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Tunable entangled photon-pair generation in a liquid crystal
ID Sultanov, Vitaliy (Author), ID Kavčič, Aljaž (Author), ID Kokkinakis, Emmanouil (Author), ID Sebastián Ugarteche, Nerea (Author), ID Chekhova, Maria V. (Author), ID Humar, Matjaž (Author)

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Abstract
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.

Language:English
Keywords:liquid crystals, nonlinear optics, quantum information, quantum oprics
Work type:Article
Typology:1.01 - Original Scientific Article
Organization:FMF - Faculty of Mathematics and Physics
Publication status:Published
Publication version:Version of Record
Publication date:12.06.2024
Year:2024
Number of pages:Str. 294-299
Numbering:Vol. 631, iss. 8020
PID:20.500.12556/RUL-159767 This link opens in a new window
UDC:538.9:535
ISSN on article:0028-0836
DOI:10.1038/s41586-024-07543-5 This link opens in a new window
COBISS.SI-ID:199216387 This link opens in a new window
Publication date in RUL:24.07.2024
Views:274
Downloads:58
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Record is a part of a journal

Title:Nature : the international weekly journal of science
Shortened title:Nature
Publisher:Macmillan
ISSN:0028-0836
COBISS.SI-ID:1078026 This link opens in a new window

Licences

License:CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Link:http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Description:This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

Language:Slovenian
Keywords:tekoči kristali, nelinearna optika, kvantna informacija, kvantna optika

Projects

Funder:EC - European Commission
Project number:851143
Name:Intracellular lasers: Coupling of optical resonances with biological processes
Acronym:Cell-Lasers

Funder:ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
Project number:P1-0099-2022
Name:Fizika mehkih snovi, površin in nanostruktur

Funder:ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
Project number:P1-0192-2022
Name:Svetloba in snov

Funder:Other - Other funder or multiple funders
Funding programme:Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
Project number:429529648
Name:Quantum Cooperativity of Light and Matter
Acronym:QuCoLiMa

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