Photon Pairs from Resonant Metasurfaces.

Santiago-Cruz, Tomás; Fedotova, Anna; Sultanov, Vitaliy; Weissflog, Maximilian A; Arslan, Dennis; Younesi, Mohammadreza; Pertsch, Thomas; Staude, Isabelle et al. · Nano Lett · 2021

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

All-dielectric optical metasurfaces are a workhorse in nano-optics, because of both their ability to manipulate light in different degrees of freedom and their excellent performance at light frequency conversion. Here, we demonstrate first-time generation of photon pairs via spontaneous parametric-down conversion in lithium niobate quantum optical metasurfaces with electric and magnetic Mie-like resonances at various wavelengths. By engineering the quantum optical metasurface, we tailor the photon-pair spectrum in a controlled way. Within a narrow bandwidth around the resonance, the rate of pair production is enhanced up to 2 orders of magnitude, compared to an unpatterned film of the same thickness and material. These results enable flat-optics sources of entangled photons-a new promising platform for quantum optics experiments.