Fig 1 Schematic of three types of quantum light sources based on the SiCOI platform.
Published:31 October 2024,
Published Online:29 August 2024
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Silicon carbide (SiC) is emerging as a promising material platform for quantum photonic integrated circuits (QPICs). A quantum light source is one of the fundamental building blocks for QPICs. A high-performance quantum light source from SiC platform will facilitate SiC's infiltration into QPICs.
Nowadays, we are in the midst of the so-called second quantum technology revolution, which aims to bring paradigm-shifting solutions to critically important applications in every corner of human life. Examples include secure communication that detects any form of spying, efficient computation that is exponentially faster than any classical version, and quantum sensing that exploits the unique quantum properties to provide unprecedented sensitivity. To tackle these grand challenges, we need to develop groundbreaking technology covering all levels, from materials through devices to systems.
Quantum photonic integrated circuits (QPICs) are the technology of choice for various applications because of their compactness, energy efficiency, low cost, high performance and potential for up-scalability
Property | SOI | SiN | LNOI | SiCOI |
---|---|---|---|---|
Maturity | Very mature | Mature | Limited commercial availability | Very limited commercial availability |
Transparency window |
From 1100 nm to 3700 nma |
Very low loss from 400 nm to 7500 nm |
Low loss from 350 nm to 5000 nm |
Low loss from 387 nm to 5600 nmb |
Modulation mechanisms | Thermal, carrier, and MEMS based | Thermal | Electro-otpical, piezoelectrical and thermal | Electro-optical and thermal |
Nonlinearity | Third-order nonlinearity, but strong nonlinear absorption at telecom wavelength | Ultrahigh-Q resonators for third-order nonlinear light generation | Second harmonic and other nonlinear light generation | Both second-order and third-order nonlinearity for wavelength conversion and nonlinear light generation |
Mechanism for quantum-state generation | SFWM | SFWM | SPDC | SFWM, Color center- based single photon source |
athe onset of mid-infrared absorption in silica
bfor 4H-SiC
Among the basic building blocks, the quantum light source is pivotal. Depending on the applications, quantum light sources are versatile. One type is called single photon source, where a single photon is emitted from a single defect or atom, such as color centers and quantum dots. The other type is generated through the nonlinearity of the material, known as spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) and spontaneous four-wave mixing (SFWM), corresponding to second-order (χ2) and third-order (χ3) nonlinearity respectively
Fig 1 Schematic of three types of quantum light sources based on the SiCOI platform.
a spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC), b spontaneous four-wave mixing (SFWM) and c color centers. p pump, i idler, s signal, ZPL zero phonon line, ω angular frequency
As an example of a quantum light source generated from nonlinearity, in a newly published paper in Light: Science & Applications by Anouar Rahmouni, Xiao Tang, Thomas Gerrits, Oliver Slattery and Lijun Ma from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA, and Ruixuan Wang, Jinwei Li and Qing Li from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, USA, proposes entangled photon pair generation based on third-order nonlinearity, i.e., four-wave mixing (FWM), in the integrated SiC platform
The above observation for the first time demonstrated entangled photon pair generation from an integrated 4H-SiCOI platform. Quantum information systems are very sensitive to noise, which can greatly reduce the fidelity of quantum information. This work achieved a high CAR (coincidence-to-accidental ratio) of photon pair generation (>600) and a visibility of two-photon interference fringe (>99%), experimentally demonstrating that the noise level in such an SiC platform satisfies the requirements of quantum information devices based on single photons.
Looking forward, the performance of entangled photon pair generation from spontaneous four-wave mixing of 4H-SiCOI is expected to improve as the 4H-SiC material and nanofabrication technology develop, broadening its quantum applications
It is foreseeable that the potential of the SiCOI platform will be gradually released as material quality and nanofabrication technology advance. Among the widely available polytype of SiC, 3 C and 4H, 4H-SiC shows the best crystal quality benefitting from its extensive application in power electronics. Therefore the above observation is from this polytype. 3C-SiC possesses slightly different optical properties. For now, 3C-SiCOI has demonstrated better performance in electro-optical modulation than 4H-SiCOI
The author declares no competing interests.
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