Quantum Nonlinear Metasurfaces

Abstract

The recent advent of optical metasurfaces, ultra-thin structures composed of nanoresonators facilitating strong light concentration [1–3], opens the path towards efficient frequency conversion [4–7] in a material thousand times thinner than a human hair [8]. There is a remarkable capacity to individually shape each nanoresonator of the metasurface to spatially and spectrally control the conversion process with unprecedented nanoscale resolution, facilitating an ultimate flexibility to selectively convert, focus, and image different colours with a single metasurface. The strong enhancement of the nonlinear processes in dielectric nanoresonators is largely due to the absence of material absorption and the excitation of Mie-type bulk resonances [2]. The highest conversion efficiency to date has been achieved employing III-V semiconductor nanostructures, such as AlGaAs which is a non-centrosymmetric material with high quadratic nonlinear susceptibility. In particular, second-harmonic generation efficiencies up to 10−4 have been recently demonstrated [8–12], six orders of magnitude higher than in plasmonics. Such capabilities can make an immense fundamental and practical impact, including the quantum state generation in nonlinear metasurfaces as we discuss in this chapter. The quantum state of correlated photon-pairs is the essential building block for photon entanglement [13, 14], which underpins many quantum applications, including secure networks, enhanced measurement and lithography, and quantum information processing [15]. One of the most versatile techniques for the generation of correlated photons is the process of spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) [16, 17], see Fig. 1. It allows for an arbitrary choice of energy and momentum correlations between the generated photons, robust operation at room temperature, as well as for spatial and temporal coherence between simultaneously pumped multiple SPDC sources. Alternative approaches based on atom-like single photon emitters, such as solid-state fluorescent atomic defects [18], quantum dots [19, 20], and 2D host materials [21, 22], have reached a high degree of frequency indistinguishability, purity and brightness [19, 20]. However, this comes with the expense of operation at cryogenic temperatures and lack of spatial coherence between multiple quantum emitters. These features might limit possible applications and reduce the potential for device scalability. Furthermore, the small size of the atomic sources often requires complex schemes aimed at coupling to optical nanoantennas and improving the photon extraction efficiency [21]. The miniaturization of SPDC quantum-light sources to micro and nanoscale dimensions is a continuing quest, as it enables denser integration of functional quantum devices. Traditionally, bulky cm-sized crystals were utilized for SPDC, entailing the difficulty of aligning multiple optical elements after the SPDC crystal, while offering relatively low photon-pair rates [17]. As a first step of miniaturization, SPDC was realized in low-index-contrast waveguides, which allowed confining light down to several square micrometers transversely to the propagation direction, significantly enhancing the conversion efficiency [23]. However, this approach still requires centimetres of propagation length, which makes the on-chip integration with other elements challenging [24]. The introduction of high-index contrast waveguides and ring resonators allowed for shrinking the sizes necessary for SPDC to millimetres [25], and to tens of micrometers [26]. However, further miniaturisation down to the metasurfaces composed of nanoresonators requires conceptually different approaches.