Issue 6, 2023

Photon pairs bi-directionally emitted from a resonant metasurface

Abstract

Metasurfaces are artificially structured surfaces able to control the properties of light at subwavelength scales. While, initially, they have been proposed as means to control classical optical fields, they are now emerging as nanoscale sources of quantum light, in particular of entangled photons with versatile properties. Geometric resonances in metasurfaces have been recently used to engineer the frequency spectrum of entangled photons, but the emission directivity was so far less studied. Here, we generate photon pairs via spontaneous parametric down conversion from a metasurface supporting a quasi-bound state in the continuum (BIC) leading to remarkable emission directivities. The pair generation rate is enhanced 67 times compared to the case of an unpatterned film of the same thickness and material. At the wavelength of the quasi-BIC resonance, photons are mostly emitted backwards, while their partners, spectrally detuned by only 8 nm, are emitted forwards. This behavior demonstrates fine spectral splitting of entangled photons and their bi-directional emission, never before observed in nanoscale sources. We expect this work to be a starting point for the efficient demultiplexing of photons in nanoscale quantum optics.

Graphical abstract: Photon pairs bi-directionally emitted from a resonant metasurface

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
04 okt. 2022
Accepted
31 des. 2022
First published
03 jan. 2023
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Nanoscale, 2023,15, 2567-2572

Photon pairs bi-directionally emitted from a resonant metasurface

C. Son, V. Sultanov, T. Santiago-Cruz, A. P. Anthur, H. Zhang, R. Paniagua-Dominguez, L. Krivitsky, A. I. Kuznetsov and M. V. Chekhova, Nanoscale, 2023, 15, 2567 DOI: 10.1039/D2NR05499J

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