Nonlinear Photon Pair Generation in a Highly Dispersive Medium

The generation of single photons serves as the backbone for tasks in quantum information processing. Generating quantum electromagnetic fields on highly dispersive platforms is technically challenging, though, due to phase-matching constraints. The authors consider the silicon photonic platform, due to its potential scalability, and demonstrate that phase matching is possible with highly dispersive transverse-magnetic polarized light, via nonlinear coupling of two racetrack-style microresonators. With its brightness and tunability, this source may have a significant impact on creation of entangled photons in photonic integrated circuits, for use in quantum information and communication.