Slow-light enhanced correlated photon pair generation in a silicon photonic crystal waveguide

Opt Lett. 2011 Sep 1;36(17):3413-5. doi: 10.1364/OL.36.003413.

Abstract

We report the generation of correlated photon pairs in the telecom C-band at room temperature from a dispersion-engineered silicon photonic crystal waveguide. The spontaneous four-wave mixing process producing the photon pairs is enhanced by slow-light propagation enabling an active device length of less than 100 μm. With a coincidence to accidental ratio of 12.8 at a pair generation rate of 0.006 per pulse, this ultracompact photon pair source paves the way toward scalable quantum information processing realized on-chip.