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NONLINEAR OPTICS

A controlled cascade interference

Nature Physics volume 18, pages 495–496 (2022)Cite this article

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Nonlinear optical effects enable sophisticated functionalities to generate and manipulate light. The precise control of two distinct nonlinear phenomena in a photonic chip can enhance a key optical nonlinearity that makes single-photon sources more efficient.

Over the past decade, the components that underpin the optical telecom infrastructure, such as light sources, routers and detectors, have undergone a dramatic miniaturization and integration that has enabled a new class of photonic integrated circuits. The control of the light flow in these components is achieved by tuning a linear optical property, such as the refractive index or absorption. However, some functionalities require nonlinearities, for example, quantum-light generation via third-order effects. These third-order nonlinearities are not straightforward to control, as they are largely fixed by intrinsic material properties. Writing in Nature Physics, Chaohan Cui and co-workers1, show an efficient way to control both the amplitude and phase of a cascaded second-order nonlinear effect, enabling photon-pair creation through an effective third-order nonlinearity.

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Fig. 1: Direct and indirect photon-pair generation.

References

  1. Cui, C., Zhang, L. & Fan, L. Nat. Phys. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01542-x (2022).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Photonics Research Center, Gleb Wataghin Physics Institute, University of Campinas – UNICAMP, Campinas, Brazil

    Thiago P. Mayer Alegre & Gustavo S. Wiederhecker

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  1. Thiago P. Mayer Alegre
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  2. Gustavo S. Wiederhecker
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Correspondence to Thiago P. Mayer Alegre or Gustavo S. Wiederhecker.

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Alegre, T.P.M., Wiederhecker, G.S. A controlled cascade interference. Nat. Phys. 18, 495–496 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01587-y

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