Optical simulation of photon-pair generation in nonlinear lossy waveguides

Abstract

Integrated optical circuits enable stable and scalable realization of quantum logic devices, which can form a basis for the mass production of photonic chips for quantum communications and computations. An important challenge is the integration of single-photon sources, which should provide on-chip generation and preparation of quantum photon states. Spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) provides an attractive solution for experimental generation of correlated and entangled photon pairs [1,2]. However, internal losses in the waveguides may still be present, affecting nontrivially the emerging photon state [3].