Multi-dimensional data transmission using inverse-designed silicon photonics and microcombs

The use of optical interconnects has burgeoned as a promising technology that can address the limits of data transfer for future high-performance silicon chips. Recent pushes to enhance optical communication have focused on developing wavelength-division multiplexing technology, and new dimensions of data transfer will be paramount to fulfill the ever-growing need for speed. Here we demonstrate an integrated multi-dimensional communication scheme that combines wavelength- and mode- multiplexing on a silicon photonic circuit. Using foundry-compatible photonic inverse design and spectrally flattened microcombs, we demonstrate a 1.12-Tb/s natively error-free data transmission throughout a silicon nanophotonic waveguide. Furthermore, we implement inverse-designed surface-normal couplers to enable multimode optical transmission between separate silicon chips throughout a multimode-matched fibre. All the inverse-designed devices comply with the process design rules for standard silicon photonic foundries. Our approach is inherently scalable to a multiplicative enhancement over the state of the art silicon photonic transmitters.

Bright Telecom-Wavelength Single Photons Based on a Tapered Nanobeam

Telecom-wavelength single photons are essential components for long-distance quantum networks. However, bright and pure single photon sources at telecom wavelengths remain challenging to achieve. Here, we demonstrate a bright telecom-wavelength single photon source based on a tapered nanobeam containing InAs/InP quantum dots. The tapered nanobeam enables directional and Gaussian-like far-field emission of the quantum dots. As a result, using above-band excitation we obtain an end-to-end brightness of 4.1 ± 0.1% and first-lens brightness of 27.0 ± 0.1% at the ∼1300 nm wavelength. Furthermore, we adopt quasi-resonant excitation to reduce both multiphoton emission and decoherence from unwanted charge carriers. As a result, we achieve a coherence time of 523 ± 16 ps and postselected Hong-Ou-Mandel visibility of 0.91 ± 0.09 along with a comparable first-lens brightness of 21.0 ± 0.1%. These results represent a major step toward a practical fiber-based single photon source at telecom wavelengths for long-distance quantum networks.

Chiral light-matter interactions using spin-valley states in transition metal dichalcogenides

Chiral light-matter interactions can enable polarization to control the direction of light emission in a photonic device. Most realizations of chiral light-matter interactions require external magnetic fields to break time-reversal symmetry of the emitter. One way to eliminate this requirement is to utilize strong spin-orbit coupling present in transition metal dichalcogenides that exhibit a valley-dependent polarized emission. Such interactions were previously reported using plasmonic waveguides, but these structures exhibit short propagation lengths due to loss. Chiral dielectric structures exhibit much lower loss levels and could therefore solve this problem. We demonstrate chiral light-matter interactions using spin-valley states of transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers coupled to a dielectric waveguide. We use a photonic crystal glide-plane waveguide that exhibits chiral modes with high field intensity, coupled to monolayer WSe₂. We show that the circularly polarized emission of the monolayer preferentially couples to one direction of the waveguide, with a directionality as high as 0.35, limited by the polarization purity of the bare monolayer emission. This system enables on-chip directional control of light and could provide new ways to control spin and valley degrees of freedom in a scalable photonic platform.

Silicon photonic add-drop filter for quantum emitters

Integration of single-photon sources and detectors to silicon-based photonics opens the possibility of complex circuits for quantum information processing. In this work, we demonstrate integration of quantum dots with a silicon photonic add-drop filter for on-chip filtering and routing of telecom photons. A silicon microdisk resonator acts as a narrow filter that transfers the quantum dot emission and filters the background over a wide wavelength range. Moreover, by tuning the quantum dot emission wavelength over the resonance of the microdisk, we can control the transmission of the quantum dot emission to the drop and through channels of the add-drop filter. This result is a step toward the on-chip control of single photons using silicon photonics for applications in quantum information processing, such as linear optical quantum computation and boson sampling.

Super-Radiant Emission from Quantum Dots in a Nanophotonic Waveguide

Future scalable photonic quantum information processing relies on the ability of integrating multiple interacting quantum emitters into a single chip. Quantum dots provide ideal on-chip quantum light sources. However, achieving quantum interaction between multiple quantum dots on-a-chip is a challenging task due to the randomness in their frequency and position, requiring local tuning technique and long-range quantum interaction. Here, we demonstrate quantum interactions between separated two quantum dots on a nanophotonic waveguide. We achieve a photon-mediated long-range interaction by integrating the quantum dots to the same optical mode of a nanophotonic waveguide and overcome spectral mismatch by incorporating on-chip thermal tuners. We observe their quantum interactions of the form of super-radiant emission, where the two dots collectively emit faster than each dot individually. Creating super-radiant emission from integrated quantum emitters could enable compact chip-integrated photonic structures that exhibit long-range quantum interactions. Therefore, these results represent a major step toward establishing photonic quantum information processors composed of multiple interacting quantum emitters on a semiconductor chip.

Hybrid Integration of Solid-State Quantum Emitters on a Silicon Photonic Chip

Scalable quantum photonic systems require efficient single photon sources coupled to integrated photonic devices. Solid-state quantum emitters can generate single photons with high efficiency, while silicon photonic circuits can manipulate them in an integrated device structure. Combining these two material platforms could, therefore, significantly increase the complexity of integrated quantum photonic devices. Here, we demonstrate hybrid integration of solid-state quantum emitters to a silicon photonic device. We develop a pick-and-place technique that can position epitaxially grown InAs/InP quantum dots emitting at telecom wavelengths on a silicon photonic chip deterministically with nanoscale precision. We employ an adiabatic tapering approach to transfer the emission from the quantum dots to the waveguide with high efficiency. We also incorporate an on-chip silicon-photonic beamsplitter to perform a Hanbury-Brown and Twiss measurement. Our approach could enable integration of precharacterized III-V quantum photonic devices into large-scale photonic structures to enable complex devices composed of many emitters and photons.

Coupling Emission from Single Localized Defects in Two-Dimensional Semiconductor to Surface Plasmon Polaritons

Coupling of an atom-like emitter to surface plasmons provides a path toward significant optical nonlinearity, which is essential in quantum information processing and quantum networks. A large coupling strength requires nanometer-scale positioning accuracy of the emitter near the surface of the plasmonic structure, which is challenging. We demonstrate the coupling of single localized defects in a tungsten diselenide (WSe₂) monolayer self-aligned to the surface plasmon mode of a silver nanowire. The silver nanowire induces a strain gradient on the monolayer at the overlapping area, leading to the formation of localized defect emission sites that are intrinsically close to the surface plasmon. We measured an average coupling efficiency with a lower bound of 26% ± 11% from the emitter into the plasmonic mode of the silver nanowire. This technique offers a way to achieve efficient coupling between plasmonic structures and localized defects of two-dimensional semiconductors.