Published December 19, 2023 | Version v1
Preprint Open

Generation of entangled waveguided photon pairs by free electrons

  • 1. ROR icon University of Southern Denmark
  • 2. ROR icon Institute of Photonic Sciences
  • 3. ROR icon Max-Born-Institute for Nonlinear Optics and Short Pulse Spectroscopy
  • 4. ROR icon Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats

Description

Entangled photon pairs are a key resource in future quantum-optical communication and information technologies. While high-power laser light propagating in bulk nonlinear optical crystals is conventionally used to generate entangled photons that are routed into optical configurations, such schemes suffer from low efficiency due to the weak intrinsic nonlinear optical response of known materials and losses associated with photon in- and out-coupling. Here, we propose a scheme to generate entangled polariton pairs directly within optical waveguides using free electrons, whereby the measured energy loss of undeflected electrons heralds the production of counter-propagating polaritons pairs that are entangled in energy and direction of emission. As a paradigmatic example, we study the excitation of plasmon polaritons in metal strip waveguides that, within specific frequency regimes, strongly enhance light-matter interactions that lead to two-plasmon generation in comparison to the probability of single-plasmon excitation. We demonstrate that, under appropriate conditions, an electron energy loss detected in an optimal frequency range can reliably signal the generation of a plasmon pair entangled in energy and momentum. Our proposed scheme can be directly applied to other types of optical waveguides for in situ generation of entangled photon pairs in quantum-optics applications.

Notes

We acknowledge support from ERC (Advanced Grant 789104-eNANO), the European Commission (Horizon 2020 Grants No. FET-Proactive 101017720-EBEAM and No. FET-Open 964591-SMART-electron), the Spanish MICINN (PID2020– 112625 GB-I00 and Severo Ochoa CEX2019-000910-S), the Catalan CERCA Program, and Fundaciós Cellex and Mir-Puig. J. D. C. is a Sapere Aude research leader supported by VILLUM FONDEN (grant no. 16498) and Independent Research Fund Denmark (grant no. 0165-00051B). The Center for Polaritondriven Light–Matter Interactions (POLIMA) is funded by the Danish National Research Foundation (Project No. DNRF165).

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Additional details

Identifiers

Funding

European Commission
SMART-electron - ULTRAFAST ALL-OPTICAL SPATIO-TEMPORAL ELECTRON MODULATORS: OPENING NEW FRONTIERS IN ELECTRON MICROSCOPY 964591
European Commission
eNANO - FREE ELECTRONS AS ULTRAFAST NANOSCALE PROBES 789104
European Commission
EBEAM - Electron beams enhancing analytical microscopy 101017720

Dates

Available
2023-12-19