Spontaneous Parametric Down-Conversion from Subwavelength Nonlinear Films

Abstract: Miniaturised entangled photon sources are highly demanded for the development of integrated quantum photonics. Since the invention of subwavelength optical metasurfaces and their successes at replacing bulky optical components, the possibility of implementing entangled photon sources on such devices is actively investigated. Here, as a first step towards the development of quantum optical metasurfaces (QOM), we demonstrate photon pair generation via spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) from subwavelength films. We achieved photon pair generation with a high coincidence-to-accidental ratio in lithium niobate and gallium phosphide nanofilms. In addition, we have measured the SPDC frequency spectrum via fibre spectroscopy, obtaining photon pairs with a spectral bandwidth of 500\;nm, limited only by the overall detection efficiency. Moreover, we have observed the vacuum field enhancement due to a Fabry-Perot resonance inside the nonlinear films. Our experiments lay the groundwork for the future development of flat SPDC sources, including QOM.