Project Details
Description
This project will push the nonlinear optics to the ultimate quantum limit, where a single photon can create strong optical nonlinear effects to alter the propagation or change the quantum state of other photons. It harvests the exceptionally large second-order opt ical nonlinearity of lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI), and the exciting progress made recently in its lowloss nanophotonic circui ts. At the end of the project, strong photon-photon interaction will be demonstrated on a room-temperature, chip-integrated platform that is drop-in compatible with distributed quantum sensing and information processing over free space and telecom fibers. Interest ingly, such strong interaction will break the photon-number degeneracy in LNOI cavities, by which the cavity resonances become depen dent on how many photons are contained in the cavity. The results are a new group of quantum optical elements on chip, namely nonlin ear-optical pseudo atoms, which will offer impactful quantum functionalities such as photon number filtering, entanglement on-dema nd, C-NOT gate between single photons, and deterministic Bell state measurement. The project consists of both nanophotonic fabricati on and quantum experiment efforts that will go hand in hand. On fabrication, advanced recipes will be developed for periodic poled L NOI microrings with ideal mode coupling and high cavity Q that approaches the material absorption limit. On experiment, non-post-sel ective entanglement swapping and deterministic quantum C-NOT gates will be demonstrated for single photons, whose successful outcome s will mark milestone advancements in the field of quantum information science. They will resolve a major bottleneck in quantum info rmation processing using single photons: the lack of appreciable photon-photon interaction, and create the foundation for scalable q uantum applications without the need for post selection. Meanwhile, thanks to LNOIs outstanding linear, nonlinear, and electro-opti cal properties, this project will pave a pathway to all-in-one quantum central processing units by integrating those pseudo atoms wi th laser sources, electro-optical modulators, optical switches, tunable filters, up-conversion photon detectors, etc., on a centimet er-square chip. Such chips will be fast reconfigurable and feature on-demand photon sources, linear-optical gates, deterministic log ic operations between single photons, and mode-selective photon detection. The new quantum functions and the prospective device plat form will give rise to disruptive quantum applications of high relevance to Navy in multiple areas of quantum computing, sensing, im aging, big data processing, and, in particular, distributed quantum systems where device efficiency and quantum state purity are the key.
Status | Active |
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Effective start/end date | 1/09/21 → … |