Abstract
Nonlinear optics based on bulk materials is the current technique of choice for quantum-state generation and information processing. Scaling of nonlinear optical quantum devices is of significant interest to enable quantum devices with high performance. However, it is challenging to scale the nonlinear optical devices down to the nanoscale dimension due to relatively small nonlinear optical response of traditional bulk materials. Here, correlated photon pairs are generated in the nanometer scale using a nonlinear optical device for the first time. The approach uses spontaneous four-wave mixing in a carbon nanotube film with extremely large Kerr-nonlinearity (≈100 000 times larger than that of the widely used silica), which is achieved through careful control of the tube diameter during the carbon nanotube growth. Photon pairs with a coincidence to accidental ratio of 18 at the telecom wavelength of 1.5 µm are generated at room temperature in a ≈100 nm thick carbon nanotube film device, i.e., 1000 times thinner than the smallest existing devices. These results are promising for future integrated nonlinear quantum devices (e.g., quantum emission and processing devices).
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | 1605978 |
| Journal | Advanced Materials |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue number | 24 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 27 2017 |
Funding
This material was based upon research sponsored by AFRL (Agreement No. FA8750-15-1-0117), Academy of Finland (Grant Nos. 276160, 276376, 284548, 285972, 292600, 295777, and 304666), the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (Grant Nos. 314068, 604472, and 631610), the China Scholarship Council, the Aalto Energy Efficiency program (MOPPI), the TEKES projects (CARLA, USG, and OPEC), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51502031), and the Nokia Foundation. A.M. acknowledges support from the H2020 Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship scheme. The authors also thank the provision of facilities and technical support by the Aalto University at Micronova Nanofabrication Centre and the TEM measurement results from Hua Jiang. The Contractor acknowledges the U.S. Government's support in the publication of this paper. The views and conclusions contained herein are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies or endorsements, either expressed or implied, of Air Force Research Laboratory or the U.S. Government.
Keywords
- carbon nanotubes
- four-wave mixing
- nonlinear optics
- photon pairs
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Materials Science
- Mechanics of Materials
- Mechanical Engineering