithium niobate nanowaveguides: a noise analysis
Converting optical signals from one wavelength to another with low added noise is key for quantum photonics applications. Lithium niobate, a widely adopted non-linear optical material, has sparked new interest through its recent development in thin-film integration approaches. The new thin-film platform promises low-loss, nonlinear and high-speed electro-optic functionalities that could disrupt quantum applications. However, the quantum noise level in thin-film lithium niobate has yet to be investigated. In this paper, Fan et al. experimentally demonstrate that the quantum noise is about 10-4 photons per time-frequency mode, which is sufficient for faithful quantum conversion. Such a noise level is on par with the traditional bulk crystal approach, showing that the thin-film platform does not introduce additional noise penalty for quantum frequency conversion. They further reveal that noise levels below 10-5 can be achieved through optimization. These results show that thin-film lithium niobate is a promising candidate for scalable, functional and cost-effective quantum frequency conversion.
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Article Information
Photon conversion in thin-film lithium niobate nanowaveguides: a noise analysis
Heng Fan, Zhaohui Ma, Jiayang Chen, Zhan Li, Chao Tang, Yong Meng Sua, and Yuping Huang
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 38(7) 2172-2179 (2021) View: HTML | PDF