Tunable entangled photon-pair generation in a liquid crystal

Sultanov, Vitaliy (avtor), Kavčič, Aljaž (avtor), Kokkinakis, Emmanouil (avtor), Sebastián Ugarteche, Nerea (avtor), Chekhova, Maria V. (avtor), Humar, Matjaž (avtor)

Liquid crystals, with their ability to self-assemble, strong response to an electric field and integrability into complex systems, are key materials in light-beam manipulation. The recently discovered ferroelectric nematic liquid crystals also have considerable second-order optical nonlinearity, making them a potential material for nonlinear optics. Their use as sources of quantum light could considerably extend the boundaries of photonic quantum technologies. However, spontaneous parametric down-conversion, the basic source of entangled photons, heralded single photons and squeezed light, has so far not been observed in liquid crystals—or in any liquids or organic materials. Here we implement spontaneous parametric down-conversion in a ferroelectric nematic liquid crystal and demonstrate electric-field tunable broadband generation of entangled photons, with an efficiency comparable to that of the best nonlinear crystals. The emission rate and polarization state of photon pairs is markedly varied by applying a few volts or twisting the molecular orientation along the sample. A liquid-crystal source enables a special type of quasi-phase matching, which is based on the molecular twist structure and is therefore reconfigurable for the desired spectral and polarization properties of photon pairs. Such sources promise to outperform standard nonlinear optical materials in terms of functionality, brightness and the tunability of the generated quantum state. The concepts developed here can be extended to complex topological structures, macroscopic devices and multi-pixel tunable quantum light sources.

• Jezik: Angleški jezik
• Ključne besede: liquid crystals, nonlinear optics, quantum information, quantum oprics
• Vrsta gradiva: Članek v reviji
• Tipologija: 1.01 - Izvirni znanstveni članek
• Organizacija: FMF - Fakulteta za matematiko in fiziko
• Status publikacije: Objavljeno
• Različica publikacije: Objavljena publikacija
• Datum objave: 12.06.2024
• Leto izida: 2024
• Št. strani: Str. 294-299
• Številčenje: Vol. 631, iss. 8020
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-159767
• UDK: 538.9:535
• ISSN pri članku: 0028-0836
• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07543-5
• COBISS.SI-ID: 199216387
• Datum objave v RUL: 24.07.2024

Gradivo je del revije

• Naslov: Nature : the international weekly journal of science
• Skrajšan naslov: Nature
• Založnik: Macmillan
• ISSN: 0028-0836
• COBISS.SI-ID: 1078026

Licence

• Licenca: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Priznanje avtorstva 4.0 Mednarodna
• Povezava: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.sl
• Opis: To je standardna licenca Creative Commons, ki daje uporabnikom največ možnosti za nadaljnjo uporabo dela, pri čemer morajo navesti avtorja.

Sekundarni jezik

• Jezik: Slovenski jezik
• Ključne besede: tekoči kristali, nelinearna optika, kvantna informacija, kvantna optika