Linear, nonlinear and quantum optics in Silicon Photonics

On March 21st  at 2.30 p.m., in room A208 Polo Scientifico e Tecnologico Fabio Ferrari,  Massimo Borghi will present his thesis “Linear, nonlinear and quantum optics in Silicon Photonics”

This thesis work covers both classical and quantum aspects of nonlinear propagation of photons in nanophotonic Silicon waveguides. The work has been carried out within the  framework of the project SIQURO,  which aims to bring the quantum world into integrated photonics by using the Silicon platform and, therefore, permitting in a natural way the integration of quantum photonics with electronics. The research towards on chip bright quantum sources of photon pairs has been done by investigating Multi Modal Four Wave Mixing in micrometer-size waveguides, thus exploiting the large third order nonlinearity of Silicon. The possibility to induce second order nonlinearities by straining its unit cell has been also analyzed through the study of the electro-optic effect. This has been done with the aim to promote Silicon as a platform for the integration of quantum sources of entangled photons based on Spontaneous Parametric Down Conversion. New quantum interference effects have been reported in a free space unbalanced Mach Zehnder interferometer asymmetrically excited by colour entangled photon pairs.