Broadband indistinguishability from bright parametric downconversion in a semiconductor waveguide

Abstract

Parametric downconversion (PDC) in semiconductor Bragg-reflection waveguides (BRW) is routinely exploited for photon-pair generation in the telecommunication range. Contrary to many conventional PDC sources, BRWs offer possibilities to create spectrally broadband but nevertheless indistinguishable photon pairs in orthogonal polarizations that simultaneously incorporate high frequency entanglement. We explore the characteristics of co-propagating twin beams created in a type-II ridge BRW. Our PDC source is bright and efficient, which serves as a benchmark of its performance and justifies its exploitation for further use in quantum photonics. We then examine the coalescence of the twin beams and investigate the effect of their inevitable multi-photon contributions on the observed photon bunching. Our results show that BRWs have a great potential for producing broadband indistinguishable photon pairs as well as multi-photon states.